Las Brujas and Santa Maria Cayos-together with Fragoso, Cobos, Ensenachos and Frances Cayos-just off the northern coast of Villa Clara Province, constitute an island paradise with over ten and a half miles (17 km) of beaches and virgin nature that are gradually being opened to tourism.

Called "the white rose of the Jardines del Rey Archipelago" , Santa maria is the last and largest of the cayos. Together with Las Brujas and Ensenachos Cayos, it is linked to terra firma by an impressive stone causeway. Santa Maria is 5 square miles (13 square km) in size. It has over six and a half miles (11 km) of beaches of excellent quality, plus a wealth of flora and fauna which can be seen during excursions inlands

There is a scuba-diving center with 24 well-chosen diving sites, so you can outfit yourself and see agreat variety of coral and fish in its clear water and virgin seabed.

Las Brujas is a tiny islet whose fine white sand, dazzling sea and untouched nature make its visitors feel like Robinson Crusoe. It has over a mile of virgin beaches. Its singlestory cabanas built of a cliff are linked with one another and with the social areas by wooden bridges, so the local animals-which are entirely harmless-can be move around freely. On both Cayos are large numbers of endemic plants and animals.

What to Do Activities include sunbathing; swimming, scuba diving and other water sports; hikes along the shore and on the inland portions of the Cayos; and excursions to other tourist resorts in Cuba and to points of interest in Villa Clara Province.

On Las Brujas Cayo-which has the airport-there is a villa of 24 frame cabanas that blend with their surroundings. Near the Cayo is a ship, the San Pascual, which may well be the only one of its kind in the world. It was built in Califronia, but its line was discotinued because of its excessive weight. The San Pascual ran aground near Las Brujas in 1933 and has been there ever since, at one time serving as a storehouse for sugarcane molasses. Now a unique hotel where Ernest Hemingway and other VIP's have stayed, it has ten rooms, a lobby bar and a seafood restaurant.

Cayo Santa maria has facilities for scuba diving and the Tryp Santa Maria Hotel, an All Inclusive installation with 300 rooms, buffet and speciality restaurants, a beach shack, a patio bar, a pool bar, two club houses with jacuzzis, swimming pools for children and adults, a party room, an amphitheater, a baby club, a games room, sports areas, a gym, a scuba diving school and a water-sports equipment rental center.

• Hotels & Casa Particulares

Villa Clara has great historic, architectural, cultural and natural attractions. Its capital, Santa Clara, is an industrial and educational center with a solid artistic and cultural movement.

It contains the memorial which contains the remains of Ernesto Che Guevara and his comrades in the guerilla struggle in Bolivia; the La Caridad Theater (built in 1885); several museums, including one of decorative arts; two hotels (the Santa Clara Libre and Los Caneyes, this last with honeymoon facilities); several restaurants; and other service installations.

Other places of interest in the province include the town of Remedios, which was founded nearly 500 years ago and has some very well-preserved colonial architecture, including the Great Parish church (built in the 16th century); traditional annual festivities, such as the Remedios revels (one of the most colorful and oldest popular festivities in the country); and a large service instructure.

The Elgua Spa, with its medical mineral water, is a popular destination in health tourism and quality-of-life tourism programs. It, too, is in Villa Clara Province-as is Lake Hanabanilla (the only mountain lake in the archipelago), up in the Escambray Mountains, which has a hotel and ideal conditions for fishing for such freshwater fish as Largemouth Bass (tag and release). Activities include excursions around the lake, hiking, bird watching and nature walks.

We recommend driving through the Escambray Mountains area, both to see its beautiful scenery and to and to learn about the farmers traditional way of life. To get there from the Cayos, start from the port of the Caibarien.

To the south of the city of Santa Clara is the Cubanacan Protected Area. This natural paradise, is the refuge of amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. In this place there are 10 species that conform to the list of endemic groups of our country.

Occupying part of the Villa Clara region, we find the mountainous massif of Escambray. Along its big slopes, sinuous pathways and persistence of forest areas, is a bastion for the last flocks of parrots (Amazona leucocephala) that can be seen in the province. Amongst the birds one can also observe the Cuban Trogan, known as the national bird, woodpeckers and sparrowhawks. Other representatives of the fauna of this ecosystem are the deer and the hutia congas and carabalies. At this place La Hanabanilla, the only intramountainous lake of Cuba can be found.