Guantánamo

Guantánamo. The name reverberates around the world. Everyone knows it as a U.S. naval base and a humiliating thorn in the side of Castro’s Cuba. In fact, Guantánamo is also both a city and province, which tapers eastward to Punta de Maisí, the easternmost point of the island. The province is almost wholly mountainous. Except for a great scalloped bowl surrounding the town of Guantánamo, the lushly forested uplands push up against a thread-thin coastal plain.

If Cuba has an untamed, undiscovered quarter, it is here. The wild eastern shore and secluded mountains of Guantánamo Province offer fantastic but as yet untapped opportunities for hiking and ecotourism. Uniquely, traces of indigenous culture linger, notably around Baracoa, Cuba’s oldest city, near where a ball court similar to those of the Mayan culture has been discovered recently. Baracoans unnecessarily attempt to boost their city’s image by claiming that Columbus first set foot in Cuba here and left a wooden cross (now on view in the town’s cathedral) as a memento. Whatever the truth, it’s undisputed that the Spanish conquistadores who came on Columbus’s heels established the first town in Cuba at Baracoa. The town retains an aged colonial feel in a setting that any other city would die for. Surrounded by lushly carpeted mountains and steeped in antiquity, it is one of the most popular places in Cuba for independent-minded travelers seeking somewhere just a little bit different.

Today a great part of the mountain region is protected within a system of reserves slowly being developed for ecotourism. Few foreign travelers ever make the journey into these wildlife-rich mountains harboring rare plant and bird species and polymites (snails that haul fabulously colored shells on their backs). There are plenty of beaches, too.

The northeast coast and north-facing mountains around Baracoa make up the rainiest region in Cuba, with annual precipitation ranging from 200 centimeters in the coastal zone to 360 centimeters in the upper Toa river valley and majestic heights of the Sierra Sagua-Baracoa. By contrast, valleys along the southern coast are pockets of aridity, and cacti grow in the lee of Cuba’s wettest slopes.

Mirador de Malones: While Uncle Sam detains terrorist suspects in the U.S. naval base, the Cuban military offers you a cocktail and let’s you use their look-out point to spy in on the goings-on. (read more)

Zoológica de Piedra: There’s no question that a mountainside zoo where the life-size critters are hewn from boulders is one of a kind. (read more)

La Farola: A steep mountain road snaking into the pine-clad Sierra Cristal offers fabulous vistas, but watch those bends. (read more)

Museo Arqueológico Cueva del Paraíso: This fascinating albeit simple museum of Taíno culture is set in hillside funerary caverns with pre-Columbian skeletons still in situ. (read more)

Parque Natural Duaba and El Yunque: Rugged mountain terrain provides a challenging but rewarding hike to the top of the famous rock formation El Yunque, with incredible views as an added bonus. (read more)

Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt: Wilderness supreme! This park provides great opportunities for bird-watching and hiking into the mountains, and manatees can be spotted along the shore. (read more)