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By Root 1500 0

Bahía de Naranjo (Map), 4km southwest of Playa Esmeralda and about 8km from the main Guardalavaca strip, is an island complex designed to keep the resort crowds entertained. An aquarium ( 43-01-32; 9am-9pm) is on a tiny island in the bay and your entry fee includes a zippy boat tour of the islands included in the complex, and a sea lion and dolphin show (noon daily). There are various packages starting at around CUC$40, depending on what you want to do – yacht trips, seafaris etc – so check around before you embark. For an extra CUC$50 or so, you can swim with the dolphins for 20 minutes. All of Guardalavaca’s (and Playa Esmeralda’s) hotel tour desks sell aquarium excursions. Boats to the aquarium leave from the Marina Bahía de Naranjo.

At the end of the Playa Esmeralda road is the self-guided Las Guanas Eco-archaeological Trail (Map; admission CUC$6; 8am-4:30pm), which, at CUC$6 for 1km of trail (that’s CUC$1 per 170m), is quite possibly Cuba’s (and one of the world’s) most expensive walks. You’d better walk slowly to get your money’s worth! The marked route (with several more kilometers of bushwhacking on fire trails leading to a picturesque bluff with a lighthouse) apparently boasts 14 endemic plant species.

Cheaper, but pretty barren post–Hurricane Ike, is the Eco-parque Cristóbal Colón (Map), reachable via a track off the hotel access road. There’s supposedly a small animal ‘zoo’ here, but on our last visit most of it appeared to have been blown away.

MUSEO CHORRO DE MAITA

This archaeological site–based museum (Map; 43-04-21; admission CUC$2; 9am-5pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun) protects the remains of an excavated Indian village and cemetery, including the well-preserved remains of 62 human skeletons and the bones of a barkless dog. The village dates from the early 16th century and is one of nearly 100 archaeological sites in the area. Across from the museum is a reconstructed Aldea Taína (Taíno village; Map; admission CUC$3) that features life-sized models of native dwellings and figures in a replicated indigenous village. Shows of native dance rituals are staged here and there’s also a restaurant.

Sleeping

There are no casas particulares here, as renting rooms is banned. Banes, 33km to the southeast, is the closest town with private rooms.

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ASK A LOCAL

From the Guardalavaca hotels you can organize an excellent trip to the town of Rafael Freyre, where you travel on a narrow gauge stream locomotive following the route of an old sugar train. The train is over 80 years old and is a real Cuban classic.

Gerardo, Guardalavaca

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GUARDALAVACA

Villa Cabañas (Map; 43-01-64; r CUC$40; ) There are no private rooms on Holguín’s north coast, but you can still shoestring it by decamping in one of these comfortable cabins at the end of Guardalavaca’s main resort strip. The 20 rooms have double beds, TVs, hot water, kitchenettes and the odd resident frog (provided free of charge). Also on-site is the Cubanacán Clínica Internacional. A lively stretch of beach with a couple of passable snack bar restaurants is two minutes’ walk away.

Club Amigo Atlántico – Guardalavaca (Cubanacán; Map; 43-01-21, s/d all-inclusive CUC$69/99; ) This hard-to-fathom resort is a fusion of the former Guardalavaca and Atlántico hotels, the latter of which is the resort’s oldest, completed in 1976 and christened by Fidel Castro, who went for a quick dip in the pool. The architecture in this small ‘village’ (there are an astounding 600 rooms here in total) is a mishmash of villas, bungalows and standard rooms, and is ever popular with families for its extensive kids’ activities program. Expect bingo around the pool and microphone-happy ‘entertainers.’

Brisas Guardalavaca Hotel (Cubanacán; Map; 43-02-18; s/d all-inclusive CUC$129/178; ) This über-resort made up of the Villa las Brisas and Hotel las Brisas at the eastern end of the beach is a package-tour paradise that stirs memories of 1970s British holiday camps. Bonuses are the huge comfortable rooms, floodlit tennis courts and general lack of pretension. But with its fake pink