Guamá

Zapata wetlands lake complex with Taíno sculptures, swamp walkways, and a faded Cuban resort feel.

Guamá is a tourist complex built in the late 1960s on a string of small islands in the Laguna del Tesoro — "Treasure Lake" — inside the Zapata wetlands, the largest mangrove and swamp ecosystem in the Caribbean. The lake is reached by a 20-minute boat from Boca de Guamá at the head of the inlet, where the road from the Autopista Nacional ends and the crocodile farm sits at the trailhead.

The place is two things at once. It is a Taíno village reconstruction — 32 life-size bronze statues by the sculptor Rita Longa scattered through the cabins and along the wooden walkways, depicting pre-Columbian villagers fishing, weaving and grinding cassava. And it is a small lakeside resort with cabin accommodation, a restaurant, and trails through the swamp forest. The combination is strange, slightly faded, and unlike anywhere else in Cuba.

The wider Zapata wetlands are the real draw for naturalists. The peninsula holds the Zapata Swamp National Park, a Ramsar site supporting Cuban crocodiles, manatees, the endemic Zapata wren and Zapata sparrow, and hundreds of migrating bird species. The crocodile breeding farm at Boca de Guamá runs a serious conservation programme for the critically endangered Cuban crocodile, found in the wild only here. Many visitors combine a day at Guamá with the nearby Bay of Pigs beaches at Playa Larga and Playa Girón, where good shore-diving and cenotes round out a weekend.

Guide

Getting There

Guamá is reached from the Autopista Nacional, the central east-west highway, at the junction signposted for Jagüey Grande and the Zapata peninsula. From there a quiet road runs 32 kilometres south through cane fields and citrus groves to Boca de Guamá, where the dock and the crocodile farm sit at the head of the inlet.

Day trips from Havana (about three hours each way) and from Cienfuegos (around 90 minutes) are easy to arrange — every casa particular and travel desk in either city can book one. Independent travellers can take Viazul buses on the Havana–Trinidad route, which stop at Jagüey Grande; from there a taxi covers the last leg. Most people who stay overnight in the area base themselves at one of the casa particulares in Playa Larga or Playa Girón rather than at Boca itself.

Guide

Things to Do

The set piece is the boat to the Taíno reconstruction on the Laguna del Tesoro, with its Rita Longa sculptures and lakeside cabins. Combine with the crocodile breeding farm at Boca de Guamá and a serious naturalist outing into the Zapata Swamp National Park for the endemic birds. The drive south continues to the Bay of Pigs — Playa Larga and Playa Girón — for snorkelling, shore-diving and the surprisingly good Cueva de los Peces cenote.