Guantánamo
is the province of Cuba located at the eastern end of the Island. This
is a predominantly mountainous region of deep contrasts, and the only
place in the country where you can find semidesert landscapes.There are
between the Cuban capital and this territory little more than 900 kilometers
(part of which is illegally occupied by an American aero naval base).
The
main door of this province for international tourism is the Baracoa, Prime
City of Cuba.
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Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa (1512)
was the first of seven villas founded in the largest of the
West Indies by the Spanish Diego Velázquez, becoming
indeed the first capital and Episcopate of Cuba. Baracoa is
today a colorful town with 900 km2 of surface, which preserves
in its outskirts forests that are similar to those of the colonial
times, identified by many with a sui generis flat top mountain
baptized under the name of Yunque de Baracoa (Anvil of Baracoa).
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The road access to this town is by itself
an attraction for visitors, since it has to be done by La Farola, an ascending
spiral road built during the first half of the 1960's, with 11 hanging
bridges whose maximum height is located at a place known as Altos de Cotilla
(Cotilla Heights), 600 hundred meters above the sea level. Nevertheless,
the city has an national airport which handles the operations of small
and middle size airplanes.
Baracoa still preserves clear
evidence of the solid system of colonial forts, like Forts Matachín,
where the Municipal Museum is located; la Punta; Seboruco; and the fortified
towers of Joa; Caguase or the Castle of the Villa itself, which was later
turned into a comfortable hotel; all of them built to defend the city
form the siege of pirates and corsairs.
Furthermore, its church preserves the Cruz
de la Parra (Croos from La Parra) -first Christian symbol found
in the island- out of the 29 placed in different places by the
admiral from Genova, Christopher Columbus, during his discovery
journey to the so called New Continent.The Duaba obelisk, placed
where 2nd Lieutenant of the Liberation Army Antonio Maceo y
Grajales, one of the most relevant martyrs of the national independence
war, disembarked on December 1 of 1895;
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rivers Miel, Duaba, Yumurí and
Toa, all of them appropriate places for a ride on a cayuca (typical boat
of the region);Paso de Los Alemanes, a mountain split like a wedge on
the way to Punta de Maisí, located on the furthest place to the
east of the Island; are all places to be considered in the route of all
visitors.As well as the beach of Maguana; Los Tibaracones del Alto del
Pino, outstanding natural accidents; the terraces of La Máquina
or Los Monitongos de Hatibonico and the National Park Alejandro Humboldt,
which is located in the mountains of Moa-Sagua-Baracoa, where the largest
rivers and forests of the country meet.
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