subject: Cuba Vacations: Along the coast and into the mountains of Holguin [print this page] Cuba Vacations: Along the coast and into the mountains of Holguin
From your hotel you can organize excursions, either for the inner province or by sea, as we said in the previous article. In this last case, the tours depart from the International Marina Puerto de Vita, to the West or to the East of the mentioned bay. In the first direction you visit Bariay, while Easterwards you find Chorro de Maita, the Natural Park Bahia de Naranjo (Orange Tree Bay) and the Indian Cuban Museum Bani. Besides, there are also open sea tours by catamaran to enjoy snorkeling in the coral reerf.
Holguin is one of the Cuban provinces with excellent conditions to enjoy diving. There is no much information about this modalty and only recently a little about it has been published. The province has terrific phisycal conditions to enjoy diving as a hobby or as a sport practice. Here you have the most important details about it in these places.
The West shore beaches of the province have beautiful coral reefs next to the coast, but not as long as those of the King's Gardens.
All the beaches are wonderful, particularly those known as Costa Verde (Green Coast). They are suitable for photography (hunting pictures), to practice this sport and to observe the underwater fauna, being remarkable the small colorfull little fish, crustacean, molluscs and corals. The waters are clean, extraordinarily transparent, with a lot of diving sites and all of it at a few meters from the coast.
There are centers to carry out practices related to the sea, located at Costa Verde and its sorroundings, particularly at Bahia Naranjo. Among them are the diving centers and the diving schools, the nautical spots and the Marlin Marina.
The diving centers count on experience proved divers who are excellent professionals being the instructors and guides for the visitors who are willing to practice it or initiate it. They are highly qualify, according to the ACUC (American Canadian Underwater Certification). The trip to the diving sites is made aboard especialized boats and with the best equipment.
Among the diving centers there are the Sea Lovers, the Eagle Ray and Coral Reef, located at Guardalavaca and Esmeralda beaches. Some of these centers offer the possibility of initiating this practice, while others allow you to visit diving sites where you can find capricious coral forms, vertical walls and caves, all of them can be explored if you are accompanied by a professional of the area. Beautiful species can be seen during these inmersions, among them black corals, crabs, octopus, lobsters, etc.
The initiation curses for begginers can be taken not only at the diving centers but also at schools established for this purpose at the mentioned beaches.
In Bahia Naranjo, International Yachting is offered with all the necessary comfort to practice it. At the nautical centers you can enjoy excursions by catamaran, kayacs, boats, water bicicles and practice sport fishing among others. For those who are not fond of sea adventures, there is the possibility of renting bicicles or motocicles, besides going horse riding.
These are all the options related to the sea that you can enjoy from any hotel. But you still have other ways of enjoying Cuban nature. If you look in your map, especialy pages 20 and 21, you see that towards the East the coast has bag bays (narrow entrance and wide interior) and the green areas are abundant to the inner land: the forests. They appear in two groups; one in the shore and the other to the interior, at the Nipe Sagua Baracoa Mountain Range.
If you like visiting the coastal forests and other nearby interesting places, you should go to Villa Cayo Saetia Hotel, while to go to the mountains you can reach the Managua Hotel (2*) in Moa. This last one is the nearest to the national parks Pico Cristal and Alejandro de Humboldt, so we suggest to stay in this hotel if you intend to visit both places.
Villa Cayo Saetia is located between Nipe (the largest in Cuba) and Levisa Bays, next to Mayari village, an excellent place to enjoy local nature. From Saetia to any of the hotels of Costa Verde Beach there are almost 120 km, about the same distance as if you were at Holguin city. The sorroundings of Saetia are also known from the tourist point of view as Cayo Saetia Natural Park. The roads to get there are in good shape and there are signs, but you always consult your road map.
If you are interested on historical monuments, we recommend to visit Biran village, where you find the family house where Fidel, Raul and all the other members of the Castro family were born. The house had been restored and it is an example of the typical chalets of wooden bungalows of the middle of the 20 century. It preserves several articles and other interesting elements of that time. To get there, you should arrive in Santa Isabel 2 town and from there, go to Cueto and then to Biran. To come back you should go to Santa Isabel de Nipe and continue to Cayo Saetia. This is almost 64 additional kilometers.
The last section of the road to Cayo Saetia is interesting for it is between the Nipe and Levisa Bays, as we said before, crossing a narrow ism. This place, in the Geography books, was known before as the Entresaco peninsula, although this name is no longer used. Cayo Saetia is its current tourist name. The Cayo Saetia Villa is classified 4 stars. Do not forget to book before arriving there.
From this place you can make multiple visits to near places, not only around Saetia but also to the Bay and to the mountains. In these mountains (shared with Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo provinces), are the national parks La Mensura, Pico Cristal and Alejandro de Humboldt. We suggest to visist this last one from Moa, at the limits of the province.
In the next article you will find details of everything you can enjoy in and from Cayo Saetia and Moa, including your arrival at the last province located in the Cuban Northern coast: Guantanamo.
