Matanzas' gateway and any of its access points a city founded in 1693 by thirtysomething families from the Canary Islands lay bare a view whose beauty will forever live out the visitor's memory. Therefore, this is the starting block for my journey. Back to this gorgeous city of bridges as it's traditionally been known I catch sight of the bay, a wide and beautiful gully keeping to itself the secrets of wreckage and treasures still lying untouched in the bottom of the sea.

I hit the streets and cross the former La Concordia Bridge today called Lacret Bridge whose supporting props have evolved into city symbols. It's true that especially when the twilight shroud covers the town, Matanzas resembles a sleeping bride, as some sensitive spirituals once put it in allusion to the silhouette of nearby Loma del Pan (Bread Hill), the region's highest mountain and a source of inspiration for local poets.

The city appears to be floating in the sunset haze, beautiful in its consubstantial serenity. The next bridge ahead of me is named after Calixto Garcia, one of our most honorable patriots. I watch it from a lower ground, for Matanzas' terrain is marked by constant ups and downs along the way. Now I grasp the inspirational lightning that struck our romantic poet Jose Jacinto Milanes, who resting over his elbows on the bridge wrote a poem entitled just like that, “Over My Elbows On The Bridge.” I'm confident that my rediscovery trek will let me be a bornagain woman right here, in my American Venice. Yet, I must wait for the break of dawn.

Vigia Square I'm standing now in Vigia Square, gazing at its classical architectural style. This was the city's firstever Arms Square laid out as the town was founded. Its surrounding buildings stand for genuine portrayers of the burg's historic and cultural values. Thus the higharched porches running alongside Vigia, the former Esteban Theater today the Sauto Theater the Firefighter Station, the Customs Office turned into the Palace of Justice in the 20th century and the Palace of Junco.

The Sauto Theater, a gem of the neoclassical architecture and acoustical technology that has staged presentations by outstanding national and international figures of the performing arts, rises before my eyes with the grandeur of its tradition. Opened on April 6, 1863 and designed by Italian architect Daniel D'allaglio, Matanzas' Sauto Theater is now a National Monument.

I traipse down Vigia's historic porticos now sporting the city's art gallery next to the Vigia publishing workshop specialized in putting out highly artistic books.

Also in the square, the Palace of Junco opened in 1959 is housed in a palace home built in late 1830.

I saunter through the threshold and I suddenly stop before a kind of small glassed showcase keeping what I consider one of the most unique curiosities of all: a couple of Yucatan's fleas dressed in bride gowns that can only be seen through a magnifying glass. I think of my hometown as a city of contrasts with surprises lurking every step of the way. Thus, right on the premises and after admiring that miniature piece of Mexican craftsmanship, I schlep into the breathtaking Jasmine Patio where a monumental statue of King Fernando VII is waiting just for me. The museum's halls and its oneandonly pieces take me for ride into the city's history and culture, two elements that have both panned out to be turning points for the island nation's development.

Matanzas' Cathedral I walk on to the Matanzas' Cathedral, standing majestically and splendidly tall with its many architectural, material and spiritual values. Construction works finished in 1855 and today, regardless of the restoration it has undergone, it preserves its distinctive original features.

La Libertad Park or the Arms Square I get to La Libertad Square or Park, outlined as the new Arms Square circa 1800. The Marti Memorial Monument a combination of bronzecast sculptures that has also grown into a city symbol was unveiled here in 1909.

As time rolled on, its surroundings were bricked by some of the city's major buildings like the Artistic and Literary Lyceum (currently the Jose White Concert Hall), where danzon, Cuba's national dance, was officially presented in 1879. Another case in point is the Spanish Casino, now housing the Gener y Del Monte Provincial Library. Apart from it numerous halls, this library ranked among Cuba's oldest book depositories embraces a valuable collection of newspapers and magazines. Other buildings such as the Louvre Hotel, the Velasco movie theater and the French boutique amount to a perfect complement to the environment.

For me, the boutique is really something to be proud of. Today, I pause to stare at its treasures. Everything preserved in its original location and disposition, showing off a unique gem of its kind for the whole world to see. The boutique was reinaugurated as the Pharmaceutical Museum back in 1964.

Indeed, there's a long way of enjoyment to go within the city's boundaries, but I feel upbeat. I guess there's plenty of time to do it in a different way.

Bellamar's Caves I should now head to the mystical Bellamar's Cave, unearthed in 1861 by Asianborn Justo Wong as he was digging out limestone rocks in La Alcancia farm estate. Wonders of nature come my way in the form of stalactites and stalagmites whimsically shaped according to the eye of the beholder. This is no doubt a beautiful place further embellished by a halo of legends. The caves lead to the country's major cavern park deployed all along the coastline. The late afternoon is closing in and the day is getting hotter, but the eagerness to explore the essentials of my hometown, to have fun as I turn back time, makes me carry on.

The Monserrate Hermitage and the Yumuri Valley Now, I reach the Monserrate Hermitage, opened in 1875 as an expression of the economic might and main achieved by the Catalonians who had settled down in the city. The “Celebration of the Colla,” the pinnacle of a Catalonian tradition that has been kept alive through the years by the people, is held annually here.

This is the right spot providing the most comprehensive view of the spectacular Yumuri Valley, hedged with a typical Cuban nature of palm trees, hills and knolls of its own, the river, motley greenish shades. All of these elements immortalized in canvasses and oils by our painters flash now before my very eyes with a full display of artistic endurance.

Canimar Nature Park Before turning back home, I make up my mind to swing by the Canimar Nature Park, so I prowl to the river bearing the same name. From down there, I look up at the huge arched bridge and the features of a zone teeming with highpriced ecological values. The surrounding beauty hits me like a ton of lead, taking me at my wits' ends and setting all of my senses free. Here I wrap up my voyage's first round.

End of the first round Not far from there, El Morrillo juts out. This is a small fort built in the mouth of the Canimar River and now standing as a memorial museum. Next to it, Matanzas' Tropicana Cabaret is there with open arms to delight visitors with a magnificent show and many attractions as the city's primetimed nightclub.

There are still scores of places to feast eyes like mine on. Just to name but a few, the Palmar de Junco Ballpark, a national monument where the firstever baseball game was played in Cuba; the Church of San Pedro Apostle, an instance of the neoclassical style; the Castle of San Severino, one of our local national monuments concluded in 1734; the majestically long and high Bacunayagua Bridge, one of Cuba's seven wonders of construction engineering; the city's legendladen streets brimming with history... Undoubtedly labeled as Cuba's Athens thus proclaimed in the 19th century as a result of its mighty cultural development the city treasures unfathomable natural and spiritual surprises. Today's local poets, painters, musicians and artists who were handed down their ancestors' vitality, try painstakingly to keep very much alive the old splendor that bestowed so precious a nickname on the city. Now, after feeding on the city's essentials and following the revival of times that seemed to be buried, I invite you to take a grand tour around my hometown for you to grapple with its poetry, those metaphors highhandedly blended with its people's daily lives.