5 Best Sights in Western Cuba, Cuba

This spectacular and massive cave is named for the aboriginal Guanahatabey. Dripping with limestone formations, it's spooky enough to thrill even grown-ups. Visitors enter the cave through a narrow opening and follow a well-beaten, dimly lighted stone trail for 255 meters (842 feet), narrowing and widening until you reach a high-ceilinged grotto and an underground river. You board a boat here for a short cruise (300 meters [990 feet]) past illuminated stalagmites. The guide points a laser at shapes and if you really use your imagination you can just make out a champagne bottle, a skull, a crocodile, a sea horse, and even the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María. The boat takes you out of the cave through a narrow, vine-draped opening in the rock. Souvenir vendors await as you disembark. Don't miss the chance to have your photo taken atop Tomás, a huge, but placid, water buffalo. His handler will even lend you his straw hat so you can really look the part of a guajiro; a tip is expected.

This is a popular spot on the tour-bus circuit, so try to come early or late in the day for a chance to have the cave more to yourself.

The dimly lighted, rough 140-meter (462-foot) tunnel piercing this mogote opens onto an eerily quiet open space ringed by high limestone rocks. There's a rather shabby replica of a Cimarron campsite with life-size figures of escaped slaves. But if you arrive before a tour group, it's quite peaceful here. The thatch-roof, outdoor bohío-style restaurant in this clearing has a huge brick oven to roast chicken and pork; a main course and dessert costs less than CUC$6. At the entrance to the cave, sheltered by the rock overhang is El Palanque de los Cimarrones, a popular disco/bar/restaurant that stays open late and all night on Saturday.

Across the massive rock face of Mogote Dos Hermanas, Diego Rivera disciple Leovigildo González (or the 25 farmers he directed) painted this immense—200 x 300 meters (660 x 990 feet)—luridly colored mural of prehistoric men and creatures, between 1959 and 1962. Commissioned by Fidel Castro, the painting is supposed to depict the evolutionary process in the Sierra de los Órganos.

No need to pay the entrance fee; you can see it just as well from the road.

In a rather shabby building, this small, eclectic collection displays odd objects and photographs that focus on local history, including antique farm tools. You'll see some stirrups, weapons, weights, locks and keys, and branding irons from Spanish colonial times, as well as personal objects that belonged to the museum's namesake, a top-ranked woman warrior who fought for Cuba's independence in the 19th century. A bronze bust of Captain Adela Azcuy herself stands on the street in front of this house, where she spent much of her life. The museum organizes two- to three-hour guided walking tours in the town of Viñales, CUC$8 per person. Make reservations for the tour the day before at the museum.