Page 169 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

CENTR AL CUBA – WEST  167

VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
Practical Information
Matanzas. Road Map B2.
* 27,000. n Infotur, Calle 13 y
Ave 1, (45) 662 966.
Transport
k (45) 247 015. @ Autopista
del Sur y 36, (45) 614 886.

A stretch of the magnificent beach at Varadero the few luxury bedrooms
in the villa.
P Restaurante Las Américas wood. The roof was covered
(Mansión Xanadú) with green ceramic tiles with T Punta Hicacos
Avenida Las Américas km 8.5. Tel (45) thermal insulation. The house For those interested in wildlife,
667 388. Open lunch and dinner. was surrounded by a huge the most fascinating part of
During the years from 1920 garden with rare plants and Varadero is the area near Punta
to 1950 an American millionaire, features which included an Hicacos, which has become a
chemical engineer Alfred iguana farm and a golf course. protected nature reserve. Here
Irénée Dupont de Nemours, This extravagant construction you can visit several caves,
gambled a great deal of cost $338,000, an enormous including the Cueva de
money by purchasing most sum at the time. Ambrosio, with fossils, Pre-
of the beautiful Hicacos In 1959, after the Revolution, Columbian rock paintings, and
peninsula from the heirs of the Dupont escaped from Cuba, some quiet, secluded beaches.
Spanish landowners. At that leaving the villa to the Cuban The peninsula is also an
time there were only a few government, which, in 1963, attraction for scuba divers,
villas and one hotel here. turned it into “Las Américas”, who have 23 dive sites, offering
Dupont then parcelled the the most elegant restaurant both deep and shallow dives,
land out to Cubans and in Varadero. It specialises to choose from.
Americans who, within a in French cuisine, but
few years, had transformed can be visited without
Varadero into a centre for any obligation to eat
gambling and prostitution. there. The dining
At the height of his property room still has its
dealings, Dupont asked the original furniture.
two Cuban architects Govantes The top-floor bar,
and Cabarrocas, who had with its wide selection
designed the Capitolio in of drinks and cigars,
Havana (see pp86–7), to design is a favourite spot
a villa for the rocky promontory for sundowners.
of San Bernardino, the highest The golf course
point in Varadero. This offers 18 holes and
sumptuous four-storey building, breathtaking views.
completed in 1929 and named Upon request, golf
Mansión Xanadú, was dressed players can book The former Mansión Xanadú, now a bar-restaurant,
with Italian marble and precious accommodation in with its distinctive green roof

Straits of Florida

Bahía
de Cárdenas

Key
Autopista del Sur (motorway)
Major road
Minor road
For keys to symbols see back flap

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