NUEVA GERONA, Cuba (dpa) – The island off Cuba’s southern coast bears a promising name: Isla de la Juventud, or in English, Island of Youth. Plenty of noisy schoolchildren certainly reinforce its claim to that name.
The beaches here may not be as long as they are in Varadero, in the country’s north, but for all that this is Cuba as it should be: meeting locals who don’t work in the hotel trade is uncomplicated, and there are attractive diving locations and caves boasting prehistoric drawings.Tourists are still few and far between on the island of 100,000 people. Those that do make it this far will discover lonely coves and find they can wander through villages and the small capital Nueva Gerona without the presence of police and security forces on every street corner as in Havana.Half of the four-hour land and water journey from Havana to the island costs less than 25 U.S. cents.If the bus driver is handed three pesos when boarding at the Terminal de Omnibus Interprovinciales, he will give a few centavos in change for the trip in his clapped-out old bus to Batabano.On this morning there a few teachers, civil servants, agricultural workers and students who want to take the ferry to the coastal town.The Cometa hydrofoil costs 11 dollars for foreigners. Cubanos pay 11 pesos and have to make a reservation days in advance. The exchange rate fluctuates between 20 and 22 pesos per dollar. There is also a plane from Havana to the island which costs 22 dollars per leg.The two-hour crossing by ferry leaves plenty of time for a glance at the travel and history books written about the island with the many names. Following its settlement by Amerindians from South America, it was visited by Columbus, treasure-hunters and pirates.The smuggler’s island is said to have been the inspiration behind Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.Isla del Tesoro then became Prison Island, also called La Siberia de Cuba, where exiles and prisoners were incarcerated, among them the popular 19th-century folk hero Jose Marti and, from 1953, Fidel Castro and comrades following their failed attack on Moncada barracks in Santiago.Finally, in 1978, The Island of Pines (Isla de Pinos) as it had become, was renamed The Isle of Youth.Many thousands of young people came here to work on increasing the island’s agricultural production while at one time up to 20,000 students, most of them from Socialist “brother-nations”, studied hard at its technical colleges and universities.With the advent of the economic crisis which followed the collapsed of the Soviet system, the number sank rapidly. Today it is estimated that there are around 10,000 students.In times past, apparently, the nightlife in several small top- class hotels on the island used to go off a with a bang, at least for vacationing U.S. B-Movie stars, starlets and gangster bosses. The elite always preferred Havana.These days, evenings in Nueva Gerona in its theatre clubs, discos and bars – some of them open-air – are lively enough. Instead of the class struggle, young people are more interested in making friends to the accompaniment of sultry salsa rhythms and rum cocktails.Tourists are quickly approached but not “hassled”. State rules dictate that admittance to clubs must be paid for in dollars. If a Cuban friend at the counter tells the barkeepers it’s “un amigo”, the cover can be paid entirely in pesos.There is a diving centre with its own pressure chamber and the nearby Hotel Colony, whose customers are in the main watersports enthusiasts, in the west at Bahia de Siguanea.If paying on the spot, double rooms at the hotel start from 45 dollars, a diving expedition costs 30 dollars. The course, which carries an international certificate, can be bought for 175 dollars. Flights, hotels and diving trips may be cheaper if booked in the home country.Experts say that several of the island’s diving grounds are the best in the Caribbean.The smugglers’ coast of Cabo Frances is particularly spectacular with its 56 marked dives. Numerous shipwrecks, including Spanish galleons, underwater caves and grottoes help to make the waters here a real attraction. It also boast black corals, sponges and many colourful tropical fishes.From Nueva Gerona in the north, an overland bus costing a few cents takes visitors to Hotel Colony.Bumpy roads cross to the south- east to Punta del Esta. In the caves of the Amerindian settlement at Ciboney are cave drawings thought to be 3,000 years old. The main cave is presumed by scientists to be a temple or chapel.The beaches in this region are almost entirely untouched, and the long reef with coral wall is a major diving attraction.The island has several, mostly small, hotels. Those hankering after some family life, and delicious fish and shellfish dishes for a few dollars, should try one of the Casas Particulares, as private accommodation is called.Double rooms with the use of a shower cost from just under 20 dollars a night, while daily charges for an apartment or a house start at 30 dollars.The owner, who may be retired, a biologist or a taxi driver, will wait for potential customers at the ferry port. Increasingly, lodgings can be booked from the visitor’s home country.Nueva Gerona has nothing to offer in the way of world-class architectural or cultural attractions. A walk takes you past several older houses, typically sporting verandas supported by columns and carved doors.Pioneers from the United States came here in the early 1900s; there is an historic American cemetery, a wide boulevard for strollers, a park, a natural history museum and a planetarium.The island’s appeal lies in its countryside and the way of life which tourists are more than welcome to take part in.
