Sights in Caribbean Islands
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Sam Sharpe Square
The bustling cobbled Sam Sharpe Square, formerly called the Parade, is named for national hero the Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe (1801-32), the leader of the 1831 Christmas Rebellion. At the square's northwest corner is the National Heroes Monument, an impressive bronze statue of Paul Bogle and Sam Sharpe - bible in hand, speaking to three admirers.
Also on the northwest corner is the Cage, a tiny cut-stone and brick building built in 1806 as a lockup, now a small souvenir shop. At the southwest corner is the copper-domed Civic Centre, a handsome colonial-style cut-stone building on the site of the ruined colonial courthouse.
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Teatro Sauto
The defining symbol of the city according to Diego Rivera, the Teatro Sauto (1863) on the plaza's south side is one of Cuba's finest theaters and famous for its superb acoustics. The lobby is graced by marble Greek goddesses and the main-hall ceiling bears paintings of the muses. Three balconies enclose this 775-seat theater, which features a floor that can be raised to convert the auditorium into a ballroom. The original theater curtain is a painting of Matanzas' very own Puente de la Concordia, and notables like Soviet dancer Anna Pavlova have performed here. Much-needed restoration work should have been completed by the end of 2011. Performances are generally Friday…
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Bosque Estatal de Vega
This is a small forest of approximately 1000 acres set among the mogotes south of the Hwy 22 expressway, just to the northwest of the town of Vega Alta. You enter off Hwy 676, where you'll see the forest office. There are picnic shelters and a few modest hiking trails (signage isn't great), but the forest isn't very developed.
Its principal function is to preserve some of the aquifer that lies beneath the sinkholes and to provide a green buffer against the outer suburbs of San Juan, which are pressing rather alarmingly on its borders. The hours here are seasonal; if you will require a ranger it's best to call ahead.
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San Francisco de Asís
Perhaps the most recognizable building in Trinidad is the quaint yellow bell-tower of the former convent of San Francisco de Asís. Since 1986 the building has housed the Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos (tel:4121, open from 09:00 to 18:00 Tuesday to Sunday).
The displays are mostly photos, maps, weapons and other objects relating to the struggle against the various counterrevolutionary bands that operated in Sierra del Escambray between 1960 and 1965. The fuselage of a US U-2 spy plane shot down over Cuba is also on display. Here, too, you can climb the tower for good views. It's on the corner of Piro Guinart.
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Iglesia Parroquial Mayor de San Salvador
There's been a church on this site since 1514. The current edifice dates from 1740 and the section known as the Capilla de la Dolorosa was another building to survive the 1869 fire. A highlight of the main church is the central arch, which exhibits a mural depicting the blessing of the Cuban flag in front of the revolutionary army on October 20, 1868. Outside, Plaza del Himno Nacional is where the Cuban national anthem, 'La Bayamesa,' was sung for the first time in 1868.
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Casa de Francia
The Casa de Francia was originally the residence of Hernán Cortés, conqueror of the Aztecs in what is today central Mexico. It was in this building that Cortés is believed to have organized his triumphant – and brutal – expedition. Built in the early 16th century and sharing many elements with the Museo de las Casas Reales, experts theorize that these buildings were designed by the same master; both have a flat façade and a double bay window in the upper and lower stories, repeating patterns of doors and windows on both floors, and top-notch stone rubblework masonry around the windows, doors and corner shorings.
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Cashoo Ostrich Park
This park, set on 40 hectares of farmland about 3km south of East Lacovia, has about two dozen African ostriches, as well as a large fruit orchard and herb garden and a petting zoo with an emu, donkeys, hens, ducks, geese and swans. There are also a kids’ playground, bumper cars, swimming pool, badminton court, sand volleyball and a bar. You can saddle up for horseback rides (US$2). If you wish to bring a picnic, you’d do well to stop by Middle Quarters for some pepper shrimp. It's wise to call ahead, as sometimes the gates are locked and the place is deserted during posted 'open' hours.
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Parque de las Palomas
Parque de las Palomas on the lower end of Calle del Cristo is a cobblestone courtyard shaded with trees at the top of the city wall. Paloma means 'dove' or 'pigeon' in Spanish and it's the latter variety you'll encounter here, in their hundreds. Some brave souls come here for the view it affords of Bahía de San Juan. Others just turn up to feed the pigeons. (You can buy birdseed from a vendor by the gate.)
Devout Christians have long believed that if you feed the birds and one 'anoints' you with its pearly droppings, you have been blessed by God. Agnostics prefer to look upon it as just plain old bad luck.
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Somerset Falls
Somerset Falls, 14km west of Port Antonio, is hidden in a deep gorge about 3km east of Hope Bay. The Daniels River cascades down through a lush garden of ferns, heliconias, lilies and crotons. Visitors have to negotiate some steep, twisty steps. The recently renovated site has a restaurant, bar, jerk pit, ice-cream shop and massage therapy space. Yet further in the falls themselves are mercifully unspoiled. The entrance fee includes a guided tour through a grotto by boat to the Hidden Fall which tumbles 10m into a jade-colored grotto. Bring a swimsuit to enjoy a large swimming area.
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Cueva Punta del Este
The Cueva de Punta del Este has been called the 'Sistine Chapel' of Caribbean Indian art. Long before the Spanish conquest (experts estimate around AD 800), Indians painted some 235 pictographs on the walls and ceiling of the cave. The largest has 28 concentric circles of red and black, and the paintings have been interpreted as a solar calendar.
Discovered in 1910, they're considered the most important of their kind in the Caribbean. Smaller, similar paintings can be seen in the Cueva de Ambrosio in Varadero. The long, shadeless white beach nearby is another draw (for you and the mosquitoes - bring insect repellent).
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Puerto del Rey
This marina stands behind a breakwater in a cove 2 miles south of Fajardo. It is the largest marina in the Caribbean (1100 slips). You will find a complete marina village here with restaurants, stores, laundry facilities, banking and all manner of boat-hauling and maintenance capabilities. Many yachts stop here to take advantage of the marina’s courtesy car and Fajardo’s supermarkets when stocking up for a winter in the tropics or the ride back home to the USA. Travelers will find that many of the sailing, diving and fishing charters run from here. It’s about 5 miles south of Villa Marina.
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Museo Alcázar de Colón
Designed in the Gothic-Mudéjar transitional style, the Museo Alcázar de Colón was used as a residence by Columbus’ son, Diego, and his wife, Doña María de Toledo, during the early 16th century. Recalled to Spain in 1523, the couple left the home to relatives who occupied the handsome building for the next hundred years. It was subsequently allowed to deteriorate, then was used as a prison and a warehouse, before it was finally abandoned. By 1775 it was a vandalized shell of its former self and served as the unofficial city dump. Less than a hundred years later, only two of its walls remained at right angles.
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Museo de Esperanza
This tiny museum, on the Strip in Esperanza, is operated by the Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust (founded in 1984 to save the island’s bioluminescent bays). The museum contains exhibits on the ecological efforts of the trust, the island’s natural history and its early Indian inhabitants. Donations are welcome. Behind the gift shop, the museum runs what is supposedly the smallest aquarium on earth, a series of tanks in which baby sea creatures are displayed for a few weeks before being returned to the ocean. There’s also a rotating exhibit on the island’s flora and fauna, and an internet facility.
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Catedral Primada de América
Diego Columbus, son of the great explorer, set the first stone of the Catedral Primada de América in 1514, but construction didn’t begin in earnest until the arrival of the first bishop, Alejandro Geraldini, in 1521. From then until 1540, numerous architects worked on the church and adjoining buildings, which is why the vault is Gothic, the arches Romanesque and the ornamentation baroque. It’s anyone’s guess what the planned bell tower would have looked like: a shortage of funds curtailed construction, and the steeple, which undoubtedly would have offered a commanding view of the city, was never built.
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Museo Napoleónico
An anomaly – but an interesting one – is the esoteric Museo Napoleónico situated just outside the university walls. It's a collection of 7000 objects associated with the life of Napoleon Bonaparte amassed by Cuban sugar baron Julio Lobo and politician Orestes Ferrera. Highlights include sketches of Voltaire, paintings of the battle of Waterloo, china, furniture, an interesting recreation of Napoleon's study and bedroom, and one of several bronze Napoleonic death masks made two days after the emperor's death by his personal physician, Dr Francisco Antommarchi.
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La Casita
Looking like a yellow gatehouse, La Casita greets visitors near the cruise ship docks in 'lower' Old San Juan, in the outskirts of the walled city that rises on the hill to the north. The Department of Agriculture & Commerce built this miniature neoclassical structure with its red-tiled roof in 1937 to serve the needs of the burgeoning port. Today, La Casita is the information center for the PRTC.
Stop here for maps, and to check out the weekend craft market. Also look for the food vendors selling icy piraguas (delicious snow cones) or taste the local coffee at the old-fashioned hexagonal stand.
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Navy Island
This lushly vegetated 25-hectare Navy Island is popular with local day-trippers on weekends…or it was when the ferries ran. In colonial days the British Navy used it to careen ships for repair and it built a small battery, plus jetties and warehouses. Nothing remains of the navy's presence. In the mid-20th century Errol Flynn bought the island. His former home became a hotel, which later fell into decay.
In early 2002 the Port Authority and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) jointly took over the island with a view to developing the jaded property as an upscale resort and ecological theme-park.
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Instituto Superior de Arte
The leading art academy in Cuba was established in the former Havana Country Club in 1961 and elevated to the status of institute in 1976. The cluster of buildings – some unfinished, some half-restored, but all gloriously graceful due to the arches, domes and red brick – was the brainchild of Che Guevara and a team of architects. Among them was Ricardo Porro, who designed the striking Facultad de Artes Plásticas (1961), which has long curving passageways and domed halls in the shape of a reclining woman. Some 800 students study here, and foreigners can too.
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Los Tres Ojos
Consisting of three very humid caverns with still, dark lagoons inside and connected by stalactite-filled passages, Los Tres Ojos is a mildly interesting site frequented by organized tours. The caves are limestone sinkholes, carved by water erosion over thousands of years. The entrance is a long stairway down a narrow tunnel in the rock; once at the bottom, cement paths lead you through the caves or you can visit them by boat for another US$0.35. Unfortunately, the tranquility of the setting is usually upset by vendors aggressively hawking their postcards and jewelry to tourists at the entrance.
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Museum
This small but quite engaging museum of anthropology, history and art is worth a stop to see examples of the trove of Taíno Indian artifacts unearthed by university scholars in recent digs. In addition, this museum features revolving art shows and offers scholarly perspectives on island history. Finally, visiting the museum gives travelers a legitimate reason to be snooping around the university campus and opens opportunities for connecting with the students and faculty. The opening hours vary, so call ahead. It lies just inside the entrance to the UPR campus, next to the Biblioteca Lazaro.
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Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos
Perhaps the most recognizable building in Trinidad is the withered pastel-yellow bell tower of the former convent of San Francisco de Asís. Since 1986 the building has housed a museum. The displays are mostly photos, maps, weapons and other objects relating to the struggle against the various counterrevolutionary bands that took a leaf out of Fidel's book and operated illicitly out of the Sierra del Escambray between 1960 and 1965. The fuselage of a US U-2 spy plane shot down over Cuba is also on display. You can climb the tower for good views.
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Cuevas de Bellamar
The Cuevas de Bellamar, 5km southeast of Matanzas, are 300,000 years old and locally promoted as Cuba's oldest tourist attraction. There are 2500m of caves here, discovered in 1861 by a Chinese workman in the employ of Don Manual Santos Parga. A 45-minute Cuevas de Bellamar visit leaves almost hourly starting at 9:30am; well-maintained, well-lit paths mean it's easy for kids to imbibe the stupendous geology, too. The caves on show include a vast 12m stalagmite and an underground stream; cave walls glitter eerily with crystals. The entrance is through a small museum. Outside the Cuevas de Bellamar are two restaurants and a playground. To get there, take bus 16, 17 or 20…
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Original Mayfield Falls & Mineral Springs
Original Mayfield Falls & Mineral Springs is a working tropical farm and tour attraction. To reach the cascades you’ll cross a bamboo-and-log bridge then follow the sun-dappled river course, clambering over river stones. You can learn about ackee, breadfruits and other Jamaican fruits, vegetables and flowers, and even join in traditional African music and dance during show time (2:30pm Tuesday and Friday). You can book a tour (per person US$65) at the office in Negril on Norman Manley Blvd, or through many local hotels; the price includes transportation, lunch and refreshment.
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Museum
Contrary to popular opinion, Rincón’s history didn’t begin in 1968 with the World Surfing Championships. Proof lies in this tiny museum, which harbors articles salvaged from shipwrecks and testimonies on the area’s social history. Like a lot of the municipal museums on the island, the Centro Cultural is open irregularly and is dependent on the state of the current municipal budget and volunteerism. Enquire first at the Tourist Information Center; staff there should be able to enlighten you as to current opening times and/or the possibility of a private viewing.
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Plaza de Armas
Follow Calle San Francisco into the heart of the old city and it opens on to the Plaza de Armas. This is the city's nominal 'central' square, laid out in the 16th century with the classic look of plazas from Madrid and Mexico. In its time, the plaza has served as a military parade ground (hence its name), a vegetable market and a social center.
Shade trees, banks of seats, and a couple of old-fashioned coffee booths still make the plaza the destination of choice for couples taking their evening stroll. The beat of a bomba drum has also been known to light up an otherwise humdrum evening.
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