Diving into Cuba’s far west

PIERRE CONSTANT has been on another of his epic dive-trips to unexpected locations – this time he has been encountering creatures of the sea, land and air off the beaten track, from western Cuba down to the Bay of Pigs 

At the confluence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is an archipelago of 4,195 islands and cays in the northern Caribbean Sea. 

Key West lies 150km away across the Strait of Florida to the north-west, the Bahamas is 22km north, Haiti 77km east, Jamaica 140km south and Mexico 210km west across the Yucatan channel. 

The Caribbean’s biggest island, Cuba is 1,250km long, mainly flat but with some rolling plains. Its highest point lies in the Sierra Maestra mountains to the south-east. The population of 11.3 million speak mainly Spanish, Haitian Creole and English.

The Caribbean current brings warm water from the Equator, and Cuba has a tropical climate, with north-east trade winds blowing for most of the year. Dry season extends from November to April and average air temperatures are 21°C in January and 27°C in July.

Western and central Cuba is an “orogenic belt” – a mountain range by uplift – created during the Cretaceous period. Jurassic and Cretaceous limestone is conspicuous in the west in the form of massive ranges and outcrops. 

Active fault systems cause several earthquakes each year and the last major ’quake – one with a magnitude of 7 or above – was in January 2020.

Journey from Havana

Viazul’s Yutong Chinese bus made it from Havana to Pinar del Rio in three hours. From there, negotiating the winding road through the hills to Vinales took 45 minutes. 

Nestled in the lush green mountain scenery, the little town was a highlight on any tourist map. I had hired a car to continue my journey to Maria La Gorda in the far west, and showed up at the agency that afternoon to check that it would be ready first thing the next morning.

“We cannot make the contract on the computer now because we have no electricity,” I was told. “It’s on for three hours and off for nine hours. Come back before 6pm.” The man was not friendly. 

“Bienvenidos a Cuba, viva la Revolucion!” I thought. 

Once the electricity was back on, it took more than an hour to arrange the contract. The man was a bully, and I emerged in a state of agitation. The Hyundai Grand i10 – for which I had paid a high price – was bumped and scratched on all sides. It was not an auspicious start.

Early the next day I set off. It took three and a half hours on a terrible potholed road to reach Maria La Gorda and a government-owned hotel on the Bay of Corrientes. 

It faced the Strait of Yucatan to the west and the Caribbean to the south, with a white sandy beach and a line of coconut trees fringing turquoise waters. The sun was high and there was hardly a soul around. 

My upstairs room in the old yellow cement building was OK. I made myself at home after paying a visit to the laid-back dive-centre, next to the beach bar and restaurant. After hectic Havana, it all felt relaxing. 

Two big steel-hulled dive-boats were moored at the jetty, and there were new aluminum tanks. Cuban cigar in hand, Rafael the dive manager had the cool face of Richard Gere.

6,000 years of history

Hunter-gatherers from north-eastern South America, the Guanahatabey people settled on Cuba 6,000 years ago, in the process causing the extinction of endemic fauna such as the sloth. 

Then, 1,700 years ago, Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taino arrived. They farmed, and produced pottery. Pushed west, descendants of the Guanahatabey roamed western Cuba while the Taino cultivated cassava, cotton and tobacco. 

Christopher Columbus explored the north-east coast in 1492 and the south coast two years later. Cuba was fully mapped by Sebastian de Ocampo in 1508. 

Having defeated the fierce Taino the island fell to the Spanish in 1514, and a south coast settlement was founded. Local populations might have been friendly but they were still butchered or enslaved by the invaders. 

In 1519, Hernan Cortès launched his conquest of the Aztec empire from Santiago de Cuba via Yucatan. The native people were largely destroyed by diseases such as measles and smallpox after 1550, while the invaders learnt how to grow tobacco and smoke it in cigars. 

Spanish colonists shared DNA with indigenous women. They established sugar and tobacco plantations and imported slaves from Africa. Colonial Cuba was a frequent target of buccaneers and French corsairs.

In 1741 the British captured Guantanamo Bay and later Havana and took control of the west, opening trade with North American and Caribbean colonies. The British then exchanged Cuba for Florida. 

Spain followed Britain in officially abolishing the slave trade in 1820, but Cuba persisted with slavery through the 19th century, towards the end of which there was a boom in Cuban sugar. Most of this went to the USA, and towards the building of new roads and railways.

After the success of the French Revolution and the revolt of the black slaves in Haiti, Cuba’s own declaration of independence came in 1868, followed by a war of independence (1895) and a handing over to the USA (1898). Finally, in 1902, an independent Republic of Cuba was born. 

The Cuban Revolution took place between 1953 and 1959, the year in which the Marxist leader Fidel Castro with Che Guevara opened a new page of Cuban history.

Paraiso Perdido

It was my first day of diving, the sun out, the sky blue and the bay like a lake, with hardly a breeze. A group of 12 American students with their university professor, working in conservation, joined the boat. With little diving experience, it took them a long time to get ready for their ‘refresher’. 

Paraiso Perdido was a 25-minute boat ride towards Cabo Corrientes, following the coastline of uplifted coral limestone. The water was warm at 27°C, so I wouldn’t need a shorty. 

Visibility under water was excellent. The offshore reef was surrounded by white sand. The bottom was full of brown-looking gorgonians, with some pink vase sponges, golden yellow tube sponges and barrel sponges. 

Marine life was vibrant. Schools of fish included blue striped grunt (Haemulon sciurus) and French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum) with their yellow diagonal stripes. 

The Creole wrasse (Clepticus parrae) was a typical Caribbean species in a mix of blue, black, purple, yellow and white. Small but attractive, bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum) were very active. 

Marvels included the Spanish hogfish (Bodianus rufus), half purple-pink above and half yellow on the belly. Dorsally black with white diamonds and a flashy red belly, the female stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) was a stunner. 

Purple common seafans (Gorgonia ventalina) abounded. A little school of silvery bar jack (Caranx ruber) with a black stripe at the rear and another on the lower caudal fin zoomed past me in a flash.

Acuario & Almirante

Acuario was a true aquarium in 8m of water. The smooth trunkfish (Lactpphrys trinqueter) was exquisite, as was the elusive French angelfish (Pomacanthus paru). The four-eyed butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) with a black spot on the rear side were charming. Blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) were everywhere.

Almirante was an offshore fringing reef preceded by a white sandy bottom. I glided over a prairie of garden eels before reaching the drop-off plummeting into the deep. Filamentous sponges in orange, purple-red or brown were numerous and I saw bushes of copper brown-black coral of a good size. 

A lone great barracuda and a crevalle jack (Caranx hippos) cruised by in the blue. Thirty-four metres down, an attractive porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) with yellow horizontal stripes and a double black stripe on its bluish-white face left me breathless. 

I marvelled at a queen angelfish (Holacantus ciliaris), blue and yellow face with waves of yellow-edged scales on its sides. Creole wrasse (Clepticus parrae), dark blue with black head, streamed by in formation. Bermuda chub (Kyphosus sectatrix) and white grunt (Haemulon plumieri) observed the divers with curiosity.

Patio de Vanessa was a shallow dive. I landed by a seafan hosting two lovely flamingo tongue shells (Cyphoma gibbosum) in yellow-orange, with a square design along the dorsal ridge. Banded butterflyfish (Chaetodon striatus) reminded me of the Galapagos. A grey angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus) looked like a prince.

Cabezo de Ludo

A short distance from Maria La Gorda, an old cement pier hosted a collection of royal terns basking in the sun. The beach extended south towards Cabo Corrientes, ending on coral rubble. 

I entered a forest of Florida thatched palms, known locally known as Guano de Costa. Black with red heads, turkey vultures flew back and forth above the coastline. A trail into the palm forest outlined the edge of a saltwater lagoon inhabited by caimans: “They're not aggressive!” I was told.

Cabezo de Ludo lay close to Cabo Corrientes and was a wall dive where I met a spotted spiny lobster of a good size and a large tiger grouper (Mycteroperca tigris). The rock beauty angelfish (Holacanthus tricolor) had a golden-yellow head with a black body.

An eagle ray flew by, and at the other end of the scale I had the surprise of seeing a cream-white lettuce sea slug (Elysia crispate).

Bored with the food at Maria La Gorda, which had offered little choice, few vegetables and frozen fish for days, I set off to drive to a nearby village – but found that the car wouldn’t start! 

A passing mechanic determined that the fuel-pump had stopped working and the battery was flat. I had to call the rental company in Pinar del Rio for replacement parts, and the truck didn’t show up until well after dark.

Cadena Misteriosa

Cadena Misteriosa was another wall dive, bordering an inner lagoon. A diamond sting ray took off from the sand with a fish on top.

Yellow-head wrasse (Halichoeres garnoti) caught my attention, as did redband parrotfish (Scarus aurofrenatum). Returning over the top of the reef we faced a strong current from the south and had a tough time of it, pumping air wildly!

Ancla de François was shallow and quiet. Rafael, the dive-leader, displayed a tame juvenile lionfish between his hands and pointed out an awesome juvenile spotted drum (Equetus punctatus) in black and white, with its exquisite crescent shape.

My vehicle now working again, I made it to the village of La Bajada for lunch. At Maité’s casa particular, a Cuban bed & breakfast, they agreed to provide a fish meal if I was prepared to wait 90 minutes for it. 

“Follow the track along the seashore to Poza de Agua Dulce,” I was told. This was a freshwater sinkhole near the seashore in Guanahacabibes National Park and perfect for a swim. Back at Maité’s place, a royal meal was waiting: snapper with rice, black beans, vegetables and papaya for dessert.

Once done with my diving at Maria la Gorda, I headed off to Cabo San Antonio. Cuba’s westernmost point is a 75km drive into the wilderness of Guanahacabibes National Park. Near the visitor’s centre at La Bajada I came across a migration of red crabs on the road. 

“Do you have a spare tyre?” asked the guide. 

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“There’s a 50% chance that you will have a punctured tyre from one of the crab’s claws,” I was told. 

It was raining and I didn’t fancy getting into trouble so I postponed the trip and instead walked into the forest with a local ranger. The endemic birds were fascinating: the bee hummingbird; the Cuban emerald, a hummingbird with dark green plumage; the loggerhead kingbird and the Cuban pewee. In a shallow cave, a Cuban boa was hunting for bats.

Finale in Vinales

I headed back to Guanahacabibes national park the next day, with wild pigs roaming on the roadside as well as the Desmarest hutia, a fat brown rodent with a capibara’s face, and white-tailed deer. 

An endemic Cuban iguana was basking on a branch in the sun and caimans floated lazily on the surface of a lagoon. Cabo Corrientes and Cabo San Antonio had been refuges for British, Dutch and French pirates in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Opposing the rule of Spain and the commercial monopoly of the port of Seville, their contraband was the norm back in the day. Several shipwrecks have been found in the area.

I returned to the car, nervous about running out of fuel before reaching Pinar del Rio. A few days in Vinales proved great for nature walks, visiting a tobacco plantation and tasting a unique rum made of tiny guayaba fruit. Limestone caves included the thrilling Cueva de Palmarito, an underground river and lake.

Playa Giron

Playa Giron on the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the south coast was part two of my trip. A couple of Viazul bus trips via Havana were required to get there.

One casa particular ran its own dive-centre, and diver-owner Julio had a long-standing reputation for providing a personal service. 

Juan Carlos, Julio’s assistant, showed up with his vintage matt-silver car pulling a homemade trailer. “A Russian Volga, model 1989, from the best country in the world,” he proclaimed. The 35-year-old car had done its time but “it runs great with its new Hyundai engine”.

We reached Punta Perdix, zigzagging between swarms of the red land crabs known as zombie crabs. These come in four colour morphs: black, red, yellow and green, and they head out towards the sea to spawn, though many are crushed in the process and provide a free meal for the turkey vultures. 

The eggs of those that make it hatch in the sea, where the larvae live as plankton and return to land as megalopa larvae.

In Playa Giron, the diving was shore-based. Divers kit up on the uplifted limestone shelf, jump into the sea and swim 100-150m out over the sandy shallows. Surface conditions are usually perfect, though it can be rough if the wind blows. 

Dressed in his 7mm wetsuit, Julio took me straight to the drop-off. Visibility was good and the slope was full of purple-blue-red filamentous sponges, orange sponges, vase sponges and the classic yellow tube sponges, though few fish. “People have to live, you see,” I was told. 

We passed a sunken upturned fishing-boat where two big Santoyo crabs (Mithrax spinosissimus) with impressive claws hid. A grey angelfish cruised by as I sank to 27m, and a large Cubera snapper (Lutjanus cyanopterus) proved inquisitive. 

A spiny lobster was on the look-out outside its hole. A blue and white cleaner shrimp with long claws (Periclimenes yucatanicus) danced in its anemone.

Weather-dependent, Julio took me to dive-sites with canyons and swim-throughs at depth. It was an opportunity to meet new representatives of the Hypoplectrus genus, which has no fewer than 18 species. Related to grouper, these small hamlets are found from the Bahamas to Yucatan. 

I got shots of the indigo (Hypoplectrus indigo); shy (H guttavarius); golden (H gummigutta); barred (H puella) and butter hamlet (H unicolor) varieties.

Cueva de los Peces

Cueva de los Peces was described as a cave dive. Hardly 100m from the seashore, this waterhole had fresh water above and salt water below. A tectonic fault running along the coast connected different cenotes.

Plummeting to 70m, it was a dark abyss between straight walls but held limited appeal for one who has enjoyed the magnificent cave-diving in Yucatan.

More rewarding was a stroll in the forest with experienced birdwatcher Leoncio. It allowed me to see the endemic Cuban pygmy owl; magnificent Cuban trogon, the national bird; and the ravishing Cuban tody in apple green, white and red. 

In a cave full of Jamaïcan fruit bats, a Cuban boa was stalking in the darkness. Cuba is full of natural wonders for those who have the time and dedication.

Toward the end of my trip I was at Cienfuegos bus station, waiting for the Viazul bus to Trinidad. The hall was crowded, people talking loudly on their phones and others shouting in the background. A local bus had been cancelled and the passengers were angrily gathering around a man in charge. 

A telephone was ringing relentlessly in a deserted office – it all sounded like a madhouse. A compassionate Cuban suddenly leaned towards me, and whispered: “Sorry, señor, this is Cuba… it’s complicated.”

Also on Divernet: BE THE CHAMP! – CUBA, WRECK ARCHIVES SURPRISE SPANISH RESEARCHERS, CARIBBEAN PEARL THE JARDINES DE LA REINA, THE AMERICAN CROCODILES OF CUBA