Bacunayagua Bridge and the Yumuri Valley

The Highest Bridge In Cuba, Carrying The Havana To Varadero Road A Hundred And Ten Metres Above The Yumuri Valley, With A Clifftop Viewpoint That Is The Standard Stop On The Drive · Matanzas, Matanzas

Between Havana and Varadero the Via Blanca reaches a gorge where the Yumuri river cuts down to the sea, and crosses it on the highest bridge in Cuba - a hundred and ten metres up, three hundred and some metres long, opened in 1959 and counted among the country's modern engineering achievements. The reason to stop is not the structure but what it crosses. On the Matanzas side a mirador stands on the cliff edge with a bar, and from its terrace the Yumuri valley opens out below: a deep green bowl of royal palms running inland between hills, with the sea at the other end. Every coach and taxi on this road stops here and everybody drinks a pina colada, and it is one of the few Cuban tourist rituals that entirely earns itself. The stop takes twenty minutes, costs nothing and needs no arrangement of any kind, and the valley below is named from a story about conquistadors' victims crying out as they died - folk etymology rather than history, and worth enjoying as the story it is. There is no public way down into the valley; the view is the visit.

Puente de Bacunayagua, Via Blanca, Matanzas, Matanzas, Matanzas, Cuba

The bridge carries the Via Blanca and is open at all times; there is no toll. THE MIRADOR on the Matanzas side keeps daytime hours with a bar, a restaurant and a viewing terrace, and is where every coach and taxi between Havana and Varadero stops. Parking is free. The valley below has no public access from the bridge itself.

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