Cuba - Lonely Planet [204]
In addition to some decent private houses, Playa Girón’s one and only resort is the modest Villa Girón, a low-key all-inclusive that is perennially popular among the diving fraternity. Long, shady Playa Los Cocos, where the snorkeling is good, is just a five-minute walk south along the shore. But Varadero this is not. In common with many of Cuba’s southern coastal areas, there’s often more diente de perro (dog’s tooth) than soft white sand.
Information
On the main entry road to the hotel there’s a pharmacy, a post office, an international post office and a Caracol shop selling groceries. The settlement of Playa Girón is a tiny one-horse town, so if you need any goods or services, the hotel is the most likely place to look.
Sights
The Museo de Playa Girón (admission CUC$2, cameras CUC$1; 9am-5pm) has gleaming glass display cases and a tangible sense of history. Housed across the street from Villa Playa Girón, it offers two rooms of artifacts from Bahía de Cochinos plus numerous photos with (some) bilingual captions. The mural of victims and their personal items is eye-catching and the tactical genius of the Cuban forces comes through in the graphic depictions of how the battle unfolded. The 15-minute film about the ‘first defeat of US imperialism in the Americas’ is CUC$1 extra. A British Hawker Sea Fury aircraft used by the Cuban Air Force is parked outside the museum and round the back are other vessels used in the battle that you can look at.
Sleeping & Eating
CASAS PARTICULARES
The small settlement of Playa Girón has half a dozen decent casas particulares, most of which serve meals.
KS Abella ( 98-43-83; r CUC$20; ) This señor is a former chef at Villa Playa Girón who is now trying out his seafood specialties on his casa guests. He’s situated on the corner of the main road.
Villa Merci – Mercedes Blanco Pérez ( 98-43-04; r CUC$20; ) Hay Perro (meaning ‘beware of the dog’), says the sign, but don’t be put off by the warning. The dog’s as friendly as Merci, the congenial casa owner. Adorned with a lovely garden and porch, this house has two rooms with all the standard amenities plus a TV room complete with a decent stash of videos. It’s on the road to Caleta Buena (the last house).
Hostal Luis ( 99-42-58; r incl breakfast CUC$25; ) The first house on the road to Cienfuegos is also the village’s premier casa. Instantly recognizable by the two stone lions that guard the gate, youthful Luis and his wife offer two spotless rooms on a large lot with plenty of room for parking.
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THE BAY OF PIGS
What the Cubans call Playa Girón, the rest of the world has come to know as the Bay of Pigs ‘fiasco,’ a shoddily planned comedy of errors that made a laughing stock out of the Kennedy administration and elevated Fidel Castro into the role of unassailable national hero.
Conceived in 1959 by the Eisenhower administration and headed up by deputy director of the CIA, Richard Bissell, the plan to initiate a program of covert action against the Castro regime was given official sanction on March 17, 1960. There was but one proviso: no US troops were to be used in combat.
Setting about their task with zeal, the CIA modeled their operation on the 1954 overthrow of the left-leaning government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. But ambition soon got the better of ardor.
By the time President Kennedy was briefed on the proceedings in November 1960, the project had mushroomed into a full-scale invasion backed by a 1400-strong force of CIA-trained Cuban exiles and financed with a military budget