PLAYA LARGA

We were here: March 2017.
Number of days: 1 and a half.
My score: 2/5, call me picky.

Playa Larga (Long Beach) is a place that does not correspond to its name. The coast is very long, but the beaches they are just small patches of sand surrounded by tremendously rough rocks and, although certainly the sea is beautiful in the Bay of Pigs, only the most clueless will come here looking for beach; here you only come for a reason: diving. I’m lying, there are also those who come to visit Ciénaga de Zapata, one of the largest wetlands in the Americas, and a paradise for big fans of native fauna and flora, but it offers little for most tourists. The locals themselves do not have it in much esteem and none of those I met recommended to visit it, what made me think, because normally the villages willing for tourism promote and extol everything they have. The truth is that my intention was visiting it and the locals took that idea away from me.

Swamp lovers aside, people come for two reasons: specificaly to dive, or to make an intermediate stop on the route from Viñales or Havana to Cienfuegos or Trinidad and as long as they are here, dive. Us, demanding dive lovers after diving in the Red Sea, Philippines or Thailand among other places, went there on our way to Trinidad. We expected to find a good site, and found a place that was not bad. We liked it, but we did not find it spectacular. The next time I go to Cuba, I have to give it another chance as far as diving is concerned, because if Playa Larga and Playa Girón are some of the best places, then this country has disappointed me a bit.

Still, who wants to do 6 or 7 hours in a row by shared taxi or bus when you can stop at an intermediate site and dive for a day? I’m afraid I’m destined to give it a second chance…