Cuba - Lonely Planet [265]
Colonial Camagüey, Cuba’s third-largest city, is the province as a microcosm. Staunchly Catholic and often just as staunchly against the status quo in the rest of the country, the city was the first to risk Castro’s wrath in 1959 when its loose-cannon governor Huber Matos questioned the leftward drift of the still nascent Revolution. The province made amends by producing loyal revolutionary poet Nicolas Guillén, groundbreaking scientist Carlos Finlay and an internationally famous ballet company. Nowadays you’re just as likely to see Camagüeyanos kicking back at a rodeo as enjoying a performance of Swan Lake in a province where the ‘cowboy culture’ is historically ingrained.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Colonial Cartography Get lost in Camagüey’s wickedly twisted streets Click here
Get Sharky Watch dive instructors fearlessly feed sharks off Playa Santa Lucía
Nowhere Land Escape to Cuba’s last wilderness on Cayo Romano
Catholic Soul Say your penance in Camagüey and sally forth to find Cuba’s Catholic soul Click here
Constitutional Landmark Make a pit stop in Guáimaro and see where Cuba’s first constitution was signed Click here
TELEPHONE CODE: 032
POPULATION: 786,657
AREA: 15,900 SQ KM
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Parks & Reserves
Fifty-four hectares of central Camagüey are a Unesco World Heritage Site, dedicated in 2008. Thirty-six kilometers southeast of the provincial capital lies the Sierra del Chorrillo, a protected nature reserve run by government travel agency Ecotur.
Getting There & Around
As Cuba’s third-largest population center, Camagüey is served well by daily Víazul buses and a better-than-average train service (the fast and comfortable Havana–Santiago Tren Francés stops here). A train line also links Camagüey with Nuevitas. Heading north to the keys and Playa Santa Lucía you’ll need your own car or an aptitude for deciphering local Cuban truck/bus schedules.
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CAMAGÜEY
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Welcome to the maze. Caught inadvertently in the tide of history, Camagüey is a Latin American city without precedent. The oddities lie in its unique urban layout. Two centuries spent fighting off musket-toting pirates such as Henry Morgan led the fledgling settlement to develop a peculiar labyrinthine street pattern designed to confuse pillaging invaders and provide cover for its long-suffering residents. As a result, Camagüey’s sinuous streets and narrow winding alleys are more reminiscent of a Moroccan medina than the geometric grids of Lima or Mexico City.
Sandwiched on Carretera Central halfway between Ciego de Ávila and Las Tunas, the city of tinajones (clay pots), as Camagüey is sometimes known, is Cuba’s third-largest city and the bastion of the Catholic Church on the island. Well known for going their own way in times of crisis, the resilient citizens are popularly called ‘Agramontinos’ by other Cubans, after local War of Independence hero Ignacio Agramonte, coauthor of the Guáimaro constitution and courageous leader of Cuba’s finest cavalry brigade.
Some travelers love Camagüey with its secret nooks and crannies. Others are not so enamored with its unsavory reputation for bike thieves and jineteros (touts). Take to the maze and find out for yourself.
History
Founded in February 1514 as one of Diego Velázquez’ hallowed seven ‘villas,’ Santa María del Puerto Príncipe was originally established on the coast near the site of present-day Nuevitas. Due to a series of bloody rebellions by the local Taíno Indians, the site of the city was moved twice in the early 16th century, finally taking up its present location in 1528. Its name was changed to Camagüey in 1903.
Camagüey developed quickly in the 1600s – despite continued attacks by corsairs – with an economy based on sugar production and cattle-rearing. Due to acute water shortages in the area the townsfolk were forced to make tinajones in order to collect rainwater and