Desembarco del Granma National Park by Alexander Barabanov
Visited this site in May 2018.
This is quite remote site requiring careful planning, we started from Camaguey and then proceeded to Santiago de Cuba via road 20, which was extremely challenging for our old good Peugeot. In one place there was almost broken but still open for traffic bridge. In another place you have to pass unpaved road within several meters from the sea. But this road 20 goes directly through inscribed area and provides many outstanding views. All in all that involved about 600 km and about 14 hours of driving in one day.
This part of Cuba is considered to the hottest place on the island. Combined with risen bottom of the sea it resulted in creation of unique natural terrace system and very rich and endemic biodiversity. While the place of Granma ship embarkation site in 1956 only provided formal name for the park and site, it seems to be included in the inscribed area as per official map.
In Las Coloradas there is entry point for the site, where you have to pay for the park and El Guafe guided archeological path (we paid 15 CUCs for 2 people). The guide joined us in our car, as there is about 9 km from entry point to the path itself. The hiking trail is about 2 km long, during the hike we climbed down to several carst caves and saw famous Idolo del Agua carved by indigenous Taino people (small and not impressive). Another highlight – huge old cactus tree. There is really significant number of various birds spotted during hike with the help of the guide, and there are also wooden information stands with the names of the birds. We also visited fishing village Cabo Cruz (further 3 km from El Guafe) with old lighthouse and cheapest fish restaurant in Cuba (and probably in the world), as the prices are quoted in CUPs (not in CUCs) there. It was 3 CUCs for 2 fish soups and 2 fresh grilled fishes.
Excellent site for nature lovers with extraordinary fauna and flora with some pre-historic human traces and revolutionary heritage not to forget.