If Santiago didn't have that fascinating history that makes it the most heroic of all Cuban cities, the mere touch with its people and cultural background would be good enough to be simply an unforgettable place. And the fact of the matter is visitors fall in love with Santiago at first sight once they meet the friendliness, the human warmth, the bohemian and musical spirit that run deep like an overflowing river rolling down its zigzagging streets.

The very first thing that meets the eye is the burg's architecture, a peculiar blend of colonial and eclectic styles harking back the Republic's early going. Houses like the mansion of Diego Velazquez, the island nation's first governor; the Municipal City Hall built in 1950 in line with an 18th-century blueprint, and the breathtaking cathedral are good cases in point of what travelers can feast their eyes on as soon as they get to Cespedes Park.

Other landmarks of Santiago's architecture are the Emilio Barardi Museum –opened in 1928 and home of a gorgeous artistic, historic and archeological collection- the birthplace house of poet Jose Maria Heredia, and the Morro Castle, declared Heritage of Mankind by UNESCO back in 1997. They are part of the dozen museums that highlight the natural confluence between history and culture that once occurred in Santiago de Cuba.

The city also boasts over thirty national monuments scattered around the huge city area like the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery. This 133,000-square-meter jewel of Cuba's funerary art opened in 1868, contains the mortal remains of countless 19th-century freedom fighter such as National Hero Jose Marti and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the island nation's founding father.

A motley jigsaw puzzle Founded in 1515 alongside the first colonial villages, Santiago has since then become the magic backdrop where the main ingredients of the Cuban culture were once mixed.

Since the arrival of Spaniards and African slaves all the way to the coming of Chinese, Arabic, French and Haitian migrants, the people of Santiago were whipped into shape to the beat of rhythms and traditions that eventually turned them into the jaunty, hospitable and music-loving population they are right now.

No wonder the city sired and fostered the development of two of the most important genres of Cuban music: troubadour's music and son. Visitors can still hear the thumping paces of some of those genres' most outstanding performers: Pepe Sanchez, Sindo Garay, Miguel Matamoros, Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa. That also explains why the former bohemian-ambience Virgilio's Café on the corner of Heredia and San Felix streets –currently the House of the Troubadour- is constantly welcoming Santiago's most genuine musicians

This same city housed Presbyterian preacher Esteban Salas, a great musician of the American baroque style who worked here until his demise in 1803. Visitors can listen to Salas' music –as well the works of other important Cuban musicians- on the premises of old-timed Dolores Church, now transformed into an intimate concert hall.

However, this musical flair reaches its pinnacle as we traipse the streets of Santiago, when you walk down Marti Street and overhear the sound of the Conga de Los Hoyos. The beat of the drums and the blare of the Chinese trumpet combine in a dazzling mixture of inheritances to make passers-by feel like shaking a leg, no matter what your walk of life really is.

You get to the corner of San Bartolome and Maceo streets and you happen on the Eastern Charity French Ritual Dance, a cultural society founded a century and a half ago and whose origins date back to the times of the French migration occurred during the Haitian Revolution. Their beating drums, chants and colorful dancing have held on tight to the original purpose, a tradition that has been passed on from parents to offspring and eventually gave rise to one of the most genuine expressions of eastern folklore.

Human Warmth Santiago is its people. And its people are blessed with overwhelming musicality and a happy-go-lucky style, with blissfulness and pride for their roots that single them out in all of Cuba. Only the people of Santiago know well how to enjoy the good things life provides us with, and they give out more joyfulness than anyone else under the sun in that popular party known as the Carnivals.

Held every year beginning on July 25 to celebrate the city's saint patron Santiago Apostle, the party's dawn goes a long way back to the religious festivities of the late 17th century. During those days, the streets of Santiago are jammed with festooned carriages, congas, dancing parades and people swarming over balconies and sidewalks only to join the motley procession to the beat of the blaring drums.

A diehard companion of Santiago's carnivals is rum. From the early times of the colonial rule, the city witnessed the beginning of a rum-making tradition whereby the tasty liquor is distilled out of sugar cane molasses. Today, that tradition boasts its exquisiteness with such top-of-the-line brands as Caney, Matusalen, Varadero and Caribbean Club.

But beyond carnivals, Santiago's culture gives off a human warmth only compared to a balmy and sultry summer. Either on its sloped streets, in its cultural institutions or in its bustling sport chat rooms where residents jaw it up on baseball or play the typical seven-piece suit domino so commonplace in eastern Cuba, the city of Santiago welcomes travelers friendlily with open arms from people that never give up on gladness.