| Must-see's |
1. Cafetal Angerona near Artemisa
Whilst in Pinar del Río the rich soil produces tobacco, in what is now the province of Artemisa coffee plantations – founded by the French colonists who arrived from Haití – grew in abundance.
Nowadays not much is left of that era, the coffee plantation Angerona being almost an exception. This typical eighteenth-century coffee plantation, once the second most important on Cuba, had the largest slave population in the west of the island. To commemorate this cruel past, the Angerona plantation is included in the UNESCO Slave Route.
The plantation was built in 1813 by a German called Cornelio Sauchay, who supposedly had a love affair with a beautiful women of African origin. The legend goes that he built the plantation for her and she attributed to its economic flourishing. After his dead it was taken over by the sugar industry and she was left with nothing.
Once a neoclassical building with arcs and columns, today you can still identify the dwellings, the slave quarters, the drying houses, the warehouse, the watchtower and 6 enormous tanks used to irrigate the fields. A paved road takes you to a white marmol statue of Angerona, the Roman goddess of silence and who helps nature and men to get through harsh winter times.
In 1999 is was declared Monumento Nacional.
Address: Carretera to Cayajabo, Artemisa
Open: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Entrance: 5.00CUC
2. Museum of Humor in San Antonio de los Baños
San Antonio de los Baños is known as the Capital of Humor. It has deserved this name being the birthplace of two great comic artists: Eduardo Abela and René de la Nuez, creators respectively of El Bobo (The Fool) and The Loquito (The Lunatic), two of the most important figures of Cuban political humor. The Bobo played the fool to satirize the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado. El Loquito was an indisputable political humor weapon during the years of struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Since 1979 San Antonio de los Baños houses every two years the International Biennial of Humor. As of the same year the town has its Humor Museum. The museum occupies an old neoclassical mansion once owned by the Marquis of Campo Florido, first, and the Earl of Palatine, later. The museum´s collection includes the first cartoons that were released on the island in 1848 as well as a substantial quantity of Cuban graphic humor. It offers an exhibition of the historial evolution of Cuban humor, represented in a variety of genres, media and techniques, since colonial times to today.
Address: Street 60 and 45
Open: 9:00am a 4:30pm
Entrance: 1.00CUC
3. Las Terrazas near Artemisa
This mountain community of artists and organic farmers is Cuba’s first sustainable village. It is located along the San Juan River in the Sierra del Rosaria, some 60 km from La Habana and 90 km from Pinar del Río. Due to its isolated location the community with its 1,000 inhabitants, has a high level of autonomy and is built as a mini-town.
The community is a result of the UNESCO project of Biosphere Reserves which aimed to link rural communities with their natural surroundings. The region Las Terrazas had suffered heavily from deforestation since the colonial period due to the nearby copper mines and coffee plantations, leaving the area almost looking as a lunar landscape.
When UNESCO proclaimed as the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve in 1985 and was faced with the community which is part of it, UNESCO began a project of renovation and tourism development, all eco-friendly.
Nowadays the results are visible: The nature reserve includes 5000ha of secondary forest which was planted on the surrounding (deforested) hills by building terraces to avoid erosion; hence the name (in Spanish, terrazas means terraces). The reserve is rich in flora and fauna, and includes lakes, rivers and waterfalls. The very best part of Las Terrazas is maybe the Rio San Juan, a clear mountain stream that runs down a gentle hillside in a series of small waterfalls and deep pools. Organized excursions on the hiking trails to stunning waterfalls, sparkling mineral springs and lush coffee farms can be booked at the local tourist office. You can also take a canopy tour and for 25CUC you can swing yourself through the forest and over the lake.
In this community lived the legendary artist who died in November 2002 due to a car accident Fernando Borrego Linares better known by Polo Montañez. Today his house is a museum, the sisters of the author of the national Guajiro look after it (please give them a small tip as this is what they live of). They will tell you about his life and they do this with humility and simplicity which allows you to get close to the person who was a myth, now remembered for his songs apart from him as a person who, a country man, reached the highest artistic successes. If you ask a Cuban about the death of the artist, in www.househostelcuba.com we're sure they’ll respond you with sadness about someone as cheerful as was Polo Montañez.
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