Topes de Collantes

A Protected Area In The Escambray Mountains Above Trinidad, With Waterfalls, Coffee Plantations And An Enormous Batista Era Sanatorium Turned Health Resort · Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus

Behind Trinidad the Escambray mountains rise to about a thousand metres, and the protected area of Topes de Collantes sits in the middle of them - pine and tree-fern forest, coffee plantations, and half a dozen waterfalls in steep river valleys. The best known is the Salto del Caburni, sixty-two metres into a pool you can swim in, reached by a descent of two and a half kilometres that is easy going down and a serious climb coming back. Parque Guanayara and Parque Codina have gentler walks and their own falls. The oddity in the middle of it all is the Kurhotel: a vast concrete block begun under Batista as a tuberculosis sanatorium, finished as something else, and now a health resort, which sits in the forest looking like a misplaced hospital and is worth seeing for its strangeness alone. The road up from Trinidad is steep enough that visitors are taken up in shared jeeps and trucks rather than driving themselves, which sets the tone for the day.

Topes de Collantes, Sierra del Escambray, Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

The protected area charges an entry fee per person and the individual trails and waterfalls have their own small charges. Access is by the steep road from Trinidad, usually in a shared jeep or truck arranged the day before - ORDINARY HIRE CARS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED AND SOMETIMES NOT PERMITTED on that road. Trails close after heavy rain. Transport depends on fuel.

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