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Casino Campestre
Over the Río Hatibonico from the old town is Cubas largest urban park, laid out in 1860. Theres shaded benches, a baseball stadium, concerts and activities. On a traffic island near the park entrance is a monument dedicated to Mariano Barberán and Joaquín Collar, Spaniards who made
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Casa de Estrada Palma
Welcome to where Cubas first post-independence president, Tomás Estrada Palma, was born in 1835. One-time friend of José Martí, Estrada Palma was disgraced post-Revolution for his perceived complicity with the US over the Platt Amendment. His birth house is now the seat of Uneac (U
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Finca Fiesta Campesina
Approximately 400m on your right after the Central Australia exit is a kind of wildlife-park-meets-country fair with labeled examples of Cubas typical flora and fauna. The highlights of this strangely engaging place are the coffee (some of the best in Cuba and served with a sweet w
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Casa Templo de Santería Yemayá
No Santería museum can replicate the ethereal spiritual experience of Regla de Ocha (also known as Santería, Cubas main religion of African origin), though this house has a try with a Santería altar to Yemayá, Goddess of the Sea, laden with myriad offerings of fruit, water and ston
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Cueva de Ambrosio
Beyond Marina Chapelín, Varadero sprawls east like a displaced North American suburb with scrubby mangroves interspersed with megahotel complexes and the odd iron crane. Pass all this and 500m beyond the Club Amigo Varadero on the Autopista Sur, youll find this cave, interesting fo
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Ranchón La Gobernadora
Back in the old days you could get a decent view of the US Naval base from the 320m-high Mirador de Malones 20km to the east of Guantánamo City, but visits were curtailed in the late 2000s. Now, just off the main road to Baracoa, close to the where the entrance to the old Mirador u
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Criadero Cocodrilo
This farm has played an important part in crocodile conservation in Cuba over the last few years and the results are interesting to see. Harboring more than 500 crocodiles of all shapes and sizes, the criadero (hatchery) acts as a breeding center, similar to the one in Guamá in Mat
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Fuente de la India
Don’t miss this white Carrara marble fountain, carved by Giuseppe Gaggini in 1837 for the Count of Villanueva, situated on a traffic island in front of Hotel Saratoga. It portrays a regal indigenous woman adorned with a crown of eagle’s feathers and seated on a throne surrounded by
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King Ranch
Texans will be flummoxed by such a familiar-sounding name in the wilds of northern Camagüey, but this Wild West apparition is no phony. King Ranch, en route to Playa Santa Lucía, was once an off-shoot of its legendary Texan namesake (the largest ranch in the US). Theres a restauran
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Instituto Superior de Arte
The leading art academy in Cuba was established in the former Havana Country Club in 1961 and elevated to the status of institute in 1976. The cluster of buildings – some unfinished, some half-restored, but all gloriously graceful due to the arches, domes and red brick – was the br
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Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de Belén
This huge 1718 building first functioned as a convalescent home and later as a Jesuit convent. Abandoned in 1925, it fell into disrepair, exacerbated in 1991 by a damaging fire. The City Historian reversed the decline in the late 1990s using tourist coffers to transform it into an
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Playita de Cajobabo
Cajababos main beach is stony and flanked by dramatic cliffs, but nonetheless makes a good snorkeling spot. Folllow the road at its far end over a headland and the asphalt deadends at another beach. Walk east along this beach for 400m and youll come to a boat-shaped monument commem
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El Lago de los Sueños
The so-called lake of dreams has been recently developed as an out-of-town escape from Camagüeys urban maze. It uses the same inventive if slightly kitschy methodology employed by a similar venture in Ciego de Ávila. Prize for the oddest installation is the Cremería 1514 an ice cre
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Calle Heredia
The music never stops on Calle Heredia, Santiagos most sensuous street and also one of its oldest. The melodies start in the paint-peeled Casa de Cultura Josue País García , where danzón -strutting pensioners mix with svelte rap artists barely out of their teens. One door up is Cub
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Laguna la Redonda
Anglers, listen up: 18km north of Morón, off the Cayo Coco road, this mangrove-rimmed, 4-sq-km lake has the islands best square-kilometer density of bass and trout. Four hours of fishing costs CUC$70. Boat trips are available too, and take in narrow, foliage-covered tributaries – a
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Iglesia Parroquial Mayor de San Salvador
Theres been a church on this site since 1514. The current edifice dates from 1740 but got devastated in the 1869 fire, so much of what you see results from building work in 1919. One original section surviving the fire is the Capilla de la Dolorosa with its gilded wooden altar. A
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Mercado Agropecuario Hatibonico
If you visit just one market in Cuba, make it this one. Glued (by mud) beside the murky Río Hatibonico just off the Carretera Central, and characterized by its pregones (singsong, often comic, offering of wares) ringing through the stalls, this is a classic example of Cuban-style f
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Plaza del Carmen
Around 600m west of the frenzy of República sits another sublimely beautiful square, one less-visited than the central plazas. Its backed on the eastern side by the masterful Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen , one of the prettiest city churches. Little more than a decade ago P
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Manaca Iznaga
The valleys main focal point is 16km northeast of Trinidad. Founded in 1750, the estate was purchased in 1795 by the dastardly Pedro Iznaga, who became one of the wealthiest men in Cuba through the unscrupulous business of slave trafficking. The 44m-high tower next to the hacienda
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Museo
This important museum is where the mulato general and hero of both Wars of Independence was born, on June 14, 1845, and exhibits highlights of Maceos life with photos, letters and a tattered flag that was flown in battle. Known as the Bronze Titan in Cuba for his bravery in battle,
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