Santiago de Cuba-Holguin
Perched on eastern Cuba, the travel destinations of Santiago de Cuba and Holguin have features of their own, gorgeous scenery and superb conditions for taking on different and enticing adventures.
There are tours with guides around the travel circuit connecting these two provinces that give visitors the possibility of enjoying lovely beaches, lavish nature and great relaxation in top-quality four-star and five-star hotels.
The advantage of having these two Cuban destinations so close from one another, coupled with the chance of having jetliners land on both of them, make vacation planning much easier for anyone.
SANTIAGO: THE MOST CARIBBEAN-LIKE CITY No wonder it's called the most Caribbean-like of Cuba's big cities. That's Santiago de Cuba, a gem of eastern Cuba that's blessed with a rich blend of races and cultures and values hard to find anywhere else: warm people always willing to give a helping hand, and a historic and cultural heritage worth taking a long glance at.
Santiago de Cuba is by far Cuba's second-largest city, cradle of heroes and battleground of too many historic struggles, birthplace of such musical genres as son and bolero. Moreover, it has a privileged geographical location bathed by the Caribbean Sea and featuring an eye-popping bay where the village was first founded in the early 16th century.
Wandering the city and discovering charm after charm is any traveler's delight. Here you can gaze at a burg that goes hand in hand in perfect harmony with the sea and the mountains, breathtaking landscapes that melt into the metro area, the natural and marine scenery all at the same time.
Santiago is no doubt a genuine city marked by uneven street layout, spruced up with huge windows and small balconies that match its many architectural styles.
In Santiago de Cuba, as in no other place in Cuba, the mixture of Spanish, African, French and Haitian civilizations stands out. French prints in Santiago's folklore are pretty visible, while the Orpheum Santiago, of Catalonian origin, is the top example of the city's choir-singing tradition.
The city boasts such landmarks as the Casa Granda Hotel, the secular house of Diego Velazquez, and the former Arms Square –now renamed Cespedes Park- that embraces the heart of the city's cultural and social life.
In its own historical and cultural heritage, this city has too much to offer and too many things to look at. There are some must-sees like the Emilio Bacardi and Rum museums, the Granjita Siboney, the former Moncada Barracks, the Marte Plaza and the Santa Ifingenia Cemetery.
And to top it all off, Santiago is blessed with lavish nature. Down to the south and on to the west, tourists find the Baconao Park. Bathed by the Caribbean Sea on one side and hedged with the Sierra Maestra mountain range on the other, this is a visit you just can't pass up.
The Valle de la Prehistoria (Stone Age Valley) is an example of good imagination. Over 200 real-size animals have been carved in rocks and nearly brought back into life by a group of outstanding artists: reptiles, elephants, deer and even a 40-foot-tall Cro-Magnon have been closely watching this spectacular environment since 1983.
The Baconao Lagoon, one of the country's largest with little more than three square miles, shows off the exact spot where the lake flows into the ocean. Several watchtowers and a tourist trail known as Nature's Landscape help tourists make out this beauty from several points in the surroundings.
Water troughs and seed pots for birds make the scenery twice as much genuine. Pelicans, seagulls and countless species from Cuba's tropical forest abound here.
Santiago is a place where beauty and elegance are present everywhere you look around. The tropical exoticism of the Cactus Garden is simply immeasurable. The Baconao Seaquarium, mostly inhabited by marine life hailing from the island nation, is quite another allure that packs a wallop. Here, the dolphin tank is the star of the show.
Moving farther to the southeast, countryside views, scuba diving sites, trails and comfy hotels perched on hillsides are way too many.
These two gems of Cuba's geography are spanned by an 85-mile-long stretch. Santiago de Cuba and Holguin are ready to give travelers the charms of a striking city and the divine details of jaw-dropping nature.
THE CITY OF PARKS If visiting Santiago de Cuba is an experience to remember, the same feeling overtakes tourists when they set foot on Holguin, a burg known as The City of Parks.
The first impression is that of having arrived in a peaceful place teeming with cultural traditions that hides fabulous beaches and top-flight hotels and resorts just a few miles away from the downtown area.
Holguin offers tours to the Provincial History Museum –a.k.a. La Periquera- the Marqueta Plaza Cultural Center and Loma de la Cruz (The Cross Hill), the city's watchtower of choice that can be climbed by car. For hikers and trekkers, there a steep 458-step staircase carved in the rock that was built between 1927 and 1950.
While in Holguin, you'll surely hear about the Iberian American Cultural Party and the Mayflower Festival, two events that come around every year.
Holguin is also the hometown of some of Cuba's major artists, like pianist Frank Fernandez and son crooner Faustino Oramas, nicknamed El Guayabero. Other cultural elements this province is proud of are the lyrical performing arts, a fabulous ballet company and its own symphonic orchestra.
The San Isidro Cathedral and the Church of San Jose are two sightseeing spots equally sought after by visitors. The former, built in 1720 and sporting a neoclassic style, was home to the first Mass officiated in Holguin. The Church of San Jose, for its part, still flashes dregs of an ancient Moorish style and was erected in the 1820s. The belfry is one of its main attractions.
But the one thing that really tells this piece of eastern Cuba apart is its array of outdoor spaces, breathtaking spots like Pinares de Mayari, Saetia Key, Sierra Cristal and Cerro de Mayabe.
A Taino village replicates the kind of peaceful and laborious lifestyle that Christopher Columbus found here when he arrived in 1492. Beaches of warm, crystal-clear water –perhaps the best picture-perfect foreshores of the entire Caribbean Basin, like Esmeralda, Playa Pesquero and Guardalavaca- are waiting just for you. The latter is particularly gorgeous, with a shell-shaped cove that packs a punch of its own. And fishing, scuba diving, sailing and other nautical sports never stop.
Saetia Key juts out from above Nipe Bay, Cuba's largest natural gully. This 16-square-mile islet has turned out to be a safe haven for dozens of animal species. Approximately 65 percent of the surface is covered by woods, while the rest of the lands feature huge prairies.
Another place worth paying as visit to is Pinares de Mayari, penciled in as a natural relic that stands tall some 1.968 feet above sea level. The key preserves nearly 300 endemic bird species that flutter up and down rapid-laden rivers and amazing waterfalls that splash into natural ponds of fresh and see-through water.
Before wrapping up a stay in this part of Cuba, there's no better choice than a stop at the Alejandro Humboldt Nature Park, declared World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and considered by and large the most complete and best-preserved ecosystem of the whole insular Caribbean. Believe me when I say God's hand once touched this part of the earth, probably when the Lord was thinking of Eden.
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