Wednesday 7 March 2012

Highest Protected Area in Cuba

The highest protected area in Cuba is the Turquino National Park located in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.  This natural protected area is full of legends, stories, landscapes and singularities of flora and fauna.
According to a resolution of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, the reserve is made up of 23 thousand 210 hectares in the
municipalities of Bartalome Maso and Buey Arriba in the provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba.

It has the three major heights in Cuba: Pico Real del Turquino with 1,974 meters above sea level, Pico Cuba (1,872) and Pico Suecia (1,734)
alongside other historic sites like La Plata, where Fidel Castro established his Rebel Army’s main headquarters in 1958.

On the so called “techo de Cuba” (Cuba’s ceiling), there is a bust of Cuba’s National Hero Jose Marti placed by Heroine Celia Sanchez Manduley and her father, Dr. Manuel Sanchez Silveira in 1953.

Several points of the National Park were the scene of combats in 1957 and 1958; among them, we have the battles of Purialon, Llanos del Infierno, Santo Domingo and Pueblo Nuevo.

The richness of the region includes 26 exclusive vegetable species and 100 that only exist in the Sierra Maestra in addition to a dozen amphibians,
30 reptiles, 60 birds and 15 mammals.

It’s the highest elevation in the Cuban mountainous area that it has its own micro climate characteristics and constitutes the area with the highest average yearly precipitation between 1,500 and 1,700 millimeters.

One of the main towns in the region is Santo Domingo, site of unforgettable victories for the Rebel Army in 1958 and, today, an important tourism villa.

Other important towns in the area are La Platica, La Jeringa, Jimenez, Pueblo Nuevo and Las Cuevas.

The most requested areas by Cubans and foreigners is the Pico Real del Turquino, which is the highest in the country, and La Plata, where an attractive museum holding important imprints left by Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, Celia Sánchez and others. (ACN)

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