Matanzas, Cuba
Tourism Information
Matanzas should be approached by car so you can see the
amazing features of its landscape. When you leave behind the
Tunnel of Havana, a coastal highway begins, linking the
capital with this province only 100 kilometers away.
A first stop is the bridge of Bacunayagua, from which you
can enjoy a privileged view of the Yumurí Valley, a
150-meter-high natural amphitheater surrounded by mountains,
considered by many to be among the most impressive
landscapes in Cuba, bathed as it is by the rivers Yumurí and
Bacunayagua. The pleasant climate, abundant vegetation and
severe landscape offer a unique setting for the most
appropriate way to relax and eliminate the tensions of
modern life, by means of programs for the treatment of
stress, asthma, obesity, and hypertension, as well as
tourist programs especially designed for senior citizens.
The city of Matanzas lies next to a bay of calm waters and
above undulating hills that cross three rivers. Since its
founding in 1693, the city has had several nicknames: “
Sleeping Beauty”, “the Venice of Cuba”, for its bridges, and
“the Athens of Cuba”, since it is a community of poets.
The sugar industry and the city’s excellent harbor have
fostered intensive trade that has made Matanzas rich and
learned. A trip to Matanzas is not complete without a number
of important stops: at the Pharmaceutical Museum, the only
one of its kind in the Americas; the Sauto Theater (1860);
the Palacio de Junco, headquarters of the Historical Museum;
the Cuevas de Bellamar, three thousand meters of galleries
and halls adorned by stalactites, estalagmites and
helictites in capricious horizontal ways; and the Ermita de
los Catalanes, with its 12 bridges and attractive squares.
The visitor must also check out the city's intense and
varied cultural life.
However, perhaps the most famous site in Matanzas is
Varadero, the Blue Beach of Cuba, about 2 hours by road from
Havana, or a few minutes by air. Green, white and blue are
the main components of its beautiful landscape.
Internationally known for its transparent seas, where you
can walk for meters and meters in soothing shallow waters,
it features 23 world-renowned diving areas as well as
numerous restaurants, cabarets and nightclubs, bars,
facilities for water and land sports, golf courses, and
hotels for every taste. Varadero also is the focal point for
more than 10 virgin islets and marine floors offering over
40 types of coral, a wide variety of fish, lobsters, shrimp,
crabs, sea-tortoises and more than 70 types of mollusks.
During the 19th century, seamen used to do repairing and
caulking on its shores, and thus the beach became known as
varadero, from the English careen. These ocean navigators
discovered in Varadero a remote, quiet place created by
indescribably beautiful beaches.
It was only during the 1950s that new construction projects
began to spread, featuring vacation homes built for their
owners so that they might rest during extended holiday
periods.
Now Varadero is the undisputed tourist capital of Cuba and
its most sought-after beach site, featuring almost 20
kilometers of surprising sands and a hotel industry in full
development. Of course, we also mustn’t forget the nights of
color and music and dreams shared over exotic cocktails and
first-class seafood, all of which make Varadero a permanent
attraction, an invitation to come back, especially since
coming back means returning to a beach unlike any other.
But Matanzas is still more. The city of Cárdenas is a place
you won’t want to miss. Small and peaceful, it was the first
town in Cuba to use electricity for public needs and the
country’s second railroad ran along its streets. Here you
will find the first mausoleum erected in honor of the “mambises”
(Cuban freedom fighters in the War of Independence), and
Cuba’s most famous building, La Dominica, today a National
Monument, where the Cuban flag was raised for the very first
time. A city of horse buggies and bicycles, you can see it
all on two wheels and visit its museums or the statue of
Christopher Colombus, the first such monument erected on
Cuban soil and inaugurated by the great Cuban poetess,
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. Cárdenas is a historical
city, full of curiosities and details and smiles.
Montemar Natural Park is another of its worthwhile tourist
options. Located on the Zapata Peninsula, it is
characterized by endless blue beaches, exotic forests,
rivers, lakes, flooded caverns, natural pools, unbeatable
sea bottoms, virgin areas, typical marshland savannas, and
30% of Cuba’s indigenous fauna, including 171 species of
birds, 18 of them endemic. The park is one of the country’s
richest zones for ecological tourism, as well as for hiking,
bird watching, game photography, all types of scuba diving,
trekking, boat rides and other water and land sports.
Here you will find Playa Larga, the geographical center of
Montemar, with its 400 meters of warm waters, excellent
sands, coral reefs, natural trails and the International
Bird Watching Center, a starting point for all sorts of
contemplative activities, by day or by night. Also featured
are Caleta Buena, a unique formation on the coast, shaped
like a small bay; the Salinas de Brito, where in the winter
you can observe up to 165 avian species; the Cueva de los
Peces, the greatest flooded cave in Cuba; Playa Girón and
its International Scuba Diving Center with easily accessible
sites located less than 80 meters away, a rich natural
environment for hiking and other types of ecotourism; the
Criadero de Cocodrilos (Crocodile Farm); and the Guamá
Tourist Resort, unique in the Caribbean because it is home
to a life-size replica of a Taino village, showing Cuba’s
first inhabitants carrying out their daily activities. Guamá
is located among twelve small islets linked by a system of
channels and bridges, in Cuba’s largest natural lagoon, a
site that is also ideal for fishing and sailing. All these
wonders are showcased at the Montemar Natural Park, one of
those places that nature has created with a special touch,
making it a favorite Caribbean destination. Montemar is
green and blue, a world of birds and fish and coral, an
ideal destination for those who dream about idyllic places.