Posted some trip picts online of a visit to Cayo Guillermo, Cuba in February. There is also a gallery of underwater picts taken there also.

This was our 3rd trip to Cuba and by far the most enjoyable. We visited Varadero Beach and Guardalavaca Beach in Holguin previously. Cayo Guillermo is a cay on the north central coast of Cuba just to the west of Cayo Coco which is a more well known resort area. Both cays are similar geographically to the out islands of the Bahamas and many other islands that lie on reefs in the Carribean with fairly low lying terrain and a lot of salt ponds and mangrove flats and swamps on the interior. The north coast of the cays have incredible stretches of white sand beaches with fantastic clear blue waters with great stretches of reef off shore, I believe the reef is the 2nd largest reef in the World but could be wrong.

Cayo Guillermo's biggest claim to fame is that it was one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite spots to fish. He spent a time in the area fishing and on the lookout for German subs off shore during WWII (which some believe was a great way to get the US government to finance his fishing trips). It is said to be the area that inspired The Old Man and the Sea and he mentions it in Islands in the Stream. The only real connection to him now one of the nicest beaches, Playa Pilar , is named after his fishing boat the El Pilar. It is still one of the more popular areas in Cuba for sport fishing.

We stayed at the Iberostar Daiquiri and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was especially considering how little we paid for the trip. The grounds were amazing, food was great, rooms fine, service was excellent and location was perfect on a long palm fringed white sand beach. The resort is an AI as just about all resorts in Cuba are and that was fine by us as it was a last minute vacation for us taken in a year when we were debating not going on one at all to save a little money to pay off a new boat for the cottage. The resort had a couple of a la carte restaurants open in the evenings but we never bothered with them as the main buffet always had lots to choose from with a variety of stations setup with cooks preparing food by order. Had some spicy grilled calimari that was the best we have ever had. The room we had was on the second floor with a private deck with an ocean view but the palms blocked us from seeing most of it. Room was fairly close to everything but the really nice part of the resort was it just wasn't that large so getting around was never a problem as it often can be on larger resorts with things spread so far apart that you spend a lot of time just navigating the resort.

The main beach where the resorts are located (there are 3 others on it) is about a 3 mile stretch of soft white sand. The water is really shallow and when the tide is low large sand bars appear water which makes wandering the beach really enjoyable. There was one sand bar that you could walk to that was way offshore. Seemed to be a great location for kite surfing and there were quite a few out when the wind was up. There are a few piers off the beach at a couple of the resorts and they offered the best snorkeling from shore near the resorts as the bottom was mainly sand or sea grass patches closer in. There were huge schools of fish under one of the piers and I saw 5 dreaded lion fish hanging around one of the pilings. First time I have ever seen them anywhere. Also saw a small barracuda and lots of needlefish. The reef is fairly far offshore but there are boats that will take you to it from the beach for $14 CUC ( A CUC is roughly on par with a US or CND dollar).

We love exploring new beaches and the main reason we chose this area of Cuba was that it appeared to have some really nice ones to add to our collection so we decided to rent a car to check out some of them. Contrary to popular belief Cuba does have newer vehicles these days not just old '50 Chevy's (which there are still quite a few of) held together by chewing gum and bailing wire and we were given a small standard shift Chinese made rental car . What we weren't given was any gas in it and the guage was on E. I was told that I would have to go get some gas for it and I said, "No problem. How far is it?" and the guys says, "Not far - only 35kms away." Seeing as it looked likely I would be hitchhiking unless this car ran on fumes I decided to go get the gas myself and let Tracey relax on the beach until I got back. The car did make it to the gas station but there was space between the needle and E when I got there and it only took an hour and a half round trip!

Gas trip worked out in the end cause on the way back I stopped to have a look at Playa Flamenco a beach I had seen picts of on Google Earth that looked really nice. I was blown away by one of the nicest beaches I have seen and the only thing on it was me, a lobster shack beach bar and restaurant and a couple of beach dawg puppies. No one or anything else in sight anywhere on the beach. The guy running the restaurant came out when he saw me with a big uncooked lobster tail on a plate and said I could have it grilled with peas and rice and veggies for $15. I said sold but I had to go get the boss and would come back. We returned a little later and spent the afternoon walking and swimming with the beach all to ourselves and a grilled lobster lunch to cap it off. We toured around a bit more and had a look at the beach at Cayo Coco which was also nice but it has a lot of resorts on it and lots of people so we didn't spend too much time there. Stopped at a couple of other spots along the coast and there is certainly no shortage of beaches in the area to explore.

Playa Pilar is by far the most popular beach in the area and is said to be the nicest beach in Cuba.You could walk or drive to it from the resort or take a taxi or a local bus for 5 CUC return that ran about every hour. We waited for a nice hot sunny day and took the bus. It's an amazing beach and we added it to our top 10 list right off the bat and it is likely in the top 5. As a scale of reference our #1 beach is Cow Wreck on Anegada, #2 Loblolly on Anegada and a couple on Eleuthera in the Bahamas taking 2 of the other top spots so this beach was no slouch. The water is crystal clear and the sand is a soft white pink. You can wade fairly far off shore before it gets deep with just a soft white sand bottom. There are no hotels or any development on the beach other than a restaurant/bar that sells grilled lobster or fish or shrimp. The beach has well built sun shades and you can rent beach chairs if you want them. The beach is popular though and there were quite a few tourists and locals there that day. There are a couple of catamaran day sails that also stop at the beach as part of their tour but only adds to the scenery if you like sailboats.

There is an island offshore from Playa Pilar on the reef called Isla Medea Luna (Half Moon Island) and a boat will run you out to it and drop you off there for as long as you want to snorkel and explore. The island has a couple of small beaches and there is another lobster shack restaurant there so you could easily spend a whole day there with no problem. I took the boat over mainly to go snorkle the reef while Tracey stayed at Playa Pilar and read her book as she's not a big snorkeler. There is a guide who will take you out to a wreck on the reef and a snorkel and goggles are included with your fare for the boat ride to the island but I had my own and when I got there a guided tour was already out at the wreck. The tour group came back in while I headed out but I was able to find the wreck and spent a fair bit of time exploring it on my own. The wreck was a steamship that hit the reef in 1925 when it missed a channel while coming in to replenish it. The boiler tank is still clearly visible along with a few other parts but the hull is pretty disintegrated for the most part. Hard to tell how big the ship was but it had to be a fair sized one as the wreckage is spread quite a ways across the bottom. Water is crystal clear on the reef and the guides feed the fish when the tours are out there so hundreds of fish will swarm around you in some spots which was a lot of fun.

We didn't do a whole lot more besides beach exploring and relaxing at the resort on this trip. We rented a scooter one cloudy morning and were lucky enough to see 2 elusive wild flamingos in one of the salt ponds and stopped on a bridge to visit with some fisherman fishing from it. We also visited a couple of the other resorts nearby to check them out and came away pretty sure ours was the nicest of the bunch. One of them was scary for sure and we were glad we weren't staying there. There is quite a bit of other stuff to do if you are inclined to and there are a variety of tours including an overnight trip to Havana by air (its 400km away) which was a fairly decent price but we were happy just being beach bums. We really enjoyed the area and the resort and decided that we may have to go back sometime and explore a few more of the other beaches before they get developed which judging by the road construction to some of them must be in the works. Can't keep beaches like that a secret for too long. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />