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LAS TERRAZAS
Tourism in the heart of the
country
• A community with
architecture in harmony with its surroundings
BY LISANKA GONZALEZ SUAREZ—Granma International
staff writer—
FOR a long time, Cuba’s
sun and sea have been almost exclusively its main
attractions to international tourism. The beauty
and quality of its beaches and cays, and its
climate that feels like summer almost year round,
have contributed to making this Caribbean nation
known primarily as a beach destination.
However, beyond its coasts,
in the heart of the country, there is a diversity
of ecosystems, habitats of plants and animals that
are endemic to this small dot of the world’s map,
practically unknown.
Nature did not create
large mountains or extensive rivers in Cuba. Its
forests are not inhabited by imposing animals and
plants, but its landscapes are so picturesque, it’s
as if they were painted by hand.
The Las Terrazas complex,
51 kilometers from the capital, is an example of
that beauty. Nestled in the Sierra del Rosario, a
mountain range with a surface area of 25,000
hectares of summits, plains and valleys in the
eastern end of Pinar del Río province in western
Cuba. The natural riches of this site made it
worthy of UNESCO declaring it the first Biosphere
Reserve in Cuba in 1985.
Las Terrazas is impressive
from the first glance, not just because of the
panorama made up of its clear-water rivers and
tree-covered mountains, but also because the
community, its hotel and other facilities were
built in perfect harmony with the landscape.
Based on a forest
development and environmental conservation
experiment initiated in 1968, six million trees
were planted, 1,500 kilometers of terraces were
built and 150 kilometers of mountain paths were
laid.
For the hundreds of
campesinos who used to live dispersed and isolated
in these mountains, “scattered by God’s hands,” as
the saying goes, new options became possible. In
1978, 225 homes were built in a community for them
and they moved in, bringing their customs,
traditions and mountain culture, to start a new
life.
Since then, the children
have grown up, the families have grown, and
currently the site has 1,000 residents who enjoy
the same benefits as the rest of the country’s
population, including medical services, schools,
movie theaters, a museum, a library and other
facilities for broadening their cultural horizons.
And in 1994, the Las
Terrazas Complex was built in 1994, a “rural
experience of sustainable development that
includes tourist activity,” and employs a large
number of the community’s residents. Built on a
hill in San Juan Valley, with the river of the
same name circling round, the Hotel Moka was
constructed in an impeccable and beautiful
colonial architecture style that does not break at
all with its surroundings.
The place is the
preference, above all, of visitors from the United
Kingdom, closely followed by French and German
lovers of ecotourism.
Here, it would seem like
nothing has been forgotten. And for those who like
to live in a domestic environment or learn how
Cuban families live, rooms can be taken in about
five campesino homes in the community.
The home of Margarito and
Fermina, a couple that lived in a remote spot in
the Sierra until 1971, is one of them. Along with
the possibility of living in simple, natural
surroundings, they offer their guests the
traditional hospitality of the Pinar del Río
campesinos.
The experiment seems to
have gone beyond forestry development and
environmental conservation, showing how it is
possible to foster sustainable economic and human
development in perfect harmony: humankind and
nature, environment and development. |
