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Coat of Arms

Brief Data
  • Name:
  • Area:
  • Capital:
  • Currency:
  • Population:
  • National Day:
  • Cuba
  • 110,861 km2
  • Havana
  • Pesos (CUC)
  • 11,382,820
  • 1 January

Detailed Map

Tourism
GoCuba.ca

Other Facts:
  • Coordinates:
  • Lowest Pt.:
  • Highest Pt.:
  • Median Age:
  • Ethnicity:
  • and
  • 21 30 N, 80 00 W
  • Caribbean Sea 0m
  • PicoTurquino 2005m
  • 36.3 years
  • Mulatto 51%
  • white 37%
Introduction

Cuba is the most populous Caribbean country. Its people, culture and customs draw from several sources including the aboriginal Taíno and Ciboney peoples, the period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of African slaves, and its proximity to the United States.

Havana

Havana, founded in 1515, is one of the oldest cities founded by Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. The city was protected by walls and fortificaions as it was often attacked by pirates and French corsairs.

Old Havana and its fortifications are protected by UNESCO. Ciudad de La Habana, meaning "City of Havana," is considered a province, despite its name. Its name is based upon the one of Chief Habaguanex.

Matanzas

Matanzas is called the city of bridges, of which there are seventeen crossing the three rivers that traverse the city (Rio Yumuri, San Juan, and Canimar). For this reason it was referred to as the "Venice of Cuba." It was also called "La Atenas de Cuba" (the Athens of Cuba) for its poets.

Varadero

Varadero is first and foremost a tourist resort town, boasting more than 20 km of white sandy beaches. Tourism grew in the early 1930s as Irénée du Pont Nemours, an American millionaire, built his estate on the peninsula.

But the first tourists visited Varadero as early as the 1870s, and for years it was considered an elite resort. In 1910 the annual rowing regatta was started, five years later the first hotel, named Varadero.