Its territory covers 9,300 sq Km, being the fourth largest province in Cuba. It has been divided into fourteen municipalities. Holguín has the third population of the country with more than a million people.
The landscape is distinguished by a number of natural regions : the pen plane Tunas-Holguín to the West, the Maniabon group to the Northeast and the Nipe mountain range and valley, where the deepest and largest bay of Cuba is located.
The capital city, Holguín, named after captain F. Garcia Holguín, was declared city by Royal decree of the king of Spain in 1751,it is a city of approximately 300,000 inhabitants, being the fourth largest of Cuba. The city has become a rapidly expanded industrial place.
Looming over Eastern Holguín are the Nipe, Cristal and Mayari mountain ranges and part of the heights of Sagua Baracoa, there is an impressive landscape distinguished by its vigorous and abrupt summits and by the abundance of deep green forest and rivers. Open pit nickel mining is to be found in this area. The Nipe watershed, furrowed by various rivers is a prairie which lands are dedicated to farming and animal husbandry and its borders are to the southeast with the Nipe high plateau.
Holguín has two well-defined economical zones. The one to the west is mainly agricultural and farmers grow mainly sugar cane. To the southwest visitors will find large and mid size sugar mills such as the “ Urbano Noris”,”Antonio Maceo” and ‘”Cristino Naranjo”.
Cattle farming are very important for the regional economy in the whole province, especially in the Western municipality Calixto Garcia.
The province eastern zone has a strong industrial development. Perspectives are growing with the big nickel and cobalt processing plants of Moa and Nicaro.
Tourism is growing and has become a key income source for Holguín. from the picturesque town of Gibara to the great Nipe Bay, the northern shore of the province is a vast reserve called “ Bariay National Park “, named for the beach where Christopher Columbus landed. This huge area includes some of the finest beaches , like “Guardalguardalavaca.htmavaca”, “Pesquero” and “Esmeralda” where some hotels were built.
Eco-tourism is being currently developed in the mountains of Mayari, the Sierras de Nipe and Cristal, a Biosphere Reserve.
Spanish settlers founded the capital of the province, Holguín, in 1523 though the title of City was given to the town authorities only in 1751,according with the Law of the West Indies.
Christopher Columbus first port of call was Bariay ´s Bay, where he landed his vessels La Niña,, La Pinta and La Santa Maria, in October 27th of 1492.From Bariay Columbus´ fleet sailed westward up to a bay he called Rio de Mares , (today Bay of Gibara) believing he had landed in Asia, he sent a little expedition inland to carry bounties to the Japanese emperor ´s court. Indeed they came across a large Indian village called Cubanacan.
Almost three centuries later, these lands were granted to the Spanish Captain F. Garcia Holguín, who built the settlement on the site where the Indian village had been, renaming it San Isidoro de Holguín..
Gibara.
A Spanish colonial town founded in 1817, Gibara (20,000 inhabitants.) lies at 60 Km Northwest of Guardalavaca. A former walled citadel that has kept several fortified turrets and remains of the wall, Gibara is today a charming little fishing town encrusted in time.
Since it was a major colonial port in colonial days, when north-eastern Cuba had no communications, the town was the chosen one where the emerging trading bureaucracy erected docks and warehouses by the seashore. The city streets raise uphill from the main square, which has a church featuring a Byzantine cupola. There are other important neoclassical buildings in Gibara, most of them close to the square and to the seashore.
While getting to Gibara, via Santa Lucia and Fray Benito, it is noteworthy to see Bariay Bay, a few Km away from the later above mentioned town. Gibara surely is worth a visit.
Avetours Agencia de Viajes Especializados S.A de C.V
Havana Riviera Hotel suite 407
Malecon y Paseo Havana City. Cuba
Phone: 53(7) 535757
Fax: 53(7) 535903
E-Mail : cuba_avetoursdestinations@yahoo.com
