CubaPLUS Magazine

CubaPLUS wanted to be different and choose to present you the most splendid bays in Cuba because that concept contains beauty and fame and, furthermore, in the Pearl of the Antilles.

Each of the more than 200 coastal enclaves with that classification are very beautiful and when you are in one of them you think that there is no other more beautiful. With more than 5,700 km of coastline and more than 4,000 keys and islets, this explains the prodigy of nature in our archipelago.

Thus, getting down to business, today we will make an exclusive selection of 5, between open and stock. We would like to point out that many emblematic cities and important ports were forged at the foot of incomparable Cuban bays, almost as a rule. See examples below.

We open to the west, with the Bay of Havana, on whose side the capital -Ciudad Maravilla- was born on November 16, 1519. It is a typical stock market, sheltered and considered since ancient times as one of the safest in America. It immediately became a port and shipyard for famous shipbuilders and a supplier to the Spanish commercial and armed fleet.

So many years after those events and without a port function today, its blue and clean waters continue to be a splendid vision, escorted by the Castle of the Three Kings of Morro, the Cuban flag and the International Navigation Lighthouse. It tells us with this that symbolically it continues to be the gateway to the Historic Center of San Cristóbal de La Habana, a World Heritage Site.

More than a beautiful vision that pleases the retina at any time, it is closely linked to legends of corsairs and pirates, the heroism of their sons in defense and the prosperity and progress of the town and the entire country.

Continuing along the northern coast, heading to the East, we will pass to the Bay of the city of Matanzas, in this case an open geographical feature and a mirror of clear waters into which the beautiful rivers of the so-called City of Bridges flow, and with pride The Athens of Cuba, since a very notable cultural movement grew in that urban center in the 19th century. Matanzas was the birthplace of famous poets such as José Jacinto Milanés and Carilda Oliver Labra, and the Santiago bard José María Heredia, the first Latin American romantic, lived there.

The natives love their bay, which they manage to maintain in good health, even with nearby port and industrial functions and the operation of a large base of supertankers.

To the south and center of Cuba, the attractive Bay of Cienfuegos stands out, classified as a stock market. At its feet, in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, grew Cienfuegos, also called the Pearl of the South, a city founded by French colonizers in the 19th century, which soon knew how to advance economically and culturally. In the surroundings of its blue aquifer, a strong sanitary deployment is maintained for its care, due to the economic activities that are carried out there, as an active port that it has always been. The view of the small fortress of Fernandina de Jagua Castle is beautiful. It has 50 points, 20 inlets and 14 keys, including Cayo Carenas, Ocampo and Alcatraz. You can admire different points of a charming city, with multiple attractions and eclectic architecture with a rationalist layout.

Heading towards the East, but returning to the north coast, almost at the point of turning around the easternmost end, we will find the beautiful and peculiar Bay of Baracoa, also a bag. Our Lady of the Assumption of Baracoa was the First City of Cuba, founded by colonization on August 15, 1511. Surrounded by the characteristic elevations of that beautiful region of Cuba, famous for its jungle forests and abundant waters, the very famous Yunque de Baracoa stands out in the view of the maritime mirror, a hill with a flattened and long top- and the small city, the most tropical in the Island, where the aboriginal footprint is fascinating, its people are golden and its nature is magnificent, with great biodiversity.

Our imaginary browsing takes us, without fail, to another bay of national royalty, that of Santiago de Cuba, the most Caribbean of our urban emporiums and the second most important city on the Island, to the south of the Cuban eastern end, near the majestic Sierra Maestra. It is the most typical of the bag bays, with a narrow neck. Its very intense blue waters and very warm temperatures belong to the Caribbean Sea, and make up the seductive landscape, with the mountains in the distance and as a neighbor of its guardian, the fortress of San Pedro del Mar and the city of Santiago de Cuba, whose historical value and cultural treasure are jewels of the nation, sculpted by its inhabitants, the most hospitable beings in the world.

We say goodbye informing that many Cuban bays are escorted by the best preserved coral reefs in the Caribbean and in them you can practice, prior coordination with competent entities, unforgettable diving excursions, like wrecks caused by the remains of the Spanish fleet ked by Admiral Cervera, sunk by theUS army in 1898. Nearby are the deepest waters that surround the Cuban archipelago.