Baracoa

Baracoa, Cuba's oldest city, is perfect for independent–minded travellers seeking somewhere just a little bit different. It has an atmosphere all its own. One as haunting in its fantastical unfamiliarity as it is enchanting in its beauty. The town looks and feels antique, with its little fortresses and streets lined with venerable wooden edifices, rickety and humbled with age. And Baracoa's setting seems fit for a Hollywood epic. Baracoa spread–eagles below a dramatic flat–topped formation – El Yunque (the anvil) – that floats mysteriously above the surrounding hills, forming a great amphitheatre flowing down to the Bahía Miel (Bay of Honey). Baracoa's beauty is never more evident than at dawn and when viewed from the Hotel El Castillo, which occupies a former fortress – Castillo Seburuco – constructed in the 1730s atop a promontory that offers a bird's–eye view over town. Below, tiny red–roofed wooden houses are cloaked in shadow.

The town was the first of seven villas founded by Diego Velásquez de Cuellar. Hatuey, a local cacique (chieftain) who led an ill–fated Indian resistance to Spanish brutality, is honored with a bust in Plaza Independencia. The church here displays an antique cross – the 'Cruz de la Parra' – that locals swear was left by Columbus himself on October 27, 1492. An uphill stroll from town to the Museo Arqueológico, where Indian skeletons lie curled up in a funerary cave. To learn about local history, head to Fuerte Matachín, guarding the eastern approach to town; it has been converted into a small museum.

Baracoa is acclaimed for its regional cuisine, with coconut as a staple. Cacao is grown hereabouts and is the source for Baracoan chocolate. The Casa del Chocolate, on Calle Antonio Maceo, sells hot chocolate beverage, mousses, and bars, while the Fábrica de Cucurucho, on the west side of the bay, is a great place to buy cucurucho – delicious chocolate and coconut candy.

You can burn off the sugar with invigorating hikes to the summit of El Yunque, and in nearby Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt, where colored snails – polymites – are unique to the region. Just getting to Baracoa is its own adventure as you ascend from Guantánamo via La Farola, a mountain road that switchbacks up and over the Sierra Cristal

Fishing village and port of 10,600 people. Built on the West shore of the sheltered Guantanamo Bay, just N of the US naval base. Ships chiefly sugarcane and coffee.

Residents of this remote, south–eastern community of steaming, narrow streets and weathered wooden houses are the closest Cuban neighbours to the US military camp now filling up with prisoners from the war on Afghanistan.

"Thanks to the base, Caimanera grew,'' said Ofelia Garcia, the community's historian. "But it has also suffered much because of its presence. We have not been able to develop a normal life here.'' The community of fishermen and salt mine workers flourished at the beginning of the 20th century precisely because of the base's construction.

It was a magnet for Cuban workers and a popular spot for visitors, including Cubans from across the island and people from nearby countries such as Jamaica. The base, Garcia said, eventually had thousands of Cuban employees. Many American military officers and their families lived off base in Caimanera.

That all changed in 1959 when Fidel Castro came to power through a revolution. In a little less than three years, Cuban defence forces formed a military zone along the 17–mile perimeter of the American base, seen on this side as enemy territory. During that period, thousands of Cuban employees were fired or quit their jobs at the base, Garcia said. Today, less than a dozen Cubans work there.Many former workers left, but those who stayed – and successive generations – learned to live with the watchtowers, the fences, and the proximity of mine fields around the U.S. installation.

Situated 90km east of Santiago and a few kilometres north of the bay of the same name. Guantanamo City has about 208,000 inhabitants and most of them live from producing sugarcane and cotton wool.

Guantanamera ("The girl from Guantanamo") is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song. The lyrics are based on the first poem in the collection Simple Verses by Cuban nationalist poet José Martí, adapted by Julian Orban. The music was composed by Fernandez Dias.

The city seems to have two rather unfortunate unofficial emblems. One is a depot crammed with rusting buses that have no fuel, the other is an apartment tower that was to be showcase of efficient, prefabricated architecture.

The main reason to stop in this city is to visit the lookout at the Guantanamo Bay American naval base, which is the last colonial outpost remaining on the island. These days the base is the home to around 7,000 American servicemen. It is a self–sufficient entity with its own TV and radio station, water supply, medical, sports and general recreational facilities.

City life revolves around Parque Marti, a pleasant leafy square shaded by laburnum trees ( glorious in March), and with an attractive golden–coloured church, the Iglesia Parroquial de Santa Catalina. You can't forget to visit the attractive old houses on Calles Perez and Calixto Garcia.