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Forum Admin: Lily
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Lily
15/2/2001
19:13:54
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 Sujet - Subject: program for the tour to Isla de la Juventud
IP: 864_0.clargo
As promise before, here's the english tranlation for the desciption of the excursion to Isla de la Juventud (Island of Youth)...
This excursion is being sold as "treasure island". This island which changed name many times has a very interesting history.
- Pick at the hotel at 08h00
- 40-45 min. flight in an Aerotaxi (small propeller plane built in the 30's!)
- A bus takes us to Nueva Gerona (the capital)
- We stroll Nueva Gerona main street. Visit of 2 art galeries.
- We go for a drink on a nice shaded terrace with traditional musicans playing the typical Sucu sucu music.
- We stroll main street again and the central park. Visit of the church.
- Visit of the city museum. History of the island.
- Visit of a small artisanal ceramic factory
- Back on the road going south.
- Visit of the famous Presidio Modelo, a prison which is now closed down. Fidel Castro has being held prisoner there.
- Visit of the ecological reserve La Jungla de Jones (many species of trees).
- Lunch in the Bambou cathedral, a small clearing surrounded by bambou trees which almost makes a roof over our heads!
- Visit of a small crocodile farm
- Back to Cayo Largo around 17h30-18h00
For me the strong points of this tour were first the visit of La Jungla de Jones, it's very pleasant to walk in this beautiful natural botanical garden which was made-up by an americain couple at the beginning of the century. A curious thing: the guy who takes care of the place knows how to call the chickens! He does a sound with his mouth and suddenly dozens of chicken run from everywhere and then follows him around! It was very special! Another fun thing was to hold a 3-month baby crocodile in my hands at the crocodile farm! The prison is also very impressive to visit, it's huge with circular cell blocs. The cells had no door, a prisoner who was going out of his cell was shot without any warning. We can really imagine the horrible conditions.
Nueva Gerona seems like a very pleasant city to live in. You won't see many tourists there and no sollicitation. Do not take this excursion if you expect going shopping, there's not much to buy! It's not commercial, just a small typical cuban city.
And now the small disappointments ... The indian cave is not included in the tour. In the city musuem, there are some nice pictures of the ancient paintings found there. I think that they could be able to include this visit even if it's a bit far, because the pace of the excursion is very slow, I think they could perhaps skip the crocodile farm (this is something that can be seen at many other places) to include the cave instead. I made this sugggestion, don't hesitate to do the same, maybe next year the cave will be included in the tour. Also, we didn't see Hotel Colony and its well known scuba diving center, as I thought we would. It's on the opposite site of the island, therefore a little bit too far!
In conclusion, it was a very pleasant day, I discovered another aspect of Cuba and its history. I sure would like to go back there some day. Many of the hotels staff live in Isla de la Juventud. Upon my return it was fun to see how curious et enthusiatic they were to know that I visited THEIR island, they are very proud about it!
Lily
P.S. By the way, please excuse my english writing, I did this one a little bit too fast ;)
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Mike and Anna
15/2/2001
21:11:01
| RE: program for the tour to Isla de la Juventud
IP: 864_1.clargo
Many thanks Lily!!!!
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