Cuba - Lonely Planet [174]
Hacienda Unión, 3.5km west of the Hotel Moka access road, is another partially reconstructed coffee-estate ruin that features a country-style restaurant, a small flower garden known as the Jardín Unión and horseback riding (CUC$6 per hour).
At La Cañada del Infierno (Trail to Hell), midway between the Hotel Moka access road and the Soroa side entrance gate, a secondary road follows the Río Bayate down to the 19th-century San Pedro & Santa Catalina coffee-estate ruins. A kilometer off the main road, a bar overlooks a popular swimming spot.
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NEW MODEL VILLAGE
Back in 1968, when Al Gore was still cramming at Harvard and the nascent environmental movement was a prickly protest group for renegades with names like ‘Swampy,’ the forward-thinking Cubans – concerned about the ecological cost of island-wide deforestation – came up with a prophetic idea.
The plan involved taking a 5000-hectare tract of degraded land in Pinar del Río province around the remains of some old French cafetales (coffee farms) and reforesting it on terraced, erosion-resistant slopes. In 1971, with the first phase of the plan completed, the workers on the project created a man-made reservoir and on its shores constructed a groundbreaking new model village to provide much needed housing for eastern Pinar’s disparate inhabitants.
The result was Las Terrazas, Cuba’s first eco-village, a thriving community of 1200 inhabitants whose self-supporting sustainable settlement includes a hotel, myriad artisan shops, a vegetarian restaurant and small-scale organic farming techniques.
The project was so successful that, in 1985, the land around Las Terrazas was incorporated into Cuba’s first Unesco Biosphere Reserve, the Sierra del Rosario.
In 1994, as the tourist industry was expanded to counteract the economic effects of the Special Period, Las Terrazas opened La Moka, an environmentally congruous hotel designed by minister of tourism and green architect, Osmani Cienfuegos, brother of the late revolutionary hero, Camilo.
Now established as Cuba’s most authentic eco-resort, Las Terrazas operates on guiding principles that include energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, environmental education and a sense of harmony between buildings and landscape.
The area is also the site of an important ecological research center.
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Looming elsewhere in the fecund forest and only accessible by hiking trails are the Santa Serafina, the San Idelfonso and El Contento coffee-estate ruins.
The former lakeside house of local guajiro singer Polo Montañez is now a small museum called Peña de Polo Montañez containing various gold records and assorted memorabilia. It’s right in the village overlooking the lake.
Activities
HIKING
First the good news: the Sierra del Rosario boasts some of the best hikes in Cuba. Now the bad: they’re all guided, ie you can’t officially do any of them on your own (and nonexistent signposting deters all but the hardiest from trying). On the upside, most of the area’s guides are highly trained experts which means you’ll emerge from the experience both a fitter and wiser person. The cost of the hikes varies depending on the number of people and length of walk. Bank on anything between CUC$15 and CUC$25 per person. Book at the Oficinas del Complejo (opposite) or Hotel Moka.
The biosphere’s toughest hike is the 13km San Claudio trail, which traverses the hills to the northwest of the community culminating in the 20m-high San Claudio waterfall. It is sometimes offered as an overnighter with the opportunity to camp out in the forest (equipment provided).
El Contento is an 8km ramble through the reserve’s foothills between the Campismo El Taburete (for Cubans only) and the Baños del San Juan taking in two coffee-estate ruins; San Idelfonso and El Contento. El Taburete (6.5km) has the same start and finish point but follows a more direct route over the 452m Loma El Taburete where a poignant monument is dedicated to the 38 Cuban guerrillas who trained in these hills