Camagüey

Camagüey is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third largest city. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. After almost continuous attacks from pirates the original city (founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe around 1515 on the northern coast) was moved inland in 1528. The new city was built with a confusing lay-out of winding alleys that made it easier to defend it from any raiders. There are many blind alleys and forked streets that lead to squares of different sizes. There is only one exit from the city; should pirates ever return and succeed in entering the city, the hope was that the local inhabitants would be able to entrap and kill them.

The symbol of the city of Camagüey is the clay pot or tinajón, used to capture rain water to be used later, keeping it fresh. Clay pots are literally everywhere, some as small as a hand, some large enough for two people to stand up in, either as monuments or for real use. Local legend has it that if you drink water from a girl's personal tinajón, you will fall in love with the girl and never leave her.The main secondary education institutions are the University of Camagüey & the Instituto Pedagójico de Camagüey.

In 2004, the municipality of Camagüey had a population of 324,921. With a total area of 1,106 km² (427 sq mi), it has a population density of 293.8/km² (760.9/sq mi).

Camagüey is the birthplace of Ignacio Agramonte (1841), an important figure of the Ten Years' War against Spain in 1868–1878. Agramonte drafted the first Cuban Constitution in 1869, and later, as a Major General, formed the fearsome Camagüey cavalry corps that had the Spaniards on the run. He died in combat in May 11, 1873; his body was burned in the city because the Spanish feared the rebels would attack the city to recover his body.

The outline of Ignacio Agramonte's horseback statue in the Park that bears his name is a symbol of Camagüey. It was set there in 1911, uncovered by his widow, Amalia Simoni.

The Plaza of the Revolution features a bronze Agramonte standing followed by his troops.

The city is also the birthplace of the Cuban national poet Nicolás Guillén.

Camagüey is also the hometown of volleyball player Mireya LuisThe old city layout resembles a real maze, with narrow, short streets always turning in a direction or another. After Henry Morgan burned the city in the 17th century, it was designed like a maze so attackers would find it hard to move around inside the city.

Camagüey has its own international airport, Ignacio Agramonte International Airport. Most tourists going or leaving to the Beach of Santa Lucía do so through the airport.

Although it is not the only grammar school in the City, The Preuniversitario or sometimes called "vocational school" IPVCE - Preuniversitario Institute of Sciences Maximo Gomez Baez, is the largest of its kind in the province of Camaguey.

To become part of their enrolment must conduct a college entrance exam to complete the preparation of the Basic Secondary Education, (7 th to 9 th grade).

During the 3 years following receive intensive preparation for the next test of entry to University.

The center is so extensive that receives the category of city school.

Their students, during the period of 3 years (10th to 12th grade), are influenced not only in academia but rather create bonds of brotherhood that accompany a lifetime.

This centre is homologous to other existing in the rest of the country's provinces, and certainly forms bonds of friendship that endures for a lifetime, but on the other hand, separate the formation of a teenager in the family.

In Camagüey (city), for example there are very few possibilities of making high school from externally. With the exception of several schools for athletes (such as ESPA, EIDE & Manuel Fajardo) and The School of Art, and the Military School (better known as Camilitos) the only other option is the IPVCE or pre-university in Sierra de Cubitas (over 100 km from the city), located in the country site, in which students must perform agricultural work such as collecting oranges.

In November 2007 opens IPVCE.org, website dedicated to collecting and alumni of this institution purports to be the meeting point of all vocational transiting through the network.

Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba is the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island nation of Cuba, some 540 miles (869 km) east south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana.

The municipality extends over 1,023.8 square kilometers (395 sq mi), and contains the communities of El Caney, Guilera, Antonio Maceo, Bravo, Castillo Duany, Leyte Vidal and Moncada.

Historically Santiago de Cuba has long been the second most important city on the island after Havana, and still remains the second largest. It is on a bay connected to the Caribbean Sea and is an important sea port. In 2004 the city of Santiago de Cuba had a population of about 494,337 people

Santiago de Cuba was founded by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on June 28, 1514. In 1516 the settlement was destroyed by fire, and was immediately rebuilt. This was the starting point of the expeditions led by Juan de Grijalba and Hernán Cortés to the coasts of Mexico in 1518, and in 1538 by Hernando de Soto's expedition to Florida. The first cathedral was built in the city in 1528. From 1522 until 1589 Santiago was the capital of the Spanish colony of Cuba.

The city was plundered by French forces in 1553, and by British forces under Christopher Myngs in 1662.

On June 12, 1766, the city was almost destroyed by an earthquake.

The city experienced an influx of French immigrants in the late 18th century and early 19th century, many coming from Haiti after the Haitian slave revolt of 1791. This added to the city's eclectic cultural mix, already rich with Spanish and African culture.

It was also the location where Spanish troops faced their main defeat at San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Spain later surrendered to the United States after the destruction of its Atlantic fleet just outside Santiago's harbor.

Cuban poet, writer, and national hero, José Martí, is buried in Cementerio Santa Efigenia.

Santiago was also the home of the revolutionary hero, Frank Pais. On July 26, 1953, the Cuban Revolution began with an ill-prepared armed attack on the Moncada Barracks by small contingent of rebels led by Fidel Castro. Shortly after this disastrous incident, País began talking with students and young working people informally, drawing around him what became an extremely effective urban revolutionary alliance. This developed into highly organized cells coordinating a large scale urban resistance that became instrumental in the success of the Cuban Revolution.

País' group prepared carefully, accruing weapons, collecting money, collecting medical supplies. They published a cheap newsletter that reported news that criticized the government, attempting to counter Batista's censorship.

In the summer of 1955, País’ organization merged with Castro's July 26 Movement. País became the leader of the new organization in Oriente province.

On 1 January 1959, Fidel Castro proclaimed the victory of the Cuban Revolution from a balcony on Santiago de Cuba's city hall.

Until a rearrangement of province boundaries in 1976, Santiago de Cuba was the capital of Cuba's Oriente Province, which included the present day provinces of Holguín, Las Tunas, Guantánamo, Granma and Santiago de Cuba.

The local citadel of San Pedro de la Roca is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the most complete, best-preserved example of Spanish-American military architecture, based on Italian and Renaissance design principles".

The Baconao Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Biosphere Reserve List in 1987.

In 2004, the municipality of Santiago de Cuba had a population of 494,337. With a total area of 1,024 km² (395.4 sq mi), it has a population density of 482.8/km² (1,250.4/sq mi).

Varadero

Varadero is a resort town in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, and one of the largest resort areas in the Caribbean. Varadero is also called Playa Azul, meaning "blue beach" in Spanish.

It is situated on the Hicacos Peninsula, between the Bay of Cárdenas and the Straits of Florida, some 140 km east of Havana, at the eastern end of the Via Blanca highway. The peninsula is only 1.2 km wide at its widest point and is separated from the island of Cuba by the Kawama Channel. This spit of land however extends more than 20 kilometers from the mainland in a northeasterly direction and its tip, Punta Hicacos, is the northernmost point of the island of Cuba. At the northeastern end of the peninsula there is a nature reserve with virgin forests and beaches. The Hicacos Point Natural Park is a 3.12 km² (1.2 sq mi) ecological preserve established in 1974. It contains the 250 m (820 ft) long Cave of Ambrosio, Mangón Lake (home to 31 species of birds and 24 species of reptiles) and the ruins of the La Calavera (The Skull) Salt Works (one of the first salt works to be constructed by the Spanish in the New World). The cays developed off shore, such as Cayo Piedras and Cayo Cruz del Padre are the western most part of the Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago.

Juan Gualberto Gómez Airport, situated west of the peninsula, is Varadero's airport. It is the second-most-important airport of the island after José Martí Airport in Havana, and serves international and domestic flights.

The first mention of Varadero was in 1555. The place was first used as a dry dock (Spanish: varadero) and the salt mines of the peninsula (closed in 1961) supplied most of the Spanish Latin America Fleet since 1587. However, the foundation date of Varadero as city was only on December 5, 1887, when ten families from the city of Cárdenas obtained a permission to build their vacation homes between today's 42nd and 48th Street.

It was established as a municipality (Spanish: municipio) at the administrative re-distribution of July 3, 1976 from territories previously part of Cárdenas.

Varadero is first and foremost a tourist resort town, boasting more than 20 km of white sandy beaches. Tourism grew in the early 1930s as Irénée du Pont Nemours, an American millionaire, built his estate on the peninsula. But the first tourists visited Varadero as early as the 1870s, and for years it was considered an elite resort. When in 1910 started the annual rowing regatta, five years later the first Hotel, named Varadero and later Club Nautico, was build. The first hotel boom started in the 1950s. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the beach's many mansions were expropriated from their rich owners. As a symbol for the new integrated tourism for Cubans and foreign visitors of all social classes, the Park of the 8000 cubicles (Parque de las 8000 Taquillas) was build in 1960. The visitors could leave their belongings in the basement of the park, had access to sanitary installations and gastronomic services at the first floor, and could rent bath articles and swimsuits. At the Park the marginated parts of the population, including women, found a paid work. The surroundings of the Park became the center of the city. Between the 1960s and 1980s Varadero transformed itself into a cultural centre. During those years the central park (8000 Taquillas) (located between 44th and 46th Street) saw countless concerts, festivals and sporting events. Many famous and infamous people have stayed in Varadero, like Mafia boss Al Capone.The 1990s brought the start of another hotel building campaign, mostly in the 4 and 5 star segment. Many of the hotels are operated or co-owned by foreign businesses like Melia, Barcelo, TRYP, etc. (France's Club Med used to have a property but has since left Varadero.) Parallel to the opening to the international tourism, the local population got more and more supplanted from the communal and economic key positions that were staffed with cadres from other parts of Cuba. As a consequence, Varadero has lost a lot of its social and cutltural life and its traditions. The central park, the cinema and various cultural meeting places were neglected in favor of a hotel-centred all-inclusive-tourism and finally closed. Unique events like the Internation Carnival, an initative of Cubans and Foreigners started in the 1980s, were also liquidated.

Its most valued resource; the beach, has added natural attractions such as the caves and rasp, and a rosary of virgin keys easily accessed. Unfortunately those natural resources today show a lack of care and maintenance and have already lost a lot of ecologic value and attraction. Nevertheless these riches of natural scenery overshadow Varedero's status as the most northern portion of the territory, and other attractions of cultural, historical and environmental character in the vicinity like the cities of Matanzas and Cárdenas, the Peninsula of Zapata and the resort of San Miguel de los Baños. The concept of the Convention Center Plaza America thought as a destination for congresses and to attract tourism has mostly failed. Varadero, which is a free port, possesses conditions for scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, yachting and other water sports.

Varadero receives about 500,000 visitors per year.

As of 2007, Varadero is primarily visited by European, Latin American and Canadian tourists. The number of U.S. tourists visiting Varadero, although increasing, has been limited because of the restrictions that make it illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba as tourist.

Unlike many other Cuban tourism centers, Cubans can visit Varadero even if the all-inclusive-policy restricts the free access to most of the hotels.

In 2007, the municipality of Varadero had a population of about 20,000 between the Hicacos peninsula (7,000) and the two incorporated localities of Santa Marta and Boca de Camarioca. With a total area of 32 km² (12.4 sq mi), it has a population density of 771.3/km² (1,997.7/sq mi).

Cuba climate

Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the Caribbean Sea, with the geographic coordinates 21°3N, 80°00W. Cuba is the principal island, which is surrounded by four main groups of islands. These are the Colorados, the Sabana-Camagüey, the Jardines de la Reina and the Canarreos. The main island of Cuba constitutes most of the nation's land area or 105,006 km² (40,543 sq mi) and is the seventeenth-largest island in the world by land area. The second largest island in Cuba is the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in the southwest, with an area of 3,056 km² (1,180 sq mi). Cuba has a total land area of 110,860 km² (42,803 sq mi).

The main island consists mostly of flat to rolling plains. At the southeastern end is the Sierra Maestra, a range of steep mountains whose highest point is the Pico Real del Turquino at 1,975 meters (6,480 ft). The local climate is tropical, though moderated by trade winds. In general (with local variations), there is a drier season from November to April, and a rainier season from May to October. The average temperature is 21 °C in January and 27 °C in July. Cuba lies in the path of hurricanes, and these destructive storms are most common in September and October. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Better known smaller towns include Baracoa which was the first Spanish settlement on Cuba, Trinidad, a UNESCO world heritage site, and Bayamo.

The Republic of Cuba

The Republic of Cuba or República de Cuba consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles), Isla de la Juventud and several adjacent small islands. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba is south of the eastern United States and The Bahamas, west of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti and east of Mexico. The Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south. The national flower is Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig, most often known as "flor de mariposa" (Butterfly Flower) and the national bird is "Tocororo" or Cuban Trogon from the family of Trogonidae.
Cuba is the most populous insular nation in the Caribbean. Its people, culture and customs draw from several sources including the aboriginal Taíno and Ciboney peoples, the period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of African slaves, and its proximity to the United States. The name "Cuba" comes from the Taíno language the exact meaning of which is unclear, but may be translated either "where fertile land is abundant" (cubao) or "great place" (coabana). The island has a tropical climate that is moderated by the surrounding waters; however, the warm temperatures of the Caribbean Sea and the fact that the island of Cuba sits across the access to the Gulf of Mexico combine to make Cuba prone to frequent hurricanes. Cuba's main island, at 766 miles (1,233 km) long, is the world's 17th largest.