CUBA: PARADISE IN THE CARIBBEAN

Cuba is not just an island, but an archipelago comprising nearly 1600 islands and islets, called cayos, that surround the main island. It is located in the northern part of the vast Caribbean archipelago and is its largest island. To the north are the United States, separated from Cuba by the Strait of Florida only 180 km wide and the North Atlantic Ocean.
It is separated from Central America by the Yucatán channel and closes practically to the North of the Caribbean Sea. Its territory is predominantly flat, with a cordillera extending parallel to the coast. Here the landscape is characterized by luscious limestone formations covered with vegetation. The entire southern coast is surmounted by the mountain chain.

The remarkable coastal development offers a wide variety of marine landscapes, ranging from rocky to high altitude and cliffs, but above all to a vast expanse of beaches with a vast coral reef spreading off the outer islets. In the development of the coast there are deep and wide creeks that make natural harbors of exceptional value and beauty, venues of historic commercial ports of Cuba such as Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos.

I've been to Cuba many years ago when still using analogue photography. That's why I was able to see an island still intact, certainly different from what it looks like today after the removal of the embargo and the US rapprochement. This is reflected, in the least, even on the most certainly integrity environments.
During my visit I could see the province of Matanzas along the North Coast and Cayo Largo Island in the South. The North area is characterized by long beaches, marshes and, inland, by the tropical forest. I've been inside and I climbed the Rio Canimar, one of the main Cuba, to the mouth. The environment of the tropical river is wonderful for the life you are in ( blue crabs big like rabbits, hundreds of vultures) but above all for inflorescences, such as lilies of the eye, and growing vegetation along the banks.
Cayo Largo is perhaps one of the most famous coral reefs in Cuba. It is part of a Natural Park and has all the features of coral atolls with clear waters, coral reefs and many wildlife. Here we visited a nearby islet, Cayo Iguana, where, like the name says, I photographed the Caribbean iguanas.
I could dive on a coral reef off and I watched a cologne of Strombus gigas, a large sea shellfish with an impressive shell during the mating phase.

In short, Cuba is certainly an equatorial forest fence amidst an incredible sea that deserves the planning of a visit to the discovery of its beauties, but also of its people.

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