Havana Province

       

   PLAYA JIBACOA AREA
   JARUCO
   SURGIDERO DE BATABANÓ
   SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BAÑOS
   BEJUCAL
   ARTEMISA
   MARIEL


Other provinces have their swanky resorts and their historically compelling colonial cities. Havana province, on the other hand, has…er…well, yes, that’s the problem: Havana province doesn’t really have a lot. In actual fact, it doesn’t even have Havana!


So what can a poor boy/girl do? It all depends on your expectations and, to a lesser extent, your pace. If Cuba, for you, is an unending diet of flamboyant cabaret shows and hulking all-inclusive resorts, head east through Havana province to Varadero and don’t get out of the car. But, if you want a warts-and-all insight into the capital’s very real rural hinterland where the sight of a tourist is about as rare as a snow shower, then ease your foot off the accelerator and come to a grinding halt.


In fact, you might not even need a car at all. Havana province hosts one of Cuba’s greatest rural journeys, the slow jolting Hershey train that stutters and clangs its way to Matanzas through a series of dusty hamlets and cheerful one-horse villages that would have long been swallowed up by sprawling suburbia in any other country.


Geographically speaking, the countryside surrounding Havana is the city’s giant vegetable garden. Within easy reach of the capital, a huge variety of crops are grown on the province’s fertile and predominantly flat terrain; everything from tobacco and citrus fruit, to sugarcane and grapes for wine (yes, wine!).


Of its numerous small hardworking towns, San Antonio de los Baños is easily the most interesting; a laid-back, quirky place that boasts a world-class film school patronized by Columbian author Gabriel García Márquez, and is the home of what must be Cuba’s most esoteric museum; the sardonic Museo del Humor. Havana province boring? You’re having a laugh.

HIGHLIGHTS

Getting There & Around

Despite its proximity to the capital, Havana province presents challenges in the public transport sphere. Plenty of Víazul buses pass through, but none make any scheduled stops here. Similarly the train system is slow, vague and pretty unreliable in this neck of the woods. An exception is the Hershey Electric Railway which, though often late, does generally pass five times a day through the east of the province. Adventurers can get acquainted with the hard-to-fathom local bus system, while those on a tighter schedule may wish to organize a taxi from the capital.

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PLAYA JIBACOA AREA

Playa Jibacoa is the Varadero that never was, or the Varadero yet to come – depending on your hunch. For the time being it’s a mainly Cuban getaway with a couple of all-inclusive resorts and a hotel-standard campismo thrown in for good measure. Punctuated by a series of small but splendid beaches and blessed with good offshore snorkeling, Jibacoa is backed by a lofty limestone terrace overlooking the ocean that offers excellent views and some short DIY hikes. Travelers with children will find interesting things to do in the surrounding area and the popularity of the region with Cuban families means fast friends are made wherever you go. The Vía Blanca, running between Havana to Matanzas, is the main transport artery in the area, although few buses make scheduled stops here making Playa Jibacoa a more challenging pit stop than it should be. Just inland are picturesque farming communities and tiny dusty hamlets linked by the Hershey Electric Railway.

Sights

Marking the border between Havana and Matanzas provinces is the Puente de Bacunayagua, Cuba’s longest (314m) and highest (103m) bridge. Begun in 1957 and finally opened by Fidel Castro in September 1959, the bridge carries the busy Vía Blanca across a densely wooded canyon that separates the Valle de Yumurí from the sea. There is a restaurant and observation deck on the Havana side of the bridge where you can sink a few drinks in front of one of Cuba’s most awe-inspiring views. Imagine dark, bulbous hills, splashes of blue ocean and hundreds upon hundreds of royal palm trees standing like ghostly sentries in the valley haze. Situated on the main road between Varadero and Havana, the bridge restaurant is a favorite stopping-off point for tour buses and taxis.

West of here is Santa Cruz del Norte, a relatively quiet and unassuming town despite the presence of a famous rum factory. The plant in question is the Ronera Santa Cruz, producer of Havana Club rum and it’s one of the largest plants of its kind in Cuba. Havana Club, founded in 1878 by the Arrechabala family of Cárdenas, opened its first distillery at Santa Cruz del Norte in 1919, and in 1973 a new factory was built with the capacity to produce 30 million liters of rum a year. There are currently no tours available.

A thermoelectric power station burning oil extracted from the coastal wells near Boca de Jaruco is just to the west. These and other oil fields west of Santa Cruz del Norte have been heavily exploited in recent years.

Five kilometers south of Santa Cruz del Norte is the former Central Camilo Cienfuegos sugar mill, once one of Cuba’s largest. Known as Central Hershey until 1959, the mill, which opened in 1916, once belonged to the Philadelphia-based Hershey Chocolate Company who used the sugar to sweeten their world-famous chocolate bars. An electric train track known as the Hershey Electric Railway (see the boxed text opposite) used to transport produce and workers between Havana, Matanzas and the small town that grew up around the mill. While the train still runs five times a day, the mill was closed in July 2002 in the economic restructuring of Cuba’s sugar industry. It now stands disused on a hilltop like a huge rusting iron skeleton.

Activities

The Jardines de Hershey ( 20-26-85) is a tract of land formerly owned by the famous American chocolate tycoon, Milton Hershey, who ran the nearby sugar mill. It’s pretty wild these days, with attractive paths, plenty of green foliage and a beautiful river, and this essentially is its charm. There are a couple of thatched-roof restaurants on-site and an all-pervading sense of peace and tranquility. It’s a lovely spot for lunch and a stroll. The gardens are situated approximately 1km north of Camilo Cienfuegos train station on the Hershey train line. Alternatively, if you’re staying in Playa Jibacoa, it’s approximately 4km south of Santa Cruz del Norte. The road is quiet and it makes a nice hike if you’re up to it.

THE HERSHEY TRAIN

‘Cow on the line,’ drawls the bored-looking ticket seller. ‘Train shut for cleaning’ reads a scruffy hand-scrawled notice. To Habaneros, the catalog of daily transport delays is tediously familiar. While the name of the antediluvian Hershey Electric Railway might suggest a sweet treat to most visitors, in Cuba it signifies a more bitter mix of bumpy journeys, hard seats and interminable waits.

Built in 1921 by US chocolate ‘czar’ Milton S Hershey (1857–1945), the electric-powered railway line was originally designed to link the American mogul’s humungous sugar mill in eastern Havana province with stations in Matanzas and the capital. Running along a trailblazing rural route, it soon became a lifeline for isolated communities cut off from the provincial transport network.

In 1959 the Hershey factory was nationalized and renamed Central Camilo Cienfuegos after Cuba’s celebrated rebel commander. But the train continued to operate, clinging unofficially to its chocolate-inspired nickname. In the true tradition of the postrevolutionary ‘waste not, want not’ economy, it also clung to the same tracks, locomotives, carriages, signals and stations.

While a long way from Orient Express–style luxury, an excursion on today’s Hershey train is a captivating journey back in time to the days when cars were for rich people and sugar was king. For outsiders, this is Cuba as the Cubans see it; a microcosm of rural life at the sharp end with all its daily frustrations, conversations, foibles and – er – fun.

Seemingly stopping at every house, hut, horse stable and hillock between Havana and Matanzas, getting off is something of a toss-up. Beach bums can disembark at Guanabo and wander 2km north for a taste of Havana’s rustic eastern resorts. History buffs can get off at Camilo Cienfuegos and stroll around the ruins of the old Hershey sugar mill. The rest can choose between Playa Jibacoa, Arcos de Canasí and the beautiful Valley of Yumurí.

For more information on train times, stations and prices, Click here.

Puerto Escondido Cubamar ( 866-2524; Carretera Panamericana Km 80) has a smallish water sports center at Puerto Escondido, 1.5km off the Vía Blanca, 7km east of Arcos de Canasí. It offers scuba diving at the usual price of CUC$30 per dive and two-hour snorkeling trips for CUC$10 (four-person minimum), both including gear. Deep-sea fishing is also available.

There is good snorkeling from the beach facing Campismo Los Cocos, and heading westward along the coast you’ll find unpopulated pockets where you can don a mask or relax under a palm.

Although technically in Havana province, Ranchón Gaviota ( 61-47-02; admission incl meal CUC$8; 9am-6pm), 12km inland from Puerto Escondido, is usually incorporated in day trips from Matanzas and Varadero and approached via a pretty drive through the palm-sprinkled countryside of the Valle de Yumurí. The hilltop ranch overlooking a reservoir offers horseback riding, kayaking, cycling, plus a massive feast of ajiaco (meat stew), roasted pork, congrí (rice with beans), salad, dessert and coffee. To get to the Ranchón from Havana province take the inland road for 2km to Arcos de Canasí and turn left at the fork for another 10km to the signpost.

Sleeping & Eating

Campismo Los Cocos (Cubamar; 29-52-31/-32; s/d CUC$17/28; ) The newest and, arguably, the plushest of Cubarmar’s 80 or more campismo sites, Los Cocos has facilities to match a midrange three-star hotel and a beachside setting that emulates the big shots in Varadero. Ninety self-contained super-modern cabins are clustered around a dazzling pool set in the crock of Havana province’s low step-like cliffs. Facilities here include a small library, a medical post, an à la carte restaurant, a games room, rooms for disabled travelers, and plenty of walks and trails that disappear off into the surrounding hills. The only downside is the blaring poolside music – par for the course in Cuban campismos it seems. The campismo is also a fully equipped campervan site. As always it’s best to book ahead with Cubamar (Click here) first.

Villa Loma de Jibacoa (Islazul; 29-53-16; 1-/2-/3-/
4-bed apt CUC$38/40/60/70; ) This hotel stands on a hill overlooking a small beach near the mouth of the Río Jibacoa, just off the Vía Blanca. The perfect place for a family or group beach vacation, it is actually 13 individual houses of one to four rooms each sharing a TV, fridge and bath. As each one is different, you should look at a few before deciding – not always possible at this popular, heavily booked place.

Cameleón Villas Jibacoa (Gran Caribe; 29-52-05; s/d all-inclusive CUC$70/100; ) A little to the east of Campismo Los Cocos, this friendly, well-landscaped resort with great snorkeling and large (if dated) rooms offers good bang for your buck. It’s marketed as a three-star and is popular with package tourists from Canada.

SuperClub Breezes ( 29-51-22; s/d all-inclusive CUC$151/242; ) Just east of Cameleón Villas Jibacoa, SuperClub Breezes is Jibacoa’s one and only swanky choice, a beachfront place that exhibits more panache than Playas del Este but less pretension than Varadero. Laid out in front of a choice nook of sandy beach, guests here are accommodated in attractive two-story bungalows that sit amid a tranquil mélange of blooming flowers, leafy gardens and trickling fountains. SuperClub also has a reputation for good food, entertainment and activities. Children under 16 are not accepted. Coming from Matanzas, the turn-off is 13km west of the Bacunayagua Bridge.

Eating is a grim prospect over this way unless you’re in a hotel. There are a couple of dodgy bars around selling microwave pizza. Striking up a friendly conversation with the locals pulling in their fishing nets and arranging a meal might yield better results.

Getting There & Away

The best – some would say the only – way to get to Playa Jibacoa is on the Hershey Electric Railway from Casablanca train station in Havana to Jibacoa Pueblo (Click here for times). There’s no bus to the beach from the station and traffic is sporadic, so bank on hiking the last 5km; a not unpleasant walk as long as you haven’t got too much gear. The electric train also stops at Arcos de Canasí, but that’s still 6km from the beach and it’s not a good walking road.

Another option is to take crowded bus 669 from outside Estación La Coubre (Desamparados), just south of Havana’s Estación Central, to Santa Cruz del Norte. Unfortunately, this bus only operates three times a day and you’d still have to taxi it 9km further east to Jibacoa. Your best bet is probably to go to the Havana bus station and take any bus headed for Matanzas along the Vía Blanca. Talk to the driver to arrange a drop-off at Playa Jibacoa, just across a long bridge from Villa Loma de Jibacoa.

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JARUCO

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Jaruco, set back from the coast halfway between Havana and Matanzas, is a good day trip for travelers with a car/moped/bike who want to give the beaches a body-swerve and capture a bit of quintessential rural quiescence. The Parque Escaleras de Jaruco, 6km west of Jaruco village, is a protected area featuring interesting forests, caves, limestone cliffs and a high degree of endemism, and a gander along its hushed unmarked lanes via the small village of Jaruco can make for a highly satisfying scenic sojourn. It’s 32km to Jaruco from Guanabo in a southeasterly direction via Campo Florido, and you can make it a loop by returning through Santa Cruz del Norte, 18km northeast of Jaruco via Central Camilo Cienfuegos.

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SURGIDERO DE BATABANÓ

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Spanish colonizers founded the original settlement of Havana on the site of present day Surgidero de Batabanó on August 25, 1515, but quickly abandoned it in favor of the north coast. Looking around the decrepit town today, with its ugly apartment blocks and grubby beach-less seafront, it’s not difficult to see why. The only reason you’re likely to visit this fly-blown port is to catch the daily boat to the Isla de la Juventud. Should there be an unforeseen delay, the patchy Museo Municipal (Calle 64 No 7502; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun, closed Mon) will kill 15 minutes. If the wait continues, wander over to La Playita (Small Beach) 2km east of the dock, where there’s a selection of little eateries selling fried fish by a tiny beach.

If desperation strikes and you need to overnight, your options are limited to the four-story unlisted Hotel Dos Hermanos (Calle 68 No 315), an old 29-room peso hotel looming near the port and train station with bad plumbing and the odd bug.

Fidel Castro and the other Moncada prisoners disembarked here on May 15, 1955, after Fulgencio Batista granted them amnesty.

SUGAR – A BITTER-SWEET HISTORY

As synonymous with Cuba as Che Guevara or Havana Club rum, sugarcane was first introduced onto the island by the Spanish in the early 1500s. With its flat rolling plains and fertile limestone soil, the colony quickly provided ideal growing conditions for the new crop and within decades sugar had become Cuba’s leading export.

During the 17th and 18th centuries Cuba played second fiddle to French Haiti as a world sugar producer. But, following Toussaint L’Ouverture’s 1791 slave rebellion, the pendulum swung inexorably west as thousands of exiled French planters arrived on the island, bringing with them their advanced business know-how and pioneering agro-industrial techniques.

In the two centuries that followed, Cuba metamorphosed from nascent regional sugar economy into the world’s biggest exporter with a huge influx of African slaves pushing production through the roof and making vast fortunes for a new class of wealthy landowners.

But the sonic boom wasn’t to last. Devastated by the two independence wars in the late 19th century, when huge swathes of cane fields were summarily razed, the industry faced ruin as production fell into a seemingly terminal decline.

Fatefully, it was only a temporary blip. Pulled out of the mire in the early 1900s by profit-hungry American businessmen who bought up struggling Cuban mills and land on the cheap, sugar’s unlikely comeback was as dramatic as it was sweet.

Cuba’s second big sugar high took place between 1915 and 1920 when the world sugar price hit $0.22 per pound and annual production peaked out at over four million tonnes. Enormous amounts of money were made almost overnight in an era that became known as the ‘Dance of the Millions.’ Havana reaped the economic benefits with a lavish public works program that saw the construction of such landmark buildings as the US$17 million Capitolio Nacional.

But Cuba’s over-reliance on its sweet-tasting mono-crop would come back to haunt it time and again. Following the 1959 Revolution, one of the first retaliatory acts of the US government was to cancel Cuba’s preferential sugar quota in response to Castro’s radical nationalization campaign. But the ‘punishment’ soon backfired. The next day the Soviet Union stepped in and bought up the US quota lock, stock and barrel, and a new 30-year Soviet-Cuban alliance was sealed in infamy right under Washington’s nose.

Sugar production in Cuba peaked in 1970 when a bumper all-or-nothing harvest hit nearly 10 million tonnes; but thanks to foreign competition, antiquated production techniques and the massive growth of the tourist economy, it’s been declining ever since.

In 2002, the government faced the music and shut down 70 of its 150 sugar mills in a drastic restructuring campaign. One notable casualty was the Camilo Cienfuegos (formerly Hershey) mill in Havana province Click here. Here, as in other sugar towns, laid-off workers have been offered graduate study programs and continue to draw their full state salaries (around 400 pesos a month). The aim is to raise the basic level of schooling among ex-sugar workers from ninth to 12th grade and enable them to find new employment elsewhere.

These days Cuba produces a more modest 2.5 million tonnes of sugar a year, and skeletal factories such as Camilo Cienfuegos stand like soot-stained reminders of another era.

Getting There & Away

The ferry from Surgidero de Batabanó to Isla de la Juventud is supposed to leave daily at noon with an additional sailing at 3:30pm on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (CUC$55, two hours). It is advisable to buy your bus-boat combo ticket in Havana from the office at the main Terminal de Ómnibus Click here rather than turning up and doing it here. More often than not convertible tickets are sold out to bus passengers.

There’s a Servi-Cupet gas station (Calle 64 No 7110 btwn Calles 71 & 73) in the center of Batabanó town. The next Servi-Cupet station to the east is in Güines.

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SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BAÑOS

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Full of surprises, San Antonio de los Baños, 35km southwest of central Havana, is Cuba on the flip side, a hard-working municipal town where the local college churns out wannabe cinematographers and the museums are more about laughs than crafts.

Founded in 1986 with the help of Nobel Prize–winning Columbian novelist, Gabriel García Márquez, San Antonio’s Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV invites film students from around the world to partake in its excellent on-site facilities, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool for practicing underwater shooting techniques. Meanwhile, in the center of town, a unique humor museum makes a ha-ha-happy break from the usual stuffed animal/revolutionary artifact/antique furniture triumvirate.

San Antonio is made all the more amenable by the inclusion of an attractive riverside hotel, Las Yagrumas, which offers a welcome escape from Havana’s frenetic pace. The town is also the birthplace of nueva trova music giant, Silvio Rodríguez, who was born here in 1946. Rodríguez later went on to write the musical soundtrack to the Cuban Revolution almost single-handed. His best-known songs include ‘Ojalá,’ ‘La Maza’ and ‘El Necio.’

Sights & Activities

San Antonio de los Baños has several attractive squares; check out the one with the old church at the corner of Calles 66 and 41. Nearby, the Museo Municipal (Calle 66 No 4113 btwn Calles 41 & 43; admission CUC$1; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat, 9am-noon Sun) focuses on art with important works by local born painter Eduardo Abela (1899–1965), a modernist who studied in Paris and rediscovered his homeland with nostalgia from his self-imposed exile.

More local work is displayed at the Galería Provincial Eduardo Abela (Calle 58 No 3708 btwn Calles 37 & 39; admission free; 1-5pm Mon-Fri) nearby.

Unique in Cuba is the side-splitting selection of cartoons, caricatures and other entertaining ephemera at the Museo del Humor (cnr Calle 60 & Av 45; admission CUC$2; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun). Among the drawings exhibited in this neoclassical colonial house are saucy cartoons, satirical scribblings and the first known Cuban caricature dating from 1848. Look out for the work of Cuba’s foremost caricaturist, Carlos Julio Villar Alemán, a member of Uneac and a one-time judge at the International Humor Festival still held here every April (entries remain on display for several weeks during this period).

A footbridge across the river next to La Quintica restaurant leads to a couple of hiking trails. Enjoy a drink in the bar, before sallying forth on a DIY adventure around the leafy banks.

Sleeping & Eating

The main shopping strip is Av 41, and there are numerous places to snack on peso treats along this street. You can change your money at the Cadeca ( 38-28-64; Av 41 No 6003 btwn 60 & 62).

Hotel Las Yagrumas (Islazul; 38-44-60/-61/-62; s/d CUC$30/40; ) Good enough to be listed as a town highlight, Las Yagrumas is situated 3km north of San Antonio de los Baños, overlooking the picturesque, but polluted Río Ariguanabo. With its 120 rooms with balcony and terrace (some of which face the river) it is generally considered to be one of Islazul’s better hotels and is, as a consequence, rather popular with peso-paying Cubans. Buffet meals are surprisingly good and table tennis, a gigantic pool and hilarious karaoke add to a pleasant family atmosphere.

La Quintica ( Tue-Sun) A local peso restaurant, situated just past the baseball stadium alongside the river 2km north of town. There’s live music Friday and Saturday nights (closed Monday).

Entertainment

Taberna del Tío Cabrera (Calle 56 No 3910 btwn Calles 39 & 41; 2-5pm Mon-Fri, 2pm-1am Sat & Sun) This is an attractive garden nightclub that puts on the odd humor show (organized in conjunction with the museum). The clientele is an entertaining mix of townies, folk from the surrounding villages and students from the film school.

Getting There & Away

Hard to get to without a car, San Antonio is supposedly connected to Havana’s Estación 19 de Noviembre (four trains a day), but check well ahead. Otherwise a taxi should cost you 50 centavos a kilometer.

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BEJUCAL

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Though hardly a tourist town in the Varadero sense; tiny Bejucal is famous for two reasons.

Firstly,, there’s the jubilant Charangas de Bejucal, a cacophonous cross between Santiago’s Carnaval and Remedios’ Parrandas that takes place every December 24. As in the Parrandas, the town splits into two groups, La Ceiba de Plata (the Silver Ceiba) and La Espina de Oro (the Golden Thorn), who hit the streets laughing, dancing and singing among outrageously large, dazzling floats and the famous Bejucal tambores (drums). The Charangas date back to the early 1800s when the parading groups were split between creoles and black slaves. The racial distinctions no longer exist.

ASK A LOCAL

Cuba was the sixth country in the world to get a train system and the first in Latin America. Its rail network even preceded that of colonizing power, Spain. It remains the only country in the Caribbean with a fully functioning passenger train system.

Jorge, Havana

Bejucal’s second claim to fame is its role in the development of the Cuban railway system. Latin America’s first ever railway line opened on November 19, 1837, running between Havana and Bejucal. The original station is still here, although it underwent extensive renovation in 1882. The upper floor now serves as a Railroad Museum (Calle 7 & Línea de Ferrocarril; 8am-4pm Mon-Fri, 8am-noon Sat) displaying the history of railways in Cuba.

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ARTEMISA

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Known locally as the Villa Roja (Red Town) or the Jardín de Cuba (Garden of Cuba), Artemisa, situated 60km southwest of Havana on the Carretera Central, is famous for the fertility of its soil that produces a rich annual harvest of sugarcane, tobacco and bananas. In days of yore the town grew wealthy on the back of the 19th-century sugar boom and until the 1970s was part of Pinar del Río province. If you’re passing, Artemisa contains two national monuments (listed below) along with a Museo Municipal (Martí No 2307; admission CUC$1) and a restored section of the Trocha Mariel-Majana, a defensive wall erected by the Spanish during the Wars of Independence.

Revolution buffs may want to doff a cap to the Mausoleo a los Mártires de Artemisa (Av 28 de Enero; admission CUC$1; 9am-6pm Tue-Sun). Of the 119 revolutionaries who accompanied Fidel Castro in the 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks, 28 were from Artemisa or this region. Fourteen of the men presently buried below the cube-shaped bronze mausoleum died in the actual assault or were killed soon after by Batista’s troops. The other Moncada veterans buried here died later in the Sierra Maestra. There’s a small adjacent museum containing photos and personal effects of the combatants.

The Antiguo Cafetal Angerona, 17km west of Artemisa on the road to Cayajabos and the Autopista Habana–Pinar del Río (A4), was one of Cuba’s earliest cafetales (coffee plantations). It is now a national monument. Erected between 1813 and 1820 by Cornelio Sauchay, Angerona once employed 450 slaves tending 750,000 coffee plants. Behind the ruined mansion lie the slave barracks and an old watchtower, from which the slaves’ comings and goings were monitored. The estate is mentioned in novels by Cirilo Villaverde and Alejo Carpentier, and James A Michener devotes several pages to it in Six Days in Havana. It’s a quiet and atmospheric place that has the feel of a latter-day Roman ruin.

The Artemisa train station (Av Héroes del Moncada) is four blocks east of the bus station. There are supposed to be two trains a day from Havana at noon and midnight, but don’t bank on it.

The bus station is on the Carretera Central in the center of town.

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MARIEL

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Mariel, 45km west of Havana, is known mostly for the 125,000 Cubans who left here for Florida in April 1980 (see boxed text,). Once you see it, you’ll want to flee, too. Founded in 1762, Mariel is a major industrial town and port with the largest cement factory in Cuba, a huge thermoelectric power plant, military airfield and shipyards. There’s also a new duty-free industrial zone adding to the action. It sits on the Bahía de Mariel at Cuba’s narrowest point, just 31km north of the Caribbean at Playa Majana.

After Moa in Holguín province, Mariel is Cuba’s most heavily polluted town. The filthy cement factory at Mariel once belonged to American cement producer Lone Star and was later run by the Mexican cement giant Cemex as a joint venture with the Cuban government.

The local Museo Municipal de Mariel (Calle 132 No 6926 cnr Av 71) is opposite the church at the entrance to town and, with its extensive coin collection, will enthrall bored coin collectors. A huge castle-like mansion, now a naval academy, stands on a hilltop overlooking Mariel.

THE MARIEL BOATLIFT

On April 1, 1980, Hector Sanyustic – a disgruntled Cuban dissident – drove a public bus through the fence of the Peruvian embassy in downtown Havana in an audacious escape bid. Despite being fired upon by guards in the street outside (one of whom was killed in the crossfire), Sanyustic and his four accomplices made it safely inside the embassy perimeter where they successfully claimed political asylum.

Hearing the news a furious Castro immediately demanded that Sanyustic and his colleagues be handed back to the Cuban authorities to be tried on charges of manslaughter. When Peru refused, Fidel, in a rare fit of pique, decided to remove the guards from the embassy gates and thus, unwittingly, usher in the biggest human exodus the island had ever seen.

Few observers – Fidel included – could have predicted the chaos that followed. As word of the new security arrangements quickly spread among other disaffected Cubans, the grounds of the Peruvian embassy filled up with over 11,000 Cuban refugees adamant to leave the island in the wake of a worsening economic crisis and an ongoing thaw in US-Cuban relations that had been orchestrated by the Carter administration.

With a major confrontation brewing, Castro did what he always does best: he passed the problem onto the US. On April 9, incensed at a comment by US president Jimmy Carter which had stated that America would ‘welcome the refugees with open arms,’ Fidel announced that the port of Mariel, 45km west of Havana, would be open to any Cubans wanting to leave, as long as they had someone to pick them up. Moving quickly to bail out their beleaguered compatriots, Cuban exiles in Miami and Key West resourcefully rustled up a Dunkirk-like flotilla of ships that was dispatched off to Mariel on a spontaneous rescue mission.

It was a lengthy and highly disorganized evacuation. Within weeks, the US had been inundated with Cuban refugees, many of whom – it later turned out – had been released from Cuban jails and mental institutions in a cynical bid by Castro to rid the island of its so-called ‘undesirables.’ Indeed, by the time the two governments finally ended the debacle in October 1980, the US had accepted approximately 125,000 Cuban immigrants from an estimated flotilla of 1700 dangerously overloaded boats. Twenty-seven people died during the sea crossing while over 2700 were denied asylum on the grounds that they were violent felons.

In the US the episode became known as ‘the Mariel boatlift’ and the refugee crisis that it created – along with the ongoing Iranian hostage affair – played a major part in Jimmy Carter’s diminishing popularity. Meanwhile, back across the water, Castro, in a shrewd act of damage limitation, embarked upon a series of fiery nationalistic speeches that lambasted the emigrants as lumpen (traitors) and vowed to continue defending the Revolution at all costs.

The Mariel boatlift is fictionally portrayed in the 1983 Brian de Palma movie Scarface, which starred Al Pacino in the role of Tony Montana, an unscrupulous cocaine-addicted marielito who is let out of a Cuban jail to run amok in Miami.

Twenty-two kilometers east of Mariel on the Autopista is Playa Salado, a popular beach that swarms with locals in summer, but is largely deserted at other times. The shoreline is rocky instead of sandy, but there are 15 dive sites offshore, most of which are utilized via excursion groups from Havana. A few kilometers east of Playa Salado is the more developed Playa Baracoa. This is mainly local turf rarely visited by tourists except for adventurers taking the slow road to northern Pinar del Río province or transfers using the area’s small airport (which handles flights to Cayo Largo del Sur). Big dudes near the shoreline lean on old American cars supping beer while fishermen throw lines from the rocky shore. There are a couple of basic beach shacks that sell food.


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