Cuba - Lonely Planet [252]
Strict conservation measures mean public access is limited, but not impossible. There is a basic visitors center and eco-station on the coast due north of Yaguajay but, rather than just turn up, your best bet is to check details first at the Villa San José del Lago (opposite).
The one advertised excursion is Las Maravillas que Atesora Caguanes, which incorporates a path to the Humboldt and Los Chivos caves and a boat trip around the Cayos de Piedra.
Refreshingly, the park has logged some landmark successes in environmental regeneration in recent years. Pollution in the Bahía de Buenavista bay from inefficient sugar mills had driven numerous bird species away from Caguanes by the late 1990s, but the closure of the mills in 2002, coupled with sustained environmental efforts on the part of park authorities, has seen many species start to return.
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Sleeping & Eating
Villa San José del Lago ( 55-61-08; Antonio Guiteras, Mayajigua; s/d CUC$25/32; ) This novel spa, once popular with vacationing Americans, is situated just outside Mayajigua in northern Sancti Spíritus province. The tiny rooms set in a variety of two-story villas nestle beside a small palm-fringed lake (with pedal boats and resident flamingos). The complex is famous for its thermal waters first utilized by injured slaves in the 19th century but now mainly the preserve of holidaying Cubans. The 67 rooms are no-frills, but the setting, wedged between the Sierra Jatibonico and Parque Nacional Caguanes, is magnificent and makes a good base for some of Cuba’s lesser-known excursions. There’s a restaurant and snack bar on-site.
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Ciego de Ávila Province
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CIEGO DE ÁVILA
MORÓN
NORTH OF MORÓN
FLORENCIA
CAYO COCO
CAYO GUILLERMO
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For centuries Ciego de Ávila was little more than an overnight stop on Cuba’s arterial east–west highway. Then came the immigrants, from Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Barbados, bringing with them their myriad cultural quirks: cricket in Baraguá, voodoo in Venezuela, country dancing in Majagua and explosive fireworks in Chambas. Within a century this boring former drive-by had become a potentially exciting drive-in.
Chopped off the western flank of Camagüey province in 1975, Ciego de Ávila set about carving its new regional identity with characteristic aplomb. Maybe that’s why its resilient citizens take such commendable pride in their less-than-illustrious history (Ciego – founded in 1840 – is Cuba’s newest provincial capital). Encased in the so-called ‘city of porches’ you’ll find ingratiating casa particular owners, a smattering of good cheap restaurants and one of Cuba’s best municipal museums.
Morón is Ciego’s oldest town, but it’s no Trinidad. More notable are the attractions to the immediate north: a patchwork of nature reserves, a hunting ground, and Cuba’s largest lake, the lime-filled Laguna de la Leche.
Follow the road further still and you’ll hit the sea, quite literally, on a huge man-made causeway that takes tourists (and now Cubans, if they can afford it) across the Bahía de Perros to the paradise island of Cayo Coco. Often given a bad rap during the ‘tourist apartheid’ era, Coco and its smaller western cousin Cayo Guillermo were the bright tropical pearls that once seduced Hemingway. Laced with gorgeous beaches and bedizened with nearly a dozen exclusive tourist resorts, they’re now seducing the vacation-bound readers of his books.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Branch Out Uncover the traditions and festivals of Majagua
Scuba Cuba Dive from a live-aboard in the secluded Jardines de la Reina (see boxed text,)
Environmental Rehab See how an old airport has been made into a successful nature reserve at Parque Natural El Bagá Click here on Cayo Coco and rub