Holguín Province

© Lonely Planet Publications 359 Holguín Province With native sons as polar opposite as Fidel Castro and Fulgencio Batista, it’s no surprise that Holguín is a region of extremes, and if you delve a little deeper you’ll find a few more. There’s the pine-scented purity of the Sierra del Cristal versus the environmental degradation of the HOLGUÍN PROVINCE Moa nickel mines; the tranquility of Cayo Saetía versus the bustle of the provincial capital; or the inherent Cuban-ness of Gibara versus the tourist swank of Guardalavaca. Outside its dazzling north coast resorts, few non-Cubans know much about this hard- working but hard-to-fathom province. It’s a sad, if excusable, oversight. Native Holguiñeros have been ruling over Cuba since 1934 (Batista-Castro-Castro). Not bad for a province that only registered its first city in 1752 and, until the late 1950s, was a virtual fiefdom of the American-owned United Fruit Company. Holguín’s beauty was first spotted by Christopher Columbus who, by most historical accounts, docked here in October 1492, describing the region’s broccoli-green forests and shapely coastal hills as the ‘most beautiful land he had ever laid eyes on.’ Timeless and benevolent in their mystery, the hills are still here, though the forests were cleared long ago by United Fruit and other sugar-hungry plantation owners. In more recent times sprawling resorts have sprung up along the coast forming three distinct enclaves – Guardalavaca, Esmeralda and the superposh Playa Pesquero. Further south the hills become craggier before giving way to the purple-hued Sierra del Cristal, a fresh-scented alpine-flavored wilderness where an adventure-seeking Castro roamed as a child. Pine-clad and bursting with wild orchids, the area around the Parque Nacional La Mensura guards a mountain research center and the island’s highest waterfall. HIGHLIGHTS Gibara View from the Cross See Holguín spread Museo Chorro de Maita out like a map beneath you from the Loma Parque Nacional Monumento Bariay de la Cruz ( p365 ) Holguín Columbus Rediscovery Get an eyeful of Finca Las where Columbus first landed in the Parque Manacas Nacional Monumento Bariay ( p373 ) Taíno Artifacts Visit one of Cuba’s most important archaeological sites at Museo Chorro de Maita ( p375 ) Casa del Comandante Take a peep behind the mask at Fidel’s childhood home, the Finca Las Manacas ( p380 ) Film Festival Go to Gibara in April for the cutting-edge Festival Internacional de Cine Pobre (see boxed text, p372 ) TELEPHONE CODE: 024 POPULATION: 1.04 MILLION AREA : 9300 SQ KM 360 HOLGUÍN PROVINCE •• History lonelyplanet.com HOLGUÍN PROVINCE 76º30'W 76º00'W Punta Covarrubias Playa La Herradura See Guardalavaca Area Map (p374) ὄὄὄBahía deὄBahía de ὄ Malagueta Chaparra Marañón Playa Caletones Uno Lora Puerto Playa Pesquero Padre Playa Jesús Menéndez Bahía de Blanca Bahía de Gibara Bahía Naranjo Guardalavaca Gibara Playa Los de Vita Yaguajay Bajos Playa Cañadón Velasco Blanca L a s T u n a s ὄὄὄὄὄὄὄCuatro ὄ P r o v i n c e Palmas Floro Loma del Fray Rafael Freyre El Retrete Pérez Cedro Benito (Santa Lucía) 21º00'N San Andrés Banes Los Pasos Aguas Claras To Las Tunas Cortaderas (23km) Macabí Holguín Embalse Bijarú Bahía de Las Biajacas Tacajó Buenaventura Embalse Banes HOLGUÍN PROVINCE Carretera Central Gibara Presa Charco Tacajó ὄὄDeleite Güirabo Frank País Prieto Airport Motel Mirador Antilla de Mayabe Bahía de Nipe Mir Guatemala Antonio Maceo Báguano Herrera Cacocum La Caridad Tacamara Santa Isabel de Nipe Mayarí Central Naranjal Cueto Río G r a n m a etera May Río Cauto Urbano Noris Finca Las Salto del P r o v i n c e Carr Manacas Guayabo arí Marcané e ip Cauto Birán N e Loma de la Embalse Cristo d Cauto e Mensura Alto Cedro i del Paso ic (995m) Cauto n a 20º30'N l Babiney Dos Ríos Río p i t Villa Pinares l Parque del Mayarí Carlos Manuel A Natural Las Palmas Farallones de La Mensura de Céspedes Embalse Protesta Seboruco Caves Airport de Baraguá Mella Bayamo Jiguaní Mabay S a n t i a g o d e C u b a To Santiago de Cuba (40km) El Horno Santa Rita Baire P r o v i n c e Barranca Contramaestre 76º30'W 76º00'W History was bought up and cleared of forest by the Most historians and experts agree that US-owned United Fruit Company. Formerly Christopher Columbus first made landfall part of the Oriente territory, Holguín became in Cuba on October 28, 1492 at Cayo Bariay a province in its own right in 1975. near Playa Blanca, just west of Playa Don Lino (now in Holguín province). The gold-seeking Parks & Reserves Spaniards were welcomed ashore by Seboruco Holguín’s mountainous southern region is Indians and they captured 13 of them to take protected in the Sierra Cristal and La Mensura back to Europe as scientific ‘specimens.’ National Parks. Rocazul is a small bio-park Boycotting Bariay in favor of Guantánamo 20 near Playa Pesquero. years later when they set up their new colonial capital in Baracoa, Spanish explorer Diego Getting There & Around Velázquez de Cuéllar gifted the hilly terrain The city of Holguín is well served by Víazul north of Bayamo to Captain García Holguín, a buses, trucks and slower trains heading to Mexican conquistador. The province became Havana, Santiago and all the main cities in an important sugar-growing area at the end between. Gibara and Banes can be reached of the 19th century when much of the land by less comfortable local buses or trucks. .

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