A CARIBBEAN DREAM
Cuba has a lot to offer: sunshine, kilometres of white sandy beaches, the opal blue sea and an average annual temperature of 25 degrees. The colonial past of the country is apparent everywhere. Alongside Havana are Trinidad, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba, the best-known cities for experiencing the magnificent built heritage from the colonial era. The western province of Pinar del Rio is the Mecca of cigar smokers. Alongside huge tobacco plantations, forests and the fertile red earth are typical features of the landscape. Bizarre balls of chalk can be seen in the Vinales Valley, some of them soaring up to 400 metres into the air. The northern coast tempts vacationers with its beaches and coral islands. This is where water sports enthusiasts and divers find their paradise. Tourism is less developed in the south: extensive grazing lands and plantations on which sugarcane, pineapples, oranges and rice exist along mangrove swamp. The Peninsula de Zapata is the most thinly populated part of Cuba. It also contains a large national park, which offers ideal conditions for observing Cuba’s bird and animal world.