Santiago De Cuba

Follow the music as you exit and plunge into the paint-peeled romance of Calle Heredia, Santiago's – and one of Cuba's – most atmospheric streets, which rocks like New Orleans at the height of the jazz era. Its centerpiece is the infamous Casa de la Trova.

Heading upstream on Heredia, you'll pass street stalls, cigar peddlers, a guy dragging a double bass, and countless motorbikes. That yellowish house on the right with the poem emblazoned on the wall is Casa Natal de José María Heredia y Heredia, birthplace of one of Cuba's greatest poets. You might find a living scribe in Uneac, the famous national writers' union a few doors down. Stick your head inside and check out the cartelera (culture calendar) advertising the coming week's offerings. Plenty more dead legends are offered up in print in funky Librería la Escalere de Edy, an unkempt but roguish bookstore across the street where busking musicians often crowd the stairway. Cross the street next (mind that motorbike) and stick your nose into the Museo del Carnaval.

Divert along Pío Rosado one block to Aguilera where you'll be confronted by the sturdy Grecian columns of the Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau. Back outside, narrow Aguilera winds uphill to the shady Plaza de Dolores, which remains amazingly tranquil, considering the ongoing motorcycle mania. There are benches to relax on underneath the trees while you weigh up if you have enough energy to keep going or abort into one of the nearby bars or restaurants.

Skip north a block to Calle José A Saco, a steep pedestrian street with pet shops and churro (fried dough) salespeople that will lead you directly east to Plaza de Marte, the third of the casco histórico's pivotal squares and far more manic than the other two.

The walk ends in what is perhaps Santiago's most politically significant site, the art-deco Cuartel Moncada, a one-time military barracks where the first shots of Cuba's Castro-led Revolution were fired in 1953. Today it functions more innocuously as a school, but a preserved section at the rear where the short skirmishes between the soldiers and the rebels took place is now one of Cuba's most interesting and poignant museums.

Walking Tour: A Walk Through