A shrine of nature
The green hues of Vueltabajo have no match across Cuba. A mountain range runs through the territory, divided in landscaping mosaics; the biodiversity makes it a perfect spot to gaze at a prodigious nature. Variety, fragrances and colors gave way to one-and-only ecosystems. An environment worth visiting where you feel like unearthing the real and the marvelous.
Throughout history, Pinar del Rio locals have been marked by kindness and, above all, hospitality. Their natural, hardworking, bustle-free and unpolluted lives –devoted to a humble rural existence- bear out to a great extend the long life these hicks live.
Photographers enjoy a pleasant stay. Everyday, they try to capture the exclusiveness of images through the lenses of their cameras. It's a delight those willing to live in or go out on vacations in an ambience blessed with a prodigious nature just can't turn down.
The love of tobacco planters has made Pinar del Rio the stronghold of the world's best tobacco, and their roots hark bark long before the discovery of America. Experience and expertise guarantee this blend of an art handed down by previous generations in which the erudition of a toilsome job goes beyond the pure technical know-how and pans out to be a trade forged under the sweltering sun and the pouring rain.
In this province of only 4,220 square miles, natural and socio-cultural values stand out. In the face of so much singularity, UNESCO okayed several management categories: two Biosphere Reserves and a World Cultural Landscape. Cuban authorities, for their part, have declared a couple of National Parks, several monuments labeled under the same category and have implemented the existence of a number of protected areas under different management categories, something not seen in any other province of similar size.
It's just magic to be surrounded by seas. To the north, the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Down to the south, the warm Caribbean Sea. To the west, the sea that runs between the province and the Yucatan Peninsula, and to the east, the fertile reddish lands of the Havana province. Its geographical location makes Pinar del Rio the tip of the key to the Americas.
Add the rich wildlife, its medicinal mineral waters, the country's biggest cave, the famous valleys hemmed in by round-top hills, the assortment of endemic plants and its breathtaking waterfalls. All of this caught under the moonstruck spell of an interesting history, the history of a place that harbored the first islanders and runaway slaves who found shelter in its coastlines, mountains and caverns. Today, the dregs of that history are living examples of a primitive heritage: human remains, food leftovers, pieces of old-timed musical instruments and cave paintings that illustrate a supreme creation in a world of magic and religion.
The passage of aristocratic families that built a world marked by the aroma of coffee grains, with ingrained traditions and cultural habits, left a footprint in the ruins of farming and domestic compounds, in the rubbles of French-style coffee plantations along the Sierra del Rosario mountain range.
The existence of tropical-style vernacular and classic architecture in each and every speak volumes of the refinement, modernity and ingenuity of the people of Pinar del Rio.
The weather is balmy and mild at the same time, without reaching the high temps of eastern Cuba or the freezing cold of the Havana-Matanzas plains. Its average temperature of 25 degree Celsius lays bare the kind of everlasting summer this province has. The months of July and August are by far the hottest, while January and February take the cake when it comes to cold weather. Summer afternoons are rainy, especially up in the mountains, keeping the greenish hues that mark this sun-setting neck of the woods.
That's why the invitation to know the marvelous natural world of Cuba's westernmost province is so thrilling.
The chirp of nightingales accompanies the orange-reddish arch that trumpets daybreak. The haze stretches out all across the southern plains and touches the Guaniguanico mountain range, moistening everything. A gorgeous spectacle lies before our very eyes where the feeling of floating on the clouds gives new moxie to the spirit. As the sun rises up in the sky, other natural elements meet the eye, elements that remain hidden in early-morning silhouettes and pretend to be extraordinary and many-shaped figures. The sight is then exposed and one of Mother Nature's most fantastic creations pops up.
“The transition from the lowlands to the mountains comes all of a sudden, chiefly from the Mendive sugar mills all the way to Candelaria in the south, revealing an extreme curve that runs into Los Palacios. As you drive out of Guanajay, from the windward shoreline of Mariel down to the tableland or plains that end up in Jabaco or the Zaya Hill, you understand the need to explore those mountains.
That's how Cuban novelist Cirilo Villaverde described his encounter with the Sierra del Rosario mountain range in his book “Tour to Vueltabajo (1838-1839). That's exactly the same impression all travelers get as they move closer to the setting sun, leaving behind the province of Havana. They eyes stumble on the silhouette of the eastern tip of the Guaniguanico mountain range that resembles an array of pyramids trapped in a vast lowland that marks the beginning of the Pinar del Rio province. Once there, you've driven into a mosaic of unforgettable scenery.
The region is made up of a sequence of plains, highlands, valleys and mountains that combine for a picture-perfect image. As you close in on that area, you catch sight of the first peaks in the northwest, known for centuries as El Taburete (1,486 feet) and El Salon (1,784 feet), the highest is the region.
Walking up into the sierra must be done through a crevice where the force of nature –helped by the Pedernales Creek- makes the journey to the central valley a breeze. The lushness and the green hues take the gaudiness of the forests a notch up, underscoring the red bark of the mastic tree (Bursera simaruba, Lin.), the white shades of the tall royal palms (Roystonea regia, Cook.), the green-and-white tops of the handsome yagruma (Cecropia peltata, Lin.) combined with the red-and-yellow flowers of the majagua (Hibiscus elatus, Sw.) and the olive green tone of the Cuban fir (Calophyllum antillanum, Britton.). There's no better landscape for meditation.
Floral diversity is clinched by 889 higher trees, over 281 shrubs –nearly 11 percent of them are endemic. In some specific spots, like Las Peladas, endemism reaches up to 34 percent of all species due to the huge number of primary plants. Given its delicate beauty and abundance, the mullein (purple Bletia) is the token of the reserve. The mullein is a miniature ground orchid whose purple flowers give the surrounding vegetation a touch of distinction.
The mildness of the local weather includes up to 90 inches of rainfall every year, high humidity (in the neighborhood of 80 to 85 percent) and average temps hovering 24 degrees Celsius that favor the existence of tropical evergreen woods.
In the central valley, the chirpy waters of the San Juan River slither down the hillsides of El Taburete and El Salon. A bunch of small waterfalls and natural pools, whose origins are traced back in a fault that stands between the mountains and the southern lowlands, are worth stealing a long peek at.
Geology is an open book that lays bare the evolution of the territory, even when its pages are not well ordered. Nonstop tectonic trembles created a chaos that can be seen today in rocky formations. There are rocks in this region that are over 150 million years old (Jurassic). Others are much younger, with only 10 million years under their belts (Miocene). In all, they are easily spotted for being sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, giving travelers the possibility of watching a diversified stone composition.
Moving westward down the central valley, you reach El Cusco, home of the zigzagging waters of the Bayate River. This watercourse is fed by a mesh of tributaries, some of them featuring several permanent springs, like the medicinal mineral waters of the Santa Catalina spring, great for god health and beauty.
To the north, the amazing peak of El Mulo (1,384 feet) stands tall. Up from its pinnacle, you can stare at both the north and south shorelines, bathed by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, respectively. The jaw-dropping sight is rounded up by the wavy northern plains that run down all the way to the seashore. Turning the eyes on the southern portion reveals a superb wall of peaks that hems in the valley and leads up to this natural watchtower, to the tectonic-fluvial canyons and the whole panorama of the southern lowlands. Both to the east and the west, the neighboring peaks are spotted. The hillsides are covered by one of the best-preserved forests teeming with tree-climbing ferns (Cyathea arborea, Smith.), old-timed shrubs of up to 32 feet high or taller. The wildlife is dominated by the flight of the long-tail hawk (Accipiter gundlachi), the tocororo (Piloterus tennurus) –Cuba's national bird- the ever-fluttering hummingbird (Cholorostilbon ricordii), the miniature size of the cartacuba (Todus multicolor), flocks of bijiritas, the familiar Pinar finch (Tiaris canora), the toilsome royal woodpecker always thumping on the trunk of palm trees. In addition to these easy-to-spot birds, there are motley butterflies everywhere.
In those areas where limestone rocks are commonplace, it's so easy to page down numerous species of mollusks in an assortment of shapes and colors. The Sachrysia rangelina, Emoda sagrariana, Helicinas sp., the eye-popping Vianas sp. and many others. To the north of the mountains, you'll find the jutia conga (Capromys pilorides) and the jutia carabali (Capromys prehensilis), two mammals protected by law that have been the source of food for those who have roamed these lands since the dawn of mankind. The zone's most important reptile is the water lizard (Anolis Vermiculatus), a token of the local rivers and the eastern mountains of Pinar del Rio.
Northwest from El Mulo Peak, visitors hit upon one of the unknown hydrographic gems of Cuba's geography: the waterfalls of the San Claudio River, a watercourse that flows into the northern seas off Pinar del Rio. As it slithers down the mountains, the river makes ponds and natural pools that invite visitors to take a swim in the summer. Its regular course is suddenly cut off by an 85-ft-high waterfall and several small rapids that flow into a big natural pool. The entire waterfall curtain drapes down limestone rocks, forming small hollows.
As a caretaker that watches over the northern coast, El Rubi (1,404 feet) is one of the region's best-known heights. It abuts the mouth the San Francisco River, whose watercourse has carved an amazing stone canyon, and Las Carabelas, whose vertical walls seem to have been hacked off by an ax. An array of small rapids and waterfalls that jump into ponds of crystal-clear water lures many to take a skin dip.
The tributary of the San Francisco River –running between the ruins of the former San Carlos and La Ermita coffee plantations, makes up a chain of higher waterfalls that jump from up to 164 feet. The place was nicknamed the Young Niagara back in the 19th century.
Traipsing more to the southwest, Las Delicias Peak juts out. From one of its heights, trekkers may visit a restored Buenavista coffee plantation. Providing a bird's-eye view of both the valley and the Mariel bay, far to the north of Havana, the place is crowned by the Esperon Sierra. From that viewpoint where La Tahona is located, the chair-shaped El Taburete Peak is perched on the other side of the landscape, right next to Las Peladas Heights.
Clambering to the northwest and moving beyond the coffee plantation, visitors may make out the picturesque scenery of Las Terrazas community, alighted in the heart of the valley where gaudiness and conspicuous designs make up a weird yet harmonic contrast in a natural backdrop.
Español
English
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
Русский