Zulueta: The Birthplace of Cuban Soccer
At Adela, the Remedios promotora and Robert, the film maker who we met after the caves, wait for us.
“The lunch is almost ready,” says the promotora, waving us towards a gazebo standing at the edge of a grassy area. “Find some shade and I’ll come get you.”
Craning our necks we look looking straight up at the smokestack of the mill, visible for miles and serving as a compass point as we walked the last few kilometers. What looks like the old Casa Mayoral stands across the grass from the gazebo.
Sitting under the gazebo offers some shade but the angle of the sun ignored the roof.
“Damn, it’s hot,” says Joel.
“It’s 11 o’clock,” I say. “We’re still in the first act.”
After lunch, Robert the cameraman walks with us to Zulueta. He wants to interview me on the way and get some footage of the trail.
Two kilometers of dust lead us to a busy crossroad where trucks pick up passengers and vendors sell fruits, garlic and whatever else they have to sell. We cross the asphalt into the expansive cane fields that stretch to the hills along the southern horizon. This is sugar cane country. Fields stretched as far as the eye can see in all directions. We enter a labyrinth of guardarayas through the canyons of cane and wind through them, keeping the hills to the south.