CubaPLUS Magazine

It took its name due to the abundant presence of quartz crystals in the foothills of its mountains and is one of the wild areas ecosystems with the greatest biodiversity in the country, no less than on properties close to the famous Cuchillas del Toa, with almost jungle vegetation.

It has been named Sierra Cristal National Park, Protected Area and Pico Cristal Natural Park and extends for just over two square kilometers of  wild areas undulating and profusely forested territory along the northeast of the province of Holguín. It could be said that the forest and the mountains are their insignia. Precisely its Pico Cristal, at 1,231 mts. high, the steepest of that group, is a reference for its great landscape beauty and highlights a mountain range somewhat overshadowed by the powerful Sierra Maestra, its closest neighbour to the south of the east, the oldest of the whole country.

famousAnother more specific location establishes that Sierra Cristal is part of the rugged geography of the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa massif, and although its altitude is not impressive compared to other famous  chains in the world, its slopes are especially steep, resembling beautiful towers. The municipalities of Mayarí, Frank País and Sagua de Tánamo always have been famous for the forest wealth they possess and their beautiful landscape. It is a region endowed with plantations of precious wood species, generally well supplied with water, which caused that on one date in 1930, it was declared a protected area at the national level.

On the other hand, it houses the so-called Pico Cristal Natural Park, around its steepest mountain, an environment of varied and very healthy fauna. The profuse vegetation cover helps maintain a fairly warm climate. nice for an island located in the hot tropical belt of the planet. The Pico Cristal area covers the municipalities of Mayarí, Sagua de Tánamo, Frank País and Segundo Frente, from the provinces of Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. Regarding its vegetation cover, we add that pine trees abound, in its Cuban species. There operates a research center created in 1988 in Pinares de Mayarí, where the ecology of the region. When in 1998 the intensive work of collecting data on the biota of the Sierra Cristal National Park, the importance of that location as a bastion of biodiversity and endemism of the island.

This effort gave way to an academic project and to outlining actions of support for the conservative and protectionist effort. At that time, 220 species of plants, 53 spiders, mollusks and 28 amphibians, 19 reptiles, 51 birds, and three species of mammals report the highest number reported in mountain vegetable beds. It was quite an event at that time the sensational discovery of ann only living specimen of Almiquí, called Solenodon Cubanus, an insectivorous animal endemic to Cuba and believed to be extinct.

This was a male and its rare survival reinforced hopes of finding other natural wonders considered lost. Other examples of the same species, similar to a large rat or badger, an animal that could measure up to 50 cm and the plump body was covered with dark brown or black fur, with an elongated snout. The latest sightings of almiquíes were produced in Baracoa in 1974.