Yes, friends, I never tire of repeating it whenever I talk about the subject: you travel through the fabulous La Farola mountain viaduct towards Baracoa, in the extreme eastern Cuba, with your soul in suspense and dazzled eyes, before the exciting abysses that borders the road and the beauty of the landscapes that follow one another, with a predominance of splendid vegetation covers for about 30 kilometers of winding ascent, which at times dizzy.
Inaugurated on July 26, 1965, in order to facilitate communication by land with the previously isolated Villa Primada de Cuba, the first founded by colonization on August 15, 1511, it integrates the so-called Vía Azul, which links it withthe city of Guantánamo, capital of the homonymous province, to which it belongs.
Arriving at the point named Las Gúsimas, this highway, one of the most relevant engineering works of its kind in Cuba, begins its difficult journey through the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa Massif, from south to north. Its construction required Herculean work and effort, casting a plate flown over the precipice, supported on its protruding part by thick concrete piles driven into the rock.
They had to set up tube factories and prefabricated plants next to the work, which made parts for bridges and culverts, beams, boards and protective railings. All this speaks of the very high technical and professional level of the personnel in charge of such a company.
From the executing workers to the professionals on site, they were challenged time and time again by nature and geology, and yet they emerged gracefully with ingenious, quality solutions that protected the lives of the workers. As of February 1997, by mandate of the Civil Engineering Society of the National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba (UNAICC), the La Farola viaduct is on the list of the Seven Wonders of Cuban civil engineering.
The traveler on a tour to the Farola is suggested to make a brief stop at the Mirador de Cotilla, an enclave from where you can admire beautiful panoramas of this region that, being the most humid in Cuba, has an incomparable green vegetation, shady forests and pleasant mountain climate.
Not to mention the end of the story, at the end of the road: the wonder of knowing Baracoa.
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