The Cienaga de Zapata is a place that will make you fall in love with its wonders. That is what everyone who comes to visit thinks about it, because they are eager to return, since it is a hotel free area, virgin to civilization, there is no crowd and calm swamps the places. The only sound comes from the treetops beating with the wind, the sea breaking on the coast and some other naughty bird that doesn’t stop singing.
It is a place that has no equal, the largest wetland in the Caribbean where landscapes of low and swampy plains predominate, with vegetation of natural savannas of high aesthetic value. Its fauna still carries many mysteries to biologists, such as the manjuarí (a fossil fish), the gallinuela, the zunzuncito and the cartacuba bird, the manatee and the jutía. It is the only place in Cuba where crocodiles live.
Traveling by car from its main road is easy, although it must be said that it is a road full of curves and the streets are full of potholes, pieces abused by time. The trip begins passing the toll that is located at the town of San Isidro. When you enter the 1st Km you can see how the country landscape changes for one full of swamps, lagoons with lotus flowers, vines, large green trees. That is why it is very difficult to enter it, walking through the peat soil is almost impossible and mosquitoes, even with repellents, will not let you advance from 6 am until 8 am and from 6 pm until 9 am. There are areas, such as La Salina, where they are open 24 hours a day. But this cannot let you give up; yet you will feel that nature welcomes you as if it were your house, reminding you that the man once lived alone there with her, with nothing more than a house of palm and guano as Guama shows, the first point that is seen in the way, finding a replica of a village where tainos indians lived
"Book a tour to Ciénaga de zapata and Playa Girón a unique space for sea lovers, a wonderful option for divers, ecotourists and vacationers looking for a quiet and secluded place, where to enjoy the marine world and its charms."
The main road goes to Playa Larga, a town of people who live from the sea and from the little tourism that comes to the area. Then the road is divided into two, one that goes to El Meneadero, passing by the batey of Caletón, Buena Aventura and Santo Tomas. The other one borders the entire coast to Caleta Buena. On this tour there are several interesting spots for swimming and diving. The Fish Cave is one of them, where there is a singular cenote with sweet and salty water that holds many secrets for divers.
The beaches are superficial, full of thick, white sand. Playa Larga and Playa Máquina are areas where you can walk nicely into the sea and continue to touch the bottom. Those are beaches that children enjoy very much, because they see the shore far away and can still swim safely. On the coasts primes the mangrove and the caleta grape. Sometimes in these trees, the woodpecker perches to carve its trunk or the tocororo, national bird, which dazzles with its tail of two colors. The entrance to the Bay of Pigs can be seen from any of the other beaches and in the evenings, around 6 pm, the sun's fall melts the earth and the sky in one view, as if there were no horizon.
Playa Girón is another place in the Ciénaga de Zapata that brings many mysteries. This beach gets its name from the sight of pirate Gilberto Girón in the 7th century. After the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution it was a battle site, due to the failed mercenary invasion of the United States. Girón is the town that most relies on tourism, and hides caves and diving spots where there are fallen ships and forests full of birds that migrate from North America in winter time. It also has other places that the tourist center of the zone does not include in its services, but the town people can take you.
The Ciénaga is populated by good and supportive people. It has 9 000 inhabitants who live on tourism, fishing and the fabrication of coal. It consists of neighborhoods and bateyes that some do not exceed 100 inhabitants; those have schools, hospitals, houses of cultures and recreational centers. The fishermen in the area are amazing people; they can go down into the ocean more than 10 meters using only their lungs.
For all these reasons, our team loves to reach the Ciénaga de Zapata. In our multiple routes we include the destinations of Havana-Playa Larga and Havana-Playa Girón with the tour service. There, in addition to admiring the nature and enjoying the stillness of the sea with a mojito or a beer, we suggest you visit the crocodile farm and discover how they reproduce and take care of each other. If you arrive to Playa Larga, you can take a water bicycle ride and if you decide to go a few meters further, to the Caletón batey, you can share with fishermen from the area, watch the birds, rivers and swamps. Another activity that we propose is to dive in the Cueva de los Peces and Caleta Buena. We believe that one day is not enough to experience everything, that's why there will be places to stay and experiences outside the cities typically known by tourists. Another suggestion: take a good camera, because you can take the best pictures of your whole visit to Cuba.