Cienfuegos Province
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© Lonely Planet Publications 261 CIENFUEGOS PROVINCE Cienfuegos Province Bienvenido (welcome) to Cienfuegos province – or should that be Bienvenue? If Cuba has a Gaelic heart, it’s hidden here in the lee of the crinkled Escambray Mountains; and if it has a Paris, it is enshrined in the finely sculpted provincial capital that glistens like a polished pearl beside the island’s best natural bay. While Cuba’s Gaelic infusions have traditionally come via Haiti, Cienfuegos’ lineage is traced back to Louisiana in the US and Bordeaux in France. Undaunted by fickle weather and impervious to the squalid conditions, the original French colonizers arrived in 1819. They brought with them the ideas and manners of the European Enlightenment, which they industriously incorporated into their fledgling neoclassical city with creativity and zest. The setting helped. Caught dramatically between mountains and sea, the province’s south- ern coast is a minirainbow of emerald greens and iridescent blues that reaches its apex at El Nicho, an outpost of the Topes de Collantes Natural Park, and a fine place to cool off after a strenuous jungle hike. Lapped by the warm Caribbean, the surrounding shoreline is flecked with coves and caves, while out at sea teeming coral reefs beckon at Guajimico. Though ostensibly white, Cienfuegos’ once-muted African ‘soul’ gained a loquacious mouthpiece in the 1940s and ’50s in one of Cuba’s most versatile musicians, the incom- parable Benny Moré, a great-great-grandson of a king of the Congo who hailed from the small provincial village of San Isabel de las Lajas. Emerging from a brutal slave history, Moré wasn’t Cienfuegos’ only Afro-Cuban improviser, and close by in the settlement of Palmira, a handful of Santería brotherhoods continue to keep the traditions and beliefs of Cuba’s hybrid Catholic-Yoruba religious culture alive. HIGHLIGHTS Graveyard Fascination View the classical finery in Cienfuegos’ two monumental cemeteries ( p266 ) Benny in Lajas Track the legend of Benny Santa Isabel Moré in Santa Isabel de las Lajas ( p270 ) de las Lajas Punta Life Stay in an amazing casa particular in Cienfuegos’ classic Punta Gorda Cienfuegos neighborhood ( p267 ) Punta Gorda Cooling Down Hike to bracing El Nicho ( p272 ) and cool down in an invigorating Rancho El Nicho waterfall Luna Beach Break Stay in a cool hotel next to the beach in Rancho Luna ( p271 ) TELEPHONE CODE: 043 POPULATION: 398,569 AREA : 4180 SQ KM 262 CIENFUEGOS PROVINCE •• Cienfuegos lonelyplanet.com 0 20 km CIENFUEGOS PROVINCE 0 12 miles 81º00'W 80º30'WTo Matanzas 80º00'W Manguito (134km) Encrucijada Santo Domingo M a t a n z a s Carretera V i l l a C l a r a Calimete P r o v i n c e 22º30'N P r o v i n c e Central 22º30'N CIENFUEGOS PROVINCE To Playa Esperanza Girón (113km); Autopista Nacional Havana (182km) ují Cartagena Santa Clara Dam El Salto Carretera Ranchuelo Río Santa Isabel Central Aguada de de las Lajas Pasajeros Congojas Autopi Rodas Cruces Balneario Paradero de sta Ciego Montero Camarones Abreus Nac Cienaguita Ariza Espartaco io Canal de Potrerillo nal Soplillar Yaguaramas Catorce de Julio See Cienfuegos Area To Sancti ` Constancia Map (p272) Palmira San Fernando Spíritus (62km) de Camarones Embalse Avilés Caunao Barajagua Cienfuegos Jaime Guaos Manicaragua González Cumanayagua Bahía de Airport Pepito Tey El Salto del El Rincón Cienfuegos San Antón Hanabanilla Playa Juraguá Girón Arimao Embalse La Milpa Crucitas Hanabanilla El Nicho Caleta Buena Punta Sierra del Jibacoa Mangles Punta Gavilán Escambray 22º00'N La Sierrita 22º00'N Alto Pico de Ensenada de Punta Itabo Valle de San Juan Mangles Altos Punta Diablo Yaguanabo (1156m) Villa Guajimico Cueva Martín Topes de Hacienda Collantes El Naranjo, La Vega Infierno C A R I B B E A N La Punta Arriba S a n c t i S E A Villa Yaguanabo S p í r i t u s Boca de P r o v i n c e Yaguanabo Caleta de ὄ Iznaga Muñoz Trinidad Casilda 81º00'W 80º30'W 80º00'W History sporadic services to Santa Clara and Havana. The first settlers in the Cienfuegos area were The province’s smaller towns can be reached Taíno Indians who called their fledgling prin- via truck, local buses or your own wheels. For cipality, Cacicazgo de Jagua – a native word shorter distances, consider a taxi. for ‘beauty.’ In 1494 Columbus ‘discovered’ the Bahía de Cienfuegos (Cuba’s third-largest CIENFUEGOS bay, with a surface area of 88 sq km) on his pop 139,137 second voyage to the New World and 14 years La ciudad que más me gusta a mí (the city I later Sebastián de Ocampo passed by during like the best), reads a billboard on the Bahía his pioneering circumnavigation of the island. de Cienfuegos quoting the words of native With the onset of the era of piracy in the 16th singer Benny Moré. He wasn’t the settlement’s and 17th centuries the Spanish built a bayside only cheerleader. Refined, elegant, genteel and fort, the imposing Castillo de Jagua ( p272 ), hassle-free, Cuba’s so-called Perla del Sur one of the most important military structures (Pearl of the South) has long seduced travelers on Cuba’s south coast. from around the island with its enlightened French spirit and feisty Caribbean panache. If Parks & Reserves Cuba has a Paris this is most definitely it. Parque El Nicho in the Escambray Mountains is Arranged around a calm natural bay, managed by the state tourist company Gaviota Cienfuegos is a nautical city with a superb as an outpost of the Topes de Collantes Natural waterside setting. Founded in 1819, it’s one Park in adjacent Sancti Spíritus province. of Cuba’s newest settlements, but also one of its most architecturally homogeneous, a factor Getting There & Around that earned it a Unesco World Heritage Site The city of Cienfuegos is linked to Trinidad listing in 2005. Geographically, the city is split and Havana by twice-daily Víazul buses. The into two distinct parts: the colonnaded central train service out of the city is less reliable with zone with its elegant Prado and salubrious .