Cuba - Lonely Planet [231]
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BAÑOS DE ELGUEA
Baños de Elguea, 136km northwest of Santa Clara nearly kissing the Matanzas provincial border, is a well-established health resort. According to local legend, a slave who had contracted a serious skin disease in 1860 was banished by his master, sugar-mill owner Don Francisco Elguea, so that he wouldn’t infect others. Sometime later the man returned completely cured. He explained that he had relieved his affliction merely by bathing in the region’s natural mineral spring. Somewhat surprisingly, his master believed him. A bathhouse was built and the first hotel opened in 1917. Today these sulfur springs and the mud are used by medical professionals to treat skin irritations, arthritis and rheumatism. The waters here reach a temperature of 50°C and are rich in bromide, chlorine, radon, sodium and sulfur.
Situated north of Coralillo, Hotel & Spa Elguea ( 68-62-90; s/d incl breakfast low season CUC$30/40, high season CUC$36/48; ) has 139 rooms with numerous spa treatments, such as mud therapy, hydrotherapy and massages available at the nearby thermal pools. Regulars claim that its rejuvenating powers are among the best in Latin America.
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Sancti Spíritus Province
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SANCTI SPÍRITUS
TRINIDAD
PLAYA ANCÓN & AROUND
VALLE DE LOS INGENIOS
TOPES DE COLLANTES
NORTHERN SANCTI SPÍRITUS
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Sancti Spíritus is the province of good fortune. Spend a day trekking through its rolling Jatibonico hills or crested Sierra del Escambray and you’ll quickly discover that there’s more of everything here, and all of it squeezed into an area half the size of Camagüey or Pinar del Río.
The cities are a perennial highlight. Sancti Spíritus is the only province that hosts two of Cuba’s seven founding settlements: in the east is the understated provincial capital, a soporific mix of weather-beaten buildings and bruised Ladas. South, and within sight of the coast, is ethereal Trinidad, Cuba’s – and Latin America’s – colonial jewel that is second only to Havana as a tourist magnet.
Unlike other colonial belles, Trinidad has beaches – nearby Ancón is a stunner, easily the best on Cuba’s southern coast – and mountains. Within mirror-glinting distance of the city’s colonial core lie the haunting Escambray, Cuba’s best hiking area with an actual network of decent trails, a couple of which can be done – officially – without a guide!
Sandwiched in between is the once-formidable Valle de los Ingenios, the industrial heartland upon which Trinidad’s fortunes were once laid out in sugar. But, while the valley’s economic riches depleted, its tourist value sky-rocketed; it’s now a Unesco World Heritage Site and best explored on a steam train.
The rest of the province hides a surprisingly varied cache of oft-overlooked curiosities. There’s a great fishing lake at Zaza, a seminal museum to Cuba’s guerrilla icon Camilo Cienfuegos in Yaguajay, and a barely visited Unesco Biosphere Reserve in the beautiful Bahía de Buenavista.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Time-warp in Trinidad Peel off the layers in Cuba’s colonial jewel Click here
Hook a Line Go fishing in Embalse Zaza
Life by the Lago Watch the flamingos in the lake and relax in mineral springs in Villa San José del Lago
Beach Break Rent a house in La Boca and stroll the sands of Playa Ancón Click here
Heavenly Hike Discover the hikes, waterfalls and swimming holes of beautiful Parque La Guanayara
TELEPHONE CODE: 041
POPULATION: 463,258
AREA: 6744 SQ KM
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Parks & Reserves
Approximately 300 sq km of Sancti Spíritus’ north coast is protected in the Unesco Buenavista Biosphere Reserve. Encased inside the reserve is the pristine Parque Nacional Caguanes and the whole area has been designated a Ramsar Convention Site. In the south of the province, the ecologically important Sierra del Escambray is incorporated in the Topes de Collantes Natural Park, a carefully managed recreation area run by government-owned