Cuba - Lonely Planet [216]
You can get to the castle via a passenger ferry from Cienfuegos, but it’s easier to take a smaller ferry from a landing just below the Hotel Pasacaballo. It operates frequently throughout the day, charging one peso one-way. Tourists pay CUC$1. The Cienfuegos ferry is similarly cheap but takes almost an hour.
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JARDÍN BOTÁNICO DE CIENFUEGOS
The 94-hectare botanic garden (Map; admission CUC$5; 8am-5pm), near the Pepito Tey sugar mill, 17km east of Cienfuegos, is one of Cuba’s biggest gardens. It houses 2000 species of plants, including 23 types of bamboo, 65 of fig and 280 different palms. The botanic garden was founded in 1901 by US sugar baron Edwin F Atkins who initially intended to use it to study different varieties of sugarcane, but instead began planting exotic tropical trees from around the world.
To reach the gardens you’ll need a hire car or taxi. The cheapest method is to go with an organized excursion; Cubanacán Click here in Cienfuegos runs trips for CUC$10. Drivers coming from Cienfuegos should turn right (south) at the junction to Pepito Tey.
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EL NICHO
While Cienfuegos province’s share of the verdant Escambray Mountains is extensive (and includes the range’s highest summit, 1156m Pico de San Juan), access is limited to a small protected area around El Nicho (Map; admission CUC$5; 8:30am-6:30pm), an outpost of the Topes de Collantes Natural Park managed by Gaviota.
El Nicho is actually the name of a beautiful waterfall on the Río Hanabanilla, but the area also offers a 1.5km nature trail (Reino de las Aguas), swimming in natural pools, caves, excellent bird-watching opportunities, camping and a ranchón-style Palmares restaurant.
Getting to El Nicho can be problematic unless you are partaking in an organized excursion. The 55km journey from Cienfuegos via a rough road through Crucecitas is only negotiable in a 4WD, a vehicle you can rent for a stiff CUC$85 a day from Cubacar. The twice-daily truck that serves the small local community leaves at ridiculously inconvenient hours meaning your best bet is the eight-hour day tour from Cienfuegos that costs $30 (book through the excellent Cubanacán office).
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THE CARIBBEAN COAST
Heading east toward Trinidad, postcard views of the Escambray Mountains loom ever closer until their ruffled foothills almost engulf the coast road. Hidden coral reefs offshore offer excellent diving.
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BENNY MORÉ
No one singer encapsulates the full gamut of Cuban music more eloquently than Bartolomé ‘Benny’ Moré, a legendary vocalist and showman who blended African rhythms and Spanish melodies with effortless ease, and successfully mastered every musical genre of his age.
Born in the small village of Santa Isabel de las Lajas in Cienfuegos province in 1919, Moré gravitated to Havana in 1936 where he earned a precarious living selling damaged fruit on the streets of Cuba’s swinging capital. Saving up enough cash to buy a cheap guitar, he graduated to playing and singing in the smoky bars and restaurants of Habana Vieja’s tough dockside neighborhood where he passed the hat and made just enough money to get by.
His first big break came in 1943 when his velvety voice and pitch-perfect delivery won him first prize in a local radio singing competition and landed him a regular job as lead vocalist for a Havana-based mariachi band called the Cauto Quartet.
His meteoric rise was confirmed two years later when, while singing at a regular gig in Havana’s El Temple bar, he was spotted by Siro Rodríguez of the famed Trío Matamoros, then