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Why visit Granma Cuba?

Granma Cuba Photos

The province of Granma is Located 730 km. (just over 450 miles) from Havana on Cuba’s southeast coast and has many natural tourist attractions.

Granma has “made in Cuba” stamped all over it. This is the land where José Martí died, Fidel Castro landed with his revolutionaries, and the native Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his slaves and formally declared Cuban independence in 1868. And, if history doesn’t provide it, you can always ponder over the geographical significance of Cuba’s longest river (The Cauto), it’s most pristine coastal marine barrier reefs (in Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma) and its third-highest mountain (Pico Bayamesa, 1730 m).

With a lot of its interior and southwestern coastal areas cut off from the main transport grid, one of Granma’s primary attractions is the isolation that goes with its virgin territories, begging to be discovered by the visitor. Street parties in town such as Bayamo, Manzanillo and Pilón are a weekly occurrence and are uniquely enlivened with homemade street snacks, hotly contested games of chess, and the kind of archaic colonial streets that were last seen in Europe when Cuba was still a property of Spain.

Juxtaposing its pancake-flat rice fields with the soaring peaks of the Sierra Maestra, Granma is more rural than urban and, even the two main cities of Bayamo and Manzanillo retain a faintly rustic air.

But far from sucking on sugar stalks in the safety of their remote background refuges, the resourceful locals are renowned for their creativity, particularly in the field of music. Two of the giants of Cuban “Nueva Trova” (philosophical folk guitar music) were born in Granma (Pablo Milanés in Bayamo and Carlos Puebla in Manzanillo), and in 1972 the province hosted a groundbreaking music festival that helped put this revolutionary new music style on Cuba’s and Latin America’s cultural map.

River Cauto Cuba

Granma has 837, 8sq.km. (Without including the keys whose area is around 9,6 sq.km.) And its territory includes natural regions which are very differentiable: The Cauto’s flatness and part of Sierra Maestra´s mountains systems where you’ll find the highest peaks of the country. On its flank, you’ll distinguish the longest river of Cuba, El Cauto, with many small lakes and numerous reservoirs. On the River Cauto’s banks farmers work some of the most fertile land in the province.

Bordering to the North with Las Tunas and Holguin provinces; to the South with Santiago de Cuba and the Caribbean Sea; to the East with Holguín and Santiago de Cuba; and to the west with the Guacanayabo‘s Gulf. Granma’s population is over 830,000. Therefore, based upon its dimension it occupies the sixth position in a national ranking for square miles and the fifth places for its population.

Between its mountains there are on The Sierra Maestra, La Bayamesa’s peak (the highest, with 1,756 meters), Marti’s peak (1,722 m.), Palma Mocha’s peak (1,388 m) and Caracas’s peak (1,234m.). The caves are “Ceremonial del Guafe” and “Cabo Cruz”. The rivers are known CAUTO (343km long) drainage area (8,969 sq.km.); it’s affluent: Bayamo (115 m. long) drainage area (690sq.km), and Cautillo (74, 4 m. long) drainage area (648sq.km).

Its economic profile is agriculture and cattle. Its principal productions are: sugar cane, rice, coffee, seafood products, marble and cocoa.