Punta del Este Cave Paintings

Seven Coastal Caves Holding Around Two Hundred And Thirty Five Pre Columbian Pictographs, Called The Sistine Chapel Of Caribbean Rock Art, Inside A Restricted Military Zone · Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud

On the south-eastern tip of Isla de la Juventud, seven caves in a low limestone headland hold the finest pre-Columbian rock art in the Caribbean: something like two hundred and thirty-five pictographs, mostly concentric circles in red and black with lines radiating out of them, painted on the walls and ceilings. A shipwrecked sailor found them in 1910. The Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz studied them and called the main chamber the Sistine Chapel of Caribbean aboriginal art, a description that has stuck. They are generally read as calendrical, with the design of the largest tracking something in the sky, though the interpretations are contested and should be taken as such. Everything here sits inside the restricted southern zone, so you need a permit, a guide and a willingness to be turned back. It is two hours of rough track each way from Nueva Gerona with nothing along it, which is why almost nobody has seen the best rock art in the Caribbean.

Cuevas de Punta del Este, southern restricted zone, Isla de la Juventud, Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba

Daylight visits only, and ONLY WITH A PERMIT AND A GUIDE obtained at the CAYO PIEDRA CHECKPOINT, which controls the whole southern half of the island. Arrangements are made a day ahead in Nueva Gerona. ACCESS HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR LONG PERIODS, for conservation and for military reasons, and should be confirmed before any journey. Around two hours by rough road from Nueva Gerona.

Punta del Este Cave Paintings on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos