Racso and I headed out to Varadero (toward the airport) for Cueva Plumas. It had been some time since Racso last visited the site, so we had to enlist the help of a local farmer to point us in the right direction. After taking the jeep across a half-kilometer of brush we found the cave entrance. We had two objectives (apart from admiring the geology): to find the paintings Nuñez had published, and to find the unpublished panels that Racso and his team (Octopus) had discovered.

This was the largest cave I'd yet entered. Fortunately, Racso was very familiar with it and we explored several hundred meters of passages, rooms, and salons. Without proper equipment we were unable to descend the necessary passages to reach the published paintings, despite trying half a dozen different routes. I didn't mind the fruitless search since I was thoroughly enthralled by the geology and complexity of the cave alone.

In the last salon we checked, rather close to the entrance, Racso found the unpublished art. There were several distinct groups of compositions —some red finger-width motifs, and some small black drawings. The red paintings were stylistically consistent with others we had seen across the province. The small black drawings were unique, at least in my experience. My first reaction was to call this an "erratic style" due to the open composition and less sophisticated line quality and use. Racso agreed, and cited other caves where he'd found the same style. For the ease of discussion we adopted the term "Erratic Style" ("Estilo Erratico") to describe the drawings.

Link to photos: Cueva Plumas

After lunch we went back to Matanzas to visit Cueva Simpson. The cave is actually in the city, so we just parked at the hospital and walked a few blocks. I was a little mislead by the map Dr. Vento gave us, and convinced Racso that we should look in a small side room for the rock art. After a lot of scrambling around in the low room we determined there was no rock art there. Immediately upon coming out into the main salon, Racso found the drawings on the wall immediately outside the passage. We photographed them and headed out. I took a quick shot of the entrance to document the huge jagüey and yagruma trees.

Today, even the Cubans said it was very hot.

Link to photos: Cueva Simpson

That evening Racso and I went to a small "peso" bar where we could use moneda nacional (pesos, approximately 20 for one U.S. dollar). We were joined by Sylvia Teresita Hernández and her boyfriend, Alex, and talked up a storm for several hours. After taking them home, I retired to my great hotel room (just US$18 /night).

Tue 29 May

We went to Cueva Mural, another unpublished site Racso and his team have recorded. This site was particularly interesting because of anthropogenic effects on the cave ecosystem and rock art. The cave sits along the upper rim of a substantial doline. A local farmer cut down a large tree at the cave entrance to allow more sunlight into the bottom of the sinkhole, so he could plant plantain trees. The bottom is now a productive plantanal, but with the loss of the shade a lot of green algae has begun to invade the cave. Additionally, probably due to the changes in the interior temperature and moisture, birds and wasps have taken up residence in the cave.

Once inside the shallow cave Racso tried to find the paintings. After quite a bit of looking he found what was left of them. They had faded considerably due to the changes in the cave environment. We each made a series of photographs and discussed the various motifs and compositions. After studying the rock art we turned our attention to the wildlife. Several families of swallows had built clay and straw nests in the ceiling niches (I did my best to photograph a few). We also shot some of the dozens of huge, fortunately abandoned, wasp nests covering the outer walls.

Most fascinating was a little (3 cm) hummingbird nest with two eggs, precariously perched atop a short seedling in the cave entrance ("zunzun", Chlorostilbon ricordii ricordii). After a while, the hummingbird became rather accustomed to our presence, and we were able to get close enough to photograph her on her nest. When we came within a meter of her, she would fly up into our faces, look at us, then retreat to a nearby branch —returning to her nest as soon as we moved back. This was as interesting as the rock art!

Link to photos: Cueva Mural

After a photo with the farmer, Sr. Ramon, we changed clothes and drove to Varadero Beach to relax in the surf, and meet Pepe, one of Racso's team members. We went to the Hotel Meliá, perhaps the most luxurious among the many hotels at Varadero, and asked for Pepe. He was not in his room, so we left a message and waited for him on the beach. The hotel was next to the former Dupont mansion, Xanadu, abandoned after the Revolution. We had a very relaxing swim (perfect after hiking and climbing all morning) and enjoyed a couple of hours of simply laying in the sun. Of course, I got a good sunburn, but it was worth it.

After our three hours of playing tourist we finally ran into Pepe (José Gonzáles Tendero), a wonderfully energetic young man (not that Racso and I are "old"). We talked rock art for a while, then we met his family. His father-in-law invited us to dinner at the hotel. It was absolute luxury (needless to say, I gorged myself on the buffet).

It was another long, but very good day.

Wed 30 May

Racso and I departed Matanzas for the long drive to Camagüey. We picked up a rider and the ride was pretty much without incident —except for when I got stopped for speeding in Gaspar. We arrived in the city of Camagüey about the same time a massive thunderstorm struck. After trying several hotels I finally found a room at the Hotel Plaza. I put my bags in the room and we went to find Wilton, Racso's friend and colleague, and the guide recommended by Dr. Vento for sites in the Sierra de Cubitas. He was at his father's house, about 60k east, so we headed out again.

Near the town of Siboney we were following a large tractor-trailer when it kicked up a huge chunk of metal from the road. The piece flew up and directly into the path of an oncoming bus. It smashed through the windshield in front of the driver, showering us with large pieces of thick broken glass. We were ok, but the impacts left several cracks in our windshield as well as a broken turn signal. We followed the truck about 13k to the next PNR station (Policía Nacional Revolucionaria) where it was pulled over. Racso gave the police a statement and they were kind enough to provide me with a letter telling Cubacar that the damage to the rental was unavoidable. We left after about an hour. We learned that the piece of metal killed a young woman passenger on the bus, and seriously injured another. The rest of the evening was understandably somber and quiet. We were lucky.

We eventually found Wilton, and discussed our plans for next few days.

Thu 31 May

Wilton, Racso and I drove north to the Sierra de Cubitas, which stretches about 65k east to west. We headed to the central sierra, after stopping for a glass of fresh guava juice made for us by a local. We parked at a little farm and hiked about a kilometer to the foot of the sierra, and only had to climb up a short distance to the entrance of Cueva de las Mercedes. The first salon (Salon Catedral) was absolutely sublime. I was reminded of the photos from Nuñez' publications showing rays of sunlight coming down through the daylight holes.

Along the north wall is the passage with the paintings. It runs about 40m before narrowing down to a tight squeeze. The paintings are in the last 10m of easily accessible space, and only along the southwest wall. I was happy to finally see the "sun and moon" composition that Racso and Pepe wrote about, and which serves as the logo for the 1 Taller Internacional. The other motifs were also intriguing.

After seeing that the black pigment was applied with fingers I was curious about the texture of the rock surface, so I found an area away from any rock art and ran my finger across it. I was a little shocked to find it was soft and wet. The white limestone was like clay. If this was the result of recent changes in the cave's environment, it could spell bad news for the paintings.

Link to photos: Cueva de las Mercedes

After shooting the art I took several shots in the Salon Catedral. Racso spotted a beautiful large tarantula, so that obviously deserved a few frames for Mom (including one with Racso "feeding" me the hand-sized arachnid). After the tourist photography we headed out and hiked a few kilometers west to Cueva Matias. I finally got to see examples of the representational style, considered the most recent indigenous rock art by Nuñez Jiménez, Dacall Mouré, and Rivero de la Calle. This is the one that includes the "Lady with a Rose" painting (historic, but very nice).

After closely studying the technique and paint of a historic inscription I mentioned to Racso that I had doubts about the prehistoric provenience of most of the presumed "Taíno" paintings. Racso also noticed this after I pointed out the line quality of the inscription and the other figures nearby —specifically, the line width, pigment, and most telling, the specific manner in which the authors/artists finished the curves of the numeral "9" and the appendages of the small anthropomorphs. I had to acknowledge that, among the many explanations for this similarity, this could be an indigenous inscription (by a Taíno who learned how to write in 18th- to 19th-century Spanish script). This was, of course, the most fantastic explanation we dared to consider. It was clear that this panel deserves further examination.

Link to photos: Cueva Matias

Along the trail back to the farm we stopped to eat some fresh mamey fruit. Wow! Very sweet, and the perfect fix for the hunger pangs I'd begun to feel. We drove back into Camagüey and stopped for lunch at a Rapido fast-food joint. A bit of exhaustion from the previous day's adventure caught up with me, so after taking the guys home I headed to the hotel for a nap. Later that evening Racso and Wilton came to the hotel, and we talked rock art over Cuba Libres and Montecristos (a match made in Heaven) until well into the night.

Fri 1 June

Today was the Hell Hike I'd been warned about. We were joined by Misleides, and drove out to the east end of the sierra, to the highest peak visible (one of the highest in the entire sierra). It was a short hike to the foot of the sierra, but from there it was a steep climb across bare karst up to the site, around 3/4 of the way to the top. The 50-60º incline gave me quite an aerobic workout (I thought my heart would simply explode several times), but I made it.

Cueva Pichardo is not that large, but contains one of the largest single motifs on the island. The mouth of the cave is level with the motif on the rear wall, and while it is easy to climb down into the cave it is very difficult to scale the rear wall up to the ledge in front of the paintings. Wilton had no trouble climbing up, but I gave up after getting about half way. I simply didn't trust my grip (and certainly didn't want to embarrass myself by slipping down and busting my butt —and bruising my ego). Instead, I shot the paintings from the mouth, with a telephoto lens. In fact, I'd say that the paintings were meant to be seen from the mouth.

There were two distinct sequences of painting, which was not made clear in the published drawings of the rock art. What seems to be the primary painting (best location on the available support) is a mask-like motif in light red. Several other motifs above and to the left of this are in a deep wine-red. One of these later motifs resembles a Tupí "semi-lunar" stone axe blade, or one of the crescent shaped pectorals and nose ornaments of several South American high cultures. It is located above the "mask" and in all the drawings I've seen, was treated as part of the same motif. I think this is a highly problematic association at best. Other "masks" are not so closely associated with geometric motifs like this, and the paint is clearly a different recipe.

Link to photos: Cueva Pichardo

The hike down from the site was a relative breeze. We drove to another part of the sierra and hiked a short way to Cueva Maria Teresa. After climbing down a ladder into the entrance of the cave, we found the paintings along the low walls and ceilings near the entrance. Two styles were apparent: a linear geometric / abstract style, and a panel of thick-lined (quasi-painterly) set of motifs resembling the geometric motifs from Pichardo. Photography was difficult because the paintings were very unevenly shaded. After shooting the paintings we looked around a few rooms, then left.

On the hike out of the sierra we saw a tocororo (Preotelus temnurus temnurus), the National bird of Cuba. Back in Camagüey I enjoyed a short nap before catching up with Racso and Wilton again. The President of the Camagüey Chapter of the SEC, Eduardo Labrada, wanted to meet and interview me. He is also a journalist for the local newspaper, Adelante. He was interested in my visit to Camagüey and Sierra de Cubitas, and the nature of my research. We spoke for about an hour and a half, then Racso, Wilton, his wife, and I went out for dinner (a Rapido again). Afterward we hung out at the hotel sharing jokes, then I called it a night.

Link to photos: Cueva Maria Teresa