Cuba - Lonely Planet [226]
TAXI
Private cabs (not technically legal) hang around in front of the national bus station and will offer you lifts to Remedios and Caibarién. A state taxi to the same destinations will cost approximately CUC$25 and CUC$30 respectively. To get out to Cayo Las Brujas bank on CUC$50; drivers generally congregate in Parque Vidal outside the Hotel Santa Clara Libre or you can call Cubataxi ( 20-68-56).
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EMBALSE HANABANILLA
Embalse Hanabanilla, Villa Clara’s main gateway to Sierra del Escambray, is a 36-sq-km reservoir that nestles picturesquely amid traditional rural farms and broccoli-green hills. Aside from hosting Cuba’s largest hydro-electric generating station, the lake is stocked with an ample supply of record-breaking bass, making it something of a nexus for fishermen and boaters. Due to its proximity to the Escambray, there are also (limited) hiking opportunities. The area is best accessed via the dowdy Hotel Hanabanilla on the reservoir’s northwestern shore, which lies approximately 80km south of Santa Clara.
Activities
The lake is world-famous for its largemouth bass (9kg bass have been caught here) and fishing trips can be organized at the hotel starting at around CUC$40. Boats also ferry passengers over to the Río Negro Restaurant, perched atop a steep stone staircase overlooking the lake shore 7km away. You can enjoy comida criolla (Creole food) here surrounded by nature and tour groups. Nearby is Casa del Campesino, offering coffee, fresh fruit and a taste of bucolic Cuban life. You’ll need to hike 1.5km through forest replete with ferns and birdlife to reach the Arroyo Trinitario waterfall. There’s a pool for swimming. You can organize these activities at Hotel Hanabanilla or book a day excursion (CUC$33 from Santa Clara; CUC$69 from Cayo Santa María).
Sleeping & Eating
Hotel Hanabanilla (Islazul; 20-85-50; s/d CUC$21/28; ) Incongruous and lacking any subtlety, this four-story, 125-room hotel is an ugly 1970s anachronism that glowers like an unsightly blemish across Hanabanilla’s glistening waters. Facilities inside are a little less hard on the eye with an à la carte restaurant, a swimming pool, a vista-laden bar and lake-facing rooms equipped with small balconies. Peaceful during the week but packed with mainly Cuban guests at weekends, it’s your only accommodation for miles and the best base for lakeside hikes and fishing.
Getting There & Away
Theoretically there are buses from Manicaragua, but the only practical access is by car, bike or moped. Taxi drivers will energetically offer the trip. Bank on CUC$25 one way in a state cab. Negotiate hard if you want them to wait over while you participate in an excursion.
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REMEDIOS
pop 48,908
Historic Remedios suffers from cultural schizophrenia. Blissfully quiet for 51 weeks of the year, the city’s tranquility is blown apart for seven days each December when the exuberant citizens take sides and face off against each other with floats, fireworks and dancing competitions in the legendary Las Parrandas, a street party that makes Mardi Gras seem second-rate.
Laid-back and pretty, with a personality to match, Remedios (when it isn’t parranda-ing) is used as both a cheap base for the Cayerías del Norte and a cool, colonial getaway in its own right. Despite losing half its citizens to Santa Clara in 1689 in an exodus that left it decimated, the town has managed to maintain its unique cultural charisma – an atmosphere that is best enjoyed in a clutch of decent casas particulares and its striking but somnolent central square.
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THE FOUNDATION OF REMEDIOS
Was it or wasn’t it? Historical debate rages about the foundation of Remedios and whether or not it qualifies as one of Cuba’s seven original colonial settlements. Popular consensus suggests that it doesn’t, placing it in a humiliating eighth place after Havana (which was founded in 1515). The city, traditionalists claim, was inaugurated in 1524 by energetic Spanish