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Baconao Park |
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BACUNAYAGUA BRIDGE |
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BIRTH HOUSE OF JOSÉ ANTONIO ECHEVERRÍA |
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CAIMITO DEL HANÁBANA |
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CAVE OF SANTA CATALINA |
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CIÉNAGA DE ZAPATA |
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CROCODILE NURSERY (CRIADERO DE COCODRILOS) |
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FUERTE EL MORRILLO |
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GIRON BEACH (PLAYA GIRÓN) |
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LA DOMINICA BUILDING |
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LA IGNACIA MONUMENT |
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MATANZAS |
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Palmar del Junco Stadium |
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REMAINS OF THE TRAIL (TROCHA) FROM JÚCARO TO MORÓN |
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TRIUNVIRATO |
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VARADERO |
Only 20 kilometres away from the city of Santiago de Cuba and some 80 000 hectares of surface area is Baconao Park, penetrating in Guantánamo’s territory. The visitor is awed by the variety of spots to discover and explore, among them beaches, historical and natural sites, unique museums, as well as a variety of restaurants and cafeterias.
Created in 1981, it features several tourist attractions as the Great Stone (Gran Piedra) and the Siboney Farm (Granjita Siboney), where the attracters of the Moncada Garrison (cuartel Moncada) led by Fidel Castro, spent the night prior to the attack on July 26th of 1953.
Also of interest are the Prehistoric Valley (Valle de la Prehistoria), the Museum of Images (Museo de la Imagen), as well as the History of Terrestrial Transport Museum, with over 2 500 reduced scale replicas. Do not miss a place well worth visiting, the House of Lame Pedro (a Casa de Pedro El Cojo) where the best tasting native “criolla” food is served.
This bridge marks the territorial limit by way of the Via Blanca Highway of the provinces of Havana and Matanzas, and so both territories squabble for this genuine jewel of Cuban architecture of an extension of 114 metres and heights of around 110 metres.
The construction was finished in 1960 and the arch of the bridge was made out of laminated metal, set up in two sections, each one turning until they were locked in their permanent position. The girders weigh at least 47 tonnes each.
It can be considered the most complex and daring construction of its type in Cuba. The main architect was the engineer Luis Saenz Duplace.
It is located on Genas St. No.560 between Calzada and Colonel Verdugo, municipality of Cárdenas, only 10 miles away from the famous beach of Varadero.
This cultural institution was declared a National Monument since 1971 due to its historical and architectural values. Inside the building there are 983 objects on exhibit.
It has nine rooms, one of them decorated in a way that recreates the childhood period of José Antonio, exhibiting furniture that although did not originally belong to the family, it does date from that time.
Also quite notable for the visitor is the painter’s palette that he used as a child, his notebook with the addresses of envelope collectors, as well as the Chrysler automobile, manufactured in 1954 which he used for smuggling rifles and revolutionaries, while studying Architecture in the University of Havana, during the struggle against the regime of Fulgencio Batista.
Featuring an attractive environment, this cave is found along the road that leads into the city of Matanzas and to Varadero beach, exactly four kilometres east of the town of Carbonera.
This natural site was declared a National Monument in 1996. It is characterised by eleven kilometres of subterranean galleries and features the most extraordinary secondary formations, especially interesting are the mushrooms, zinolites and aboriginal pictographs.
Nearby, there is another place known as the Cave of the Dead (Cueva del Muerto), right next to the drawbridge of Varadero. It is a cave of great natural and archaeological value, due to the fact that in over eight kilometres of galleries there is ample evidence of pre-Columbian communities and many species of fauna and secondary formations
Nature lovers consider this southeast area of Cuba a place well worth visiting, in order to admire its almost virgin forests, blue, clear water beaches, lakes and caverns and natural pools. Thirty percent of the native fauna live here, while of the 171 species of birds, 18 are native to the island. There is also a great variety of crocodiles, reaching some 15 000 individuals, as well as the manatee, considered a jewel of the national fauna.
The International Bird Observation Centre (Centro Internacional de Observación de Aves) is located at Playa Larga, with some 400 metres of warm water with coral bottoms and natural trails.
The tourist centre of Guamá, is an aborigine construction where the work of the famous Cuban sculptress Rita Longa can be appreciated in all its magnitude. Giron Beach (Playa Girón), in 1961, marked the defeat of the mercenary troops paid by the United States who invaded Cuba here.
To visit this unique place allows one to meet the brave people that work on developing the species, after stopping the accelerated process of the crocodile’s disappearance in Cuba.
This nursery, the largest in the country, located in the Zapata Swamps (Ciénaga de Zapata), is one of the best-preserved areas regarding its flora and fauna. It covers a surface area of some 600 square kilometres, and thousands of Cuban species dwell within it.
It is located in an area called The Mouth (La Boca), which is part of the tourist centre of the Ciénaga, which includes a Taino Village (aldea taína), the Treasure Lagoon (Laguna del Tesoro) which offers abundant fishing among other attractions. The crocodiles are tended to by veterinarians and other specialists, who release them with other inhabitants of the swamps when they are of an age to do so.
Declared a National Monument in 1978, it is a preserved military construction at the mouth of the Canimar River, in the city of Matanzas.
It is located in one of the fortresses that protected the city from the constant attacks of pirates, and it adopted its present day look around 1830.
Pieces of aborigine archaeology are on exhibit, since the fortress was constructed in the middle of the largest settlement of Cuba’s first inhabitants.
Two of the patriots that fought for independence: Antonio Guiteras and the Venezuelan Carlos Aponte, chose this place to organise an expedition to Mexico. After being ratted on, they were surprised and murdered on this site on May 8th of 1935.
An invasion took place in April of 1961 in the well-known Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos), financed by the United States, and using elements against the Cuban Revolution. In the landing there were over 1 600 mercenaries, which were defeated in less than 72 hours. That historical event was the United States’ first military defeat in Latin America, and the place still holds many testimonies, as well as live witnesses of the event. Also, there is a museum, located in the ancient Australia sugar mill, where there are valuable declassified CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) documents, as well as weapons and all kinds of artefacts that were seized from over a thousand prisoners.
With the name of San Carlos and San Severino of Matanzas it was founded on October 12th of 1693 and today has a surface area of almost 12 000 square kilometres and over 700 000 inhabitants. It is known as the Athens of Cuba.
The city is divided by the San Juan River (río San Juan) and is characterised by its cultural development, whose most significant expression is the Sauto Theatre (Teatro Sauto), where important national as well as international artists have performed.
The city, as well as the province, does not possess important elevations and the soil is fertile. The tercentennial province is only 98 kilometres from the capital, along the way to the famous beach of Varadero, one of the main tourist sites in the country.
Matanzas features a beautiful azure bay, as well as a central city area where parks and buildings, some dating back to the colonial era, coexist in harmony. If you prefer, you can enjoy a sea swim at El Zapato beach that bathes the city’s coastline.
Located in the heart of the city of Matanzas, capital of the province of the same name, it is some 100 kilometres from Havana City. It was built in 1847 and treasures the historical event of Cuba’s first baseball game that took place there in 1874. The Cuban Hall of Fame of this sport has been planned to be created here, due to the historical significance of this stadium, where baseball games have been played in the first National Series after the Revolution’s triumph in 1959, until the games were moved to the new stadium named Victoria de Girón, the present day headquarters of the area’s teams.
Is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and is located in the Icacos Peninsula with some 22 kilometres of admirable fine white sand beaches and different tones of azure tinted ocean. This area is visited yearly by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.
All kinds of conditions are available in order to satisfy the most demanding tastes, from its modern international airport “Juan Gualberto Gómez”, up to nearly 15 000 rooms distributed in modern and comfortable hotels operated by the most important Cuban enterprises and other specialised foreign companies.
The exploitation of this tourist attraction began in the decade of 1940, but the exact date of its founding goes back to December 5th of 1887, when ten families settled in the area. Since then, the changes in Varadero are enormous and are in constant evolution.