Guajimico
Villa Guajmico is a lovely resort, spread out on the hillside overlooking a sheltered bay on one side and the sea on the other. It, like every other hotel we visited, is in need of investment in maintenance and repairs – but certainly acceptable, especially for kayakers and divers. (Guajimico, too, is a diver center.)
Guajimico’s recreation director, Meylin, joined us to learn about kayaking.
We paddled along the coast to a lovely small bay where we snorkeled...
Lago Hanabanilla
The next day our bus took us through the rolling countryside and small towns to Lago Hanabanilla – a man made lake/reservoir in the Sierra del Escambray (the mountains in the centre of Cuba). The lake was created in 1961 and is used for power generation and municipal water supplies. We launched near the Hanabanilla Hotel and paddled down the lovely lake.
We passed putt-putt boats (again I wondered about make-and-break engines) ferrying people around the lake which, apparently, is one of the primary bass-fishing lakes of the world.
Our destination was a lake-side restaurant operated by the Hanabanila Hotel. There we played in the water and, with mattresses provided by the hotel, set up camp in the restaurant. This was perhaps our most delightful accommodation of the trip….all the benefits of being in the open air and being served dinner and breakfast by the restaurant staff!
The next morning we made our way down to the boats...
and launched...
for a lovely, gentle, paddle around the shoreline of lake Hanabanilla, to the mouth of the Hanabanilla River.
From there, we paddled up the river, taking out at the bottom of a path ...
that makes its way between small farms and a small village to the road to El Nicho Waterfalls.
On the way we met a ox cart...
El Nicho Falls is a popular tourist spot. The path is serviceable...
The garbage bins are recyclable - made of banana leaves...
The Falls (of which there are several levels) are splendidly lovely...
and the bathing is refreshing...
Being a prime tourist spot, privately-owned restaurants have sprouted in the small village near the Falls...
and cars (taxis?) line the side of the road at lunch time.
We had a delightful lunch in one of the private restaurants...
On our way to the Falls, we had seen coffee trees planted in the shade of larger trees. On our walk back to the boats we saw coffee beans being dried on an expanse of concrete and loaded into sacks...
The small farm on the other side of the River (whose owner watched our boats while we visited the Falls) boasted several pigs and a rowboat...
More boats were pulled up along the River bank...
Lake Hanabanilla is surrounded by limestone
“mountains”...
Inside one area, there is an
enormous cave, which has been mapped for 40 km!
The cave was used by the Guerrillas during the Revolution and we saw evidences
of the caches dug out of the floor of the cave for storage. Inside the cave there are interesting formations (and evidence of large stalactites and stalagmites which, presumably, were broken off when the cave was used for military purposes).
A view out of of the mouth of the cave gives some indication of its size...
The Falls and the trip on Lago Hanabanilla ended our trip.
I think I can speak for all of our group in saying that this was a wonderfully rich introduction to Cuba that makes us want to return, see more, learn more and dig deeper into enjoying what Cuba has to offer.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
For those interested in further information about Cuba, I found the following useful
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
For those interested in further information about Cuba, I found the following useful
brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2013/11/cuba%20emerging%20entrepreneurs%20middle%20classes%20feinberg/cuba%20entrepreneurs%20middle%20classes%20feinberg.pdf
permaculturenews.org/2011/06/29/a-lesson-for-our-future-the-cuban-experience/
iCloud Remover Keygen is a very good and very famous program that can help to move your all iPhone data to your iCloud account and safe it from loss. To stimulate the Find my iPhone feature on your iPhone, be sure to are logged into the Apple device with your Apple Identification and Security password, and then transform it on from Adjustments. If you work with your own computer and want to bypass the confirmation step in the near future, click Trust. If these devices you are deleting has iOS 8 or later, go into a telephone number and message.
ReplyDeleteThanks for Sharing such an amazing article. Keep working... Your Site is very nice, and it's very helping us.. this post is unique and interesting, thank you for sharing this awesome information
ReplyDeleteaadhaar card update | SSUP