Side Trips

The following are the most common and easily accessible side trips from Guardalavaca. Though it may seem unfair to characterize the largest city and provincial capital, Holguín, as a day trip from the beach, the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of visitors to this section of northeastern Cuba have sun and surf on their minds.

Holguin

56km (35 miles) SW of Guardalavaca; 734km (455 miles) E of Havana; 134km (83 miles) NW of Santiago de Cuba

The provincial capital, officially called San Isidoro de Holguín, may be known across Cuba as the "city of parks," but it doesn't get a whole lot of tourist traffic. Holguín is a pleasant but unremarkable city with only a modicum of attractions. Still, it makes a good day trip for resort visitors who would otherwise see nothing of Cuba save Guardalavaca's all-inclusive hotels and brilliant beaches.

Holguín, the fourth-largest city in Cuba, has a compact center that's easy enough to get around; visitors can manage the highlights in an unhurried day. The city's few elegant plazas, colonial buildings, and small dose of museums do not rival the highlights of Trinidad or Camagüey, and much of the city's historical character has been subsumed by industrial expansion. The great majority of the city's buildings date from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Pleasant Parque Calixto García (also called Parque Central), named for a 19th-century patriot, represents the heart of the city. The hero of the wars of independence is paid tribute with a large marble statue in the park's center. Benches are usually occupied by locals watching the town and time pass by. Two nearby churches of note are the handsome domed Iglesia de San José (on Plaza Carlos Manuel de Céspedes), which has an unusual baroque interior to go with its remade neoclassical facade, and the imposing 18th-century La Catedral de San Isidro de Holguín (Calle Mandulay, on Parque de las Flores), which features mudéjar (Moorish-style) carved wooden ceilings.

Of special note in Holguín is the unusual Familia Cuayo Fábrica de Organos, a studio that still produces handmade órganos pneumáticos (air-compression organs) with hand-cut music sheets, and restores musical instruments -- perhaps the very last of a breed. Eighteen workers make only four organs per year. A large organ, for which there is today a very limited market, costs about CUC$23,148. You can drop in during business hours at Carretera a Gibara 301 (tel. 24/42-4162), and someone is sure to give you a look around.

La Loma de Cruz (Hill of the Cross), 3km (1 3/4 miles) north of the city, can be climbed by ascending the nearly 500 steps to the top, where there's a wooden cross that was placed there in 1790. Though the often-windy hill offers excellent views of Holguín in the flat valley and the surrounding countryside, the hilltop is a little forlorn. The Mirador de Mayabe is the other acclaimed viewpoint, about 10km (6 1/4 miles) from the city center. On the hill, Cerro de Mayabe, are a hotel and restaurant, and the locally famous sideshow of Panchito, the beer-guzzling donkey (he stands next to Bar del Burro, the pool bar at the Mirador de Mayabe hotel, and chugs beers for customers who buy him one). However, Panchito is not the first trained donkey to work this sideshow, and it's rumored that more than one of his predecessors has died of alcohol-related causes.

Holguín's Cabaret Nocturno (tel. 24/42-5185) is an open-air cabaret show. Its "Corazón Caribeño" show (Wed-Mon 10pm-2am) is very professional and entertaining, considerably better than the ones put on nightly by the all-inclusive hotels in Guardalavaca. Afterward, the stage becomes a hopping dance club. Admission is CUC$10, or you can buy a package at any of the hotel tour desks for around CUC$30, which includes transportation from your hotel and a cocktail.

Gibara

35km (22 miles) N of Holguín

A sleepy, charming early-19th-century provincial port, Gibara -- sometimes referred to as La Villa Blanca, or the White Village, due to its one-time whitewashed appearance -- is home to a number of fine colonial-style buildings. The town, today a modest fishing village, has great scenery overlooking a wide natural bay, and a very tranquil atmosphere. Two pretty little beaches and a Malecón (promenade) line the picturesque bay, and inland is the Silla de Gibara, a flat-topped mountain that locals claim is the hill described by Columbus when he first happened upon Cuba (it is much more probable that he landed in Baracoa, much farther east of here, and that the mountain described in his journal is El Yunque).

On the top of Los Caneyes hill are the ruins of an old fortress, which protected merchants involved in trade with Europe and the U.S. (a 30-min. walk up the hill rewards hikers with excellent views of the town and bay). Trade soon diminished with the introduction of the railroad, and the fortunes of Gibara suffered, leading to an exodus of a significant portion of its population. Gibara's moment in the sun is still reflected in the handful of grand mansions and public buildings.

The main plaza is marked by an attractive yellow church with red-tiled cupolas and African oak trees. Of greatest interest is the Museo del Arte Colonial Cubano, Independencia 19 (tel. 24/3-4687), housed in an impressive neoclassical house constructed in 1872. The sumptuous mansion, which once belonged to an elite merchant, features huge mediopunto stained-glass windows, yellow and blue tiles, and quality period furnishings. Another attraction in Gibara is the Museo de Historia Natural, Independencia, between Luz y Caballero and Peralta, which contains a collection of diurnal and twilight butterflies and a smattering of natural oddities. Both museums are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm, Sunday from 8am to noon; admission is CUC$1.

In 2003, Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solas chose Gibara as the site for his first Festival de Cine Pobre (Poor Film Festival; tel. 7/55-3657 in Havana; www.cubacine.cu/cinepobre), a film festival dedicated to independent and low-budget filmmaking. The festival is held each year in late April.

For all intents and purposes there's no public transportation available to tourists connecting either Holguín or Guardalavaca to Gibara. This is just as well, since it is quick and convenient to take a taxi there and back for around CUC$30 to CUC$40. Gibara is also featured as a day trip by most of the tour operators in Guardalavaca.

Cayo Saetia

130km (81 miles) SE of Guardalavaca

This pristine cay, on the eastern side of the Bahía de Nipes, isn't terribly easy to get to, but if isolated and totally unpopulated sugar-white cove beaches and wild game are of interest to you, it might be worth the effort. This erstwhile exclusive game resort was once the private stomping and hunting grounds of Cuba's military and political brass. The cay has an exceptional roster of flora and fauna, which includes not only deer and wild boar, but also a wild collection of exotics such as antelopes, ostrich, water buffalo, and zebras. Most excursions include snorkeling, boat rides, jeep safaris, horseback riding, and lunch on the beach. While this place is billed as an eco-tourist get-away, this seems to include stalking semi-captive and imported game under the rubric of "eco-tourism." There's only one hotel on the cay, Villa Cayo Saetía (tel. 24/9-6900; www.gaviota-grupo.com), with just a dozen simple, yet tasteful rooms and cabanas. Cayo Saetía is about 90 minutes from Guardalavaca by jeep and just 20 minutes by helicopter (the preferred method of transport). Contact Gaviota Tours (tel. 24/42-5350), which runs the place, or any of the hotels or travel agencies in Guardalavaca.

Banes

A slow-moving, dusty little town about 30km (20 miles) southeast of Guardalavaca, Banes is best known for its unlikely association with the towering figures of 20th-century Cuba. Fulgencio Batista, whose government the rebels deposed in 1959, was born here in 1901. Fidel Castro and his brother, Raúl, were born nearby in Birán. The hotels and tour operators in Guardalavaca arrange guided excursions to Banes, though if you wish to go independently, you could easily do so by rented moped or taxi.

Fidel married the daughter of the conservative mayor of Banes in 1948 at the small Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, on a plaza at the edge of the park. (They divorced 6 years later.) Of perhaps greater significance in town is the Museo Indocubano , Av. General Marreo 305 (tel. 24/8-2487), specializing exclusively in Cuba's pre-Columbian history. Its collection is among the best in Cuba; among the 20,000 items or so, exhibits include fragments of ceramics, jewelry, tools, and a valuable 13th-century gold "idol of Banesa," just 4 centimeters high. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm, and Sunday from 8am to noon; admission is CUC$1.

Tucked into the hills of the Banes zone are 96 archaeological sites from the Native American groups that once populated the area. Museo El Chorro de Maíta (Maíta's Stream Museum) , Cerro de Yaguajay (tel. 24/3-0421), represents the largest and most important discovery of a Native American cemetery in Cuba. The community dates from 1490 to 1540. The burial ground contains the remarkably well-preserved remains of 108 Taíno men, women, and children (62 are on display), including a single Spaniard, most likely a friar, whose body is marked by a cross. A cacique (tribal chief), lying in a fetal position, is distinguished by a copper medal placed on his shin. Several skulls are deformed, a beautification practice that involved applying two pieces of wood to the head with ropes. Found among the remains were Spanish ceramics and jewelry and objects crafted from gold, copper, coral, and quartz; many are displayed in cases. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm, Sunday and Monday from 9am to 1pm. Admission is CUC$2; it's CUC$1 extra to take photographs, CUC$5 for video.

Across the street from the Museo El Chorro de Maíta is Aldea Taína (tel. 24/3-0422), a re-creation of a native Arawakan Indian village that features models of native dwellings and life-size, clay-figure Native Americans performing quotidian tasks. It manages to summon the cultural practices of a long-extinct culture. The highlight for most visitors is the live show, organized through any of the local tour operators, of Native American dances and rituals, performed by "native" women going, well, native. On the village premises is a restaurant featuring some items that were staples of the Taíno diet. The village is open daily from 9am to 5pm; the live show is Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday at 8:30pm. Admission to the village is CUC$3 (CUC$1 extra for photos, CUC$5 for video).