Maria la Gorda and Guanahacabibes

A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Covering Cuba'S Westernmost Peninsula, With Turtle Nesting Beaches, Dry Limestone Forest And One Of The Country'S Best Dive Bases · Sandino, Pinar del Rio

Cuba's western tip is a long limestone peninsula with almost nobody on it, protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since the 1980s and covered in dry forest that iguanas, hutias and vast numbers of land crabs have largely to themselves. The reason most visitors make the drive is the water: at Maria la Gorda the wall comes in close to shore in a sheltered bay, the visibility is among the best in the country, and there are something like fifty dive sites with black coral and occasional whale sharks within a short boat ride. Green and loggerhead turtles come ashore to nest on these beaches through the summer, monitored by a programme visitors can join at night. Beyond, a bad road runs another fifty kilometres to Cabo San Antonio and the Roncali lighthouse, which is the end of Cuba. There is one hotel, no fuel to speak of and no hyperbaric chamber within reach, so the diving that justifies the drive has to be done conservatively and everything else has to be carried in. That difficulty is also why the reef here is in the condition it is.

Maria la Gorda, Peninsula de Guanahacabibes, Sandino, Pinar del Rio, Sandino, Pinar del Rio, Cuba

The reserve is entered past the La Bajada checkpoint, where a fee is paid and GUIDES ARE COMPULSORY for the trails; the trails run in the morning only. Diving is run from the Maria la Gorda base and depends on boats, fuel and weather. TURTLE MONITORING RUNS AT NIGHT IN SEASON, roughly May to September, by arrangement. Everything here depends on fuel; confirm before driving out.

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