7 Best Sights in Western Cuba, Cuba

Recently restored on the outside, this massive, Neoclassical church with two ornate towers is famous for its interior frescoes. In front of the church, there is a huge ceiba tree with a heavy, metal bell hanging from one of the branches, commemorating the bells that were rung to call in slaves from the sugar plantations. On the ground below lies a large, antique metal gear from a sugar mill.

At this casual farm-cum-zoo visitors can see two of Cuba's distinctive animals: the manjuarí, a primitive water creature with an alligator-like head and a fish body, and the jutía, a large-eared, muskrat-like tree rat, once prized for guajiro stews. Scattered around the farm yard there are deer, peacocks, rabbits, ducks, and guinea fowl. At the guarapa bar, you can buy a glass of fresh-pressed cane juice, with or without rum (CUC$2). The musical entertainment is provided by a caged Cuban Bullfinch, a small black bird, so prized for its song that Cubans organize bird-song competitions. There's no entrance fee to the farm but there are souvenir kiosks scattered around, and an open-air restaurant ($) mostly set up for tour-group buffets.

South of Playa Larga, on the east side of the Bay of Pigs, lies this natural aquarium in a 61-meter-deep (201-foot-deep) cenote (a flooded sinkhole filled with multicolor fish that swim in from the bay via a subterranean passage). Diving through the banks of fish and the lush subaquatic vegetation is superb. There is no entrance fee—you walk along a short, shaded trail to the pool and dive in. There's a makeshift, on-site dive shop with tanks, as well as snorkeling gear to rent. If you plan on doing a lot of snorkeling and care about hygiene, bring along your own mask. You can also snorkel from the beach, across the road from the entrance to the cenote. La Casa del Pescador

(see Where to Eat, below)

is next to the cenote.

This attractive, leafy square is the heart of the city. A bronze statue of 19th-century liberal revolutionary leader José Martí presides over the plaza, accompanied by a startling sculpture of a screaming, bare-breasted woman representing Cuba breaking free from her chains. Around the square are beautifully restored Neoclassical buildings, including the Museo Farmaceútico Triolet, the restored Sala de Conciertos José White, and the magnificently refurbished Velasco Hotel, next door to the handsome Velasco Theater. Nearby bookshops and cafés are bustling, and there's almost always some music or street theater going on in the square.

This once-elegant, arched bridge over the Yumurí Estuary used to set a Parisian, Seine-like scene. Built in 1878, with two imposing carved columns at each end, it connected the barrio of Versalles, named for resident wealthy French coffee planters, and the city. Although it's currently in sad shape, it's still one of the most striking pieces of Matanzas architecture. The Cuban government used to give replicas of the columns as official gifts to visiting dignitaries.