PINAR DEL RIO
Pinar del Río is arguably Cuba’s most beautiful province. The countryside is amazingly diverse, but the outstanding feature must be the mogotes oddly rounded limestone mountains, covered in lush vegetation. The caves here, notably the Cueva del Indio, are well worth a visit, with stalactites and stalagmites and underground rivers. The town of Pinar del Río should be explored in its own right, and is home to several cigar factories that are open to the public. The tobacco plantations at Vuelta Abajo, a short distance southwest of Pinar del Río can also be visited during the growing season from December to April. The road from Viñales to the coast makes a scenic drive. Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) is the largest of the 350 islands making up the Canarreos archipelago, administered from the capital, Nueva Gerona. Once known as ‘Parrot Island’, the Isle of Youth was a hideout for pirates, including the notorious Englishman, Captain Henry Morgan. It is also supposed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In the same archipelago is Cayo Largo, another of Cuba’s well-known tourist resorts, considered to have some of the best beaches in the Caribbean. Varadero, a sheltered peninsula on Cuba’s north coast, is the island’s best-known beach resort. Apart from the 20km ,12.5 miles of fine white sand, there are excellent opportunities for scuba-diving. The amenities are first rate. Guama, in the south of Matanzas Province, is a reconstruction of an Amero-Indian village, a government showpiece built on a series of islands linked by wooden bridges. There are boat trips along the Treasure Lake (Laguna del Tesoro), while most visitors will also enjoy the crocodile nursery. This part of Mantanzas is also famous for bird life and the attractive beaches of Playa Girón and Playa Larga, location for the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
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