Baracoa
Holguín
The fourth largest city in Cuba is located 775 km east of Havana and 200 km northwest of Santiago de Cuba. When Columbus landed at Gibara, a beautiful small fishing town 28 km north of Holguin, in 1492 thinking he was in Asia, he sent an expedition inland that came across with an Indian village believed to have been in Holguin’s current location. Three decades later, Captain Garcia Holguin received a land grant. He then built a settlement in the location of the Indian village, which by then had been razed, and named it San Isidoro de Holguin.
The north of the Holguin province has some of the most gorgeous beaches and beach resorts on the island, excellent for scuba diving and snorkeling. Guardalavaca and the neighboring beaches are considered Cuba?s second largest resort. Some 65 km west of this resort is Gibara, a time-encrusted fishing town at the Bahia de Gibara. The site was an important port in colonial times when it was called Villa Blanca. The flat-topped mountain inland, Silla de Gibara, is considered to be the hill described by Christopher Columbus in his journal when he first landed in Cuba on October 28, 1492. Although citizens of Baracoa claim that he landed there and that the mountain he mentions is El Yunque.
Related posts
