Cuba - Lonely Planet [367]
Most of this region lies within the Cuchillas de Toa Unesco Biosphere Reserve, an area of 2083 sq km that incorporates the Alejandro de Humboldt World Heritage Site. This region contains the largest rainforest in Cuba, with trees exhibiting many precious woods, and has a high number of endemic species.
Baracoa’s rite of passage is the 8km (up and down) hike to El Yunque. At 575m it’s not Kilimanjaro, but the views from the summit and the flora and birdlife along the way are stupendous. Cubatur ( 64-53-06; José Martí No 181, Baracoa) offers this tour almost daily (CUC$18 per person, minimum two people). The fee covers admission, guide, transport and a sandwich. The hike is hot (bring sufficient water) and usually muddy. It starts from a campismo 3km past the Finca Duaba (4km from the Baracoa–Moa road). Bank on seeing tocororo (Cuba’s national bird), zunzún (the world’s smallest bird), butterflies and polymitas.
On Playa Maguana snorkeling is available from boats at a nearby reef. There’s no hire kiosk as such; the local boatman just works the strip.
Sleeping & Eating
Villa Maguana (Gaviota; 64-53-72; Carretera a Moa; s/d CUC$60/75; ) Good old Gaviota renovated this delightful place, 22km north of Baracoa, adding a trio of rustic wooden villas to the original four-room building. Environmental foresight has meant that it still retains its famously dreamy setting above a bite-sized scoop of sand guarded by two rocky promontories. There’s a restaurant and some less rustic luxuries in the rooms such as satellite TV, fridge and air-con.
The main strip of Playa Maguana is served by a small Palmares snack bar ( 9am-5pm) that sells cold drinks, fried chicken and sandwiches. The local fishermen have been known to fire up an excellent fish barbecue.
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PARQUE NACIONAL ALEJANDRO DE HUMBOLDT
‘Unmatched in the Caribbean’ is a phrase often used to describe this most dramatic and diverse of Cuban national parks, named after German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt who first came here in 1801. The accolade is largely true. Designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2001, Humboldt’s steep pine-clad mountains and creeping morning mists protect an unmatched ecosystem that is, according to Unesco, ‘one of the most biologically diverse tropical island sites on earth.’ Perched above the Bahía de Taco, 40km northwest of Baracoa, lie 594 sq km of pristine forest and 2641 hectares of lagoon and mangroves. With 1000 flowering plant species and 145 types of fern, it is far and away the most diverse plant habitat in the entire Caribbean. Due to the toxic nature of the underlying rocks in the area, plants have been forced to adapt in order to survive. As a result, endemism in the area is high. Seventy percent of the plants found here are endemic, as are many vertebrates and invertebrates. Several endangered species also survive, including Cuban Amazon parrots, hook-billed kites and – arguably – the ivory-billed woodpecker (see boxed text, opposite). Lauded for its unique evolutionary processes, the park is heavily protected and acts as a paradigm for Cuba’s environmental protection efforts elsewhere.
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THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER
Considered the Holy Grail for binocular-wielding ornithologists, sightings of the carpintero real (ivory-billed woodpecker) are so rare that US-based twitchers have been known to break the travel embargo in an attempt to see it.
Native to both eastern Cuba and parts of the American South, the last verified sighting of this striking black-and-white bird was by Cuban scientists in Guantánamo province in 1987 (in what is now the Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt) and many observers now consider it extinct.
Hope was restored briefly in 2005 when a male woodpecker – distinguishable by its prominent head crest – was allegedly spotted in the US state of Arkansas, but these