Desembarco del Granma National Park

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Desembarco Del Granma National Park, 1999), Inscribed For The Best Preserved System Of Uplifted Marine Terraces In The World · Niquero, Granma

This park is inscribed for its geology, which is an unusual thing for a place better known for a boat. In December 1956 the yacht Granma landed Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and eighty others on this coast to begin the revolution; most were killed or captured within days and about a dozen reached the Sierra Maestra. That landing gave its name to the park and to the whole province. What UNESCO listed in 1999, though, is the staircase the coast is built from: the most complete and best-preserved system of uplifted marine terraces anywhere on earth, rising in giant steps from below sea level to more than three hundred metres, with limestone cliffs, caves and blowholes cut into them. There is also the El Guafe trail, where a Taino water goddess is carved into a cave. It is a long way from anywhere on roads that are poor in the best of years, and almost nobody comes - which makes it one of the least visited World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean.

Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma, Cabo Cruz, Niquero, Granma, Niquero, Granma, Cuba

Open daylight hours with an entrance fee and guides available at the park office; the El Guafe trail and Cabo Cruz are the main visitor points. Access is by road from Manzanillo or Bayamo via Niquero and is SLOW AND ROUGH - several hours from either. Whether guides and transport are operating depends on fuel. Storms damage the coast road.

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