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Matanzas Pages:

MATANZAS PROVINCE | MATANZAS CITY | VARADERO | CARDENAS | CAYO LARGO
Accommodation: Hotels Varadero | Hotels Matanzas | Casa Particulares
Info: Restaurants | Nightlife | Tours / Excursions
Maps: Matanzas Province | Matanzas City | Varadero | Cardenas | Peninsula Zapata
Photo Galleries: Matanzas | Coliseo | Cardenas | Varadero | Hotels| Jovellanos
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Matanzas Province
Capital City: Matanzas

Province of the famous Varadero beaches and resorts, the city of Cardenas, Pigs Bay, and Cayo Largo.


Cities Towns and Places   
Agramonte Boca de Camarioca Bolondron
Caleta Buena Calimete CARDENAS
Coliseo Colon El Estante
El Rincon Guamuatas Guanabana
Guareiras Jaguey Grande Jose Smith Comas
Jovellanos Juan Gualberto Gomez La Isabel
La Teja Las Guasimas Limonar
Los Arabos Manguito Marti
MATANZAS Maxomo Gomez Pedro Batancourt
Pedroso Perico Playa Giron
Playa Larga San Antonio de Cabezas San Miguel de los Banos
Santa Marta Torriente Triumvarato
Union de Reyes VARADERO  

Matanzas Province Information

 

Cárdenas

The city where most people live who are working in Varadero.
Famous about it's name "el Ciudad del Cangrejos" (city of the crabs)
Narrow streets full of horse-drawn carriages, and not anymore what it was used to be in the earlier days, before ...

Cardenas >>

City of Matanzas

Matanzas is called the Athens of Cuba because of its active cultural institutions, known for many as the city of the bridges and the rivers.

Matanzas City >>

Varadero

A place full of luxury Hotels and resorts, white beaches, turquois sea. You can find a realy huged golf course in front of the hotel zone. All to please the tourists ...

Varadero >>

 


Zapata Peninsula - Giron and Larga Beaches (the Bay of Pigs Area)

These beaches, on the southern coast of Matanzas Province,are in the Zapata Peninsula National Park, which includes the Zapata Swamp world preserve of the biosphere, the largest wetlands in the Caribbean. Giron and Larga beaches offer scuba diving in areas with many Staghorn (Acropra cervicornis), Brain (Doloria spp.), Leaf (Agaricia agaricities), Star (Montastrea annularis) and Flower (Eusmilia fastigiata) Coral formations and Common Sea Fans (Gorgonia spp.), surrounded by schools of bright fish.

The sharp offshore drop is covered with sponges, gorgonians and coral, and scuba divers will also find several flooded caves to explore. Those steep-walled depressions in the bare rock are always flooded because they have underground passeges that link them to sea.

Map >>

Location and How to Get There

Giron and Larga Beaches are on the Bay of Pigs. Access to this region in the southern part of Matanzas Province is by road. The area is around 67 miles (108 km) from the city of Matanzas, 87 miles (140 km) from Varadero, and 74 miles (120 km) from Cienfuegos.

What to Do

Activities at Larga and Giron Beaches include sunbathing, swimming, snorkling, beginning scuba-diving classes, scuba diving at 14 sites of great beauty and in flooded caves, and other water sports; ecotourism on the Zapata Peninsula (1930 square miles, or 5000 square km, of virgin territory with 900 species of native plants, 12 species of mamals and 160 species as the Cuban crocodile (there's a crocodile breeding center in the area with over 10.000 of them), the Cuban alligator gar (Atractosteus tristoechus, a prehistoric fish) and the Manatee (Trichechus mamatus, the only herbivorous aquatic mammal on earth, which the Spanish conquistadores thought were mermaids); fishing at Treasure Lake, 900 hectares in size, the largest freshwater lake in the country; going on excursions to places of great archaeological value and a restored Indian village; bird-watching and boating on the Hatiguanico River; and visiting the Las Salinas Wildlife Refuge.

Accommodation and Facilities
There are more than 300 rooms in the area, in the 2-star Playa Giron and Playa Larga Hotels and in the 3-star Villa Guama. They have cabarets, games rooms, doctors on call 24 hours a day, money exchange offices, safes, taxis, motorcycle rentals, entertainment, swimming pools, massages, bars, cafetarias and restaurants. Giron Beach also has the Playa Giron International Scuba-Diving Center, and there are several restaurants specializing in fish and shellfish.
Nearby Places of Interest

The Bay of Pigs Museum at Giron Beach contains exhibits related to the Cuban people's defeat of the mercenaries who invaded Cuba along this part of the coast in April 1961.

Matanzas, around 67 miles (108 km) away, is a city with a virgorous artistic, musical and literary movement, plus buildings of great archtectural and historic value.


Boca de Guama
Museo de Comandancia
The former headquarters of Fidel Castro
during the Bay of Pigs invasion
Criadero de Cocodrilos
Crocodile farm
Laguna del Tesoro
By ferry acros a touristic Indian vilage
 

Playa Giron
Restaurants Playa Giron
Rumbos (24 Hours)
Tienden Imagen Cuba
Beginning of the road to Caleta Buena

 

To Do Playa Giron

Museo Giron
About The Bay of Pigs
International Scuba Center
Villa Playa Giron
Scuba initiation courses
Caleta Buena
Cove where you can snorkel and row a boat

Diving:

Playa Girón
Hoteles Horizontes
Hotel Playa Girón
Ciénaga de Zapata


Colón
Museo Mártires de Moncada
“Dr. Mario Muñoz”
Museo
Mario Muñoz No. 74, Colón

Ciénaga de Zapata

Conjunto Escultórico
de la Aldea Taína
Sitio de interés
Laguna del Tesoro,
Ciénaga de Zapata
Guamá-Laguna del Tesoro
Sitio de interés
Gran Parque Natural Montemar,
Ciénaga de Zapata
Museo de Playa Girón
Museo
Playa Girón, Ciénaga de Zapata
 

Pedro Betancourt

Cueva de Santa Victoria
Monumento
Pedro Betancourt

 

Harbours
Marina Varadero
Gaviota
Carretera de Las Morlas, km. 21, Varadero
Situación: 23°13.6’ N, 81°10.4’ W
Comunicación por radio: VHF 16
Marina Chapelín
Cubanacán Náutica
Carretera de Las Morlas, km. 12,5, Varadero
Situación: 23°11’ N, 81°11’ W
Comunicación por radio: HF 7462, VHF 16 y 72
Marina Puertosol
Dársena de Varadero
Marinas Puertosol
Carretera de Vía Blanca, km. 31, Varadero
Situación: 23°08’ N, 81°18.7’ W
Comunicación por radio: HF 2790, VHF 16, 19, 68 y 72
 

Diving
Club Octopus Internacional Diving Center
Scuba facilities
Acua
Marinas Puertosol
Ave. Kawama No. 201, e/. 2 y 3,
Varadero
Club Varadero
SuperClubs
Hotel Breezes Varadero
Varadero
Cueva de los Peces
Cenote, (70m deep)
Snorkling and diving
Barracuda
Cubanacán Náutica
59 y 1ra, Ave., Varadero
Octopus
Hoteles Horizontes
Hotel Playa Larga
Ciénaga de Zapata
Playa Girón
Hoteles Horizontes
Hotel Playa Girón
Ciénaga de Zapata
Gaviota
Marina Gaviota Varadero
Varadero

Links & Sources:

 

 


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