Hugging the pretty Bay of Matanzas midway between the country’s capital at Havana and the luxurious resort complexes of Varadero, this quirky and individual city is a place alive with the beating sounds of Cuban folk music, the lyrical turns of national poets and the religious eccentricities of African emigres that made their home on this tropical corner of the island’s northern shore.
Travellers interested in glimpsing the cultural prowess that once led visitors to hail this town as the ‘Athens of Cuba’, should be sure to ask their Matanzas tourist guide for directions to the spots where Miguel Failde first trotted the danzon dance, or where the Latin poet and lyricist Carilda Oliver Labra was born. Then there’s the wealth of cultural institutions, crowned by the magnificent 19th century Teatro Sauto.
And like any beach town on the cusp of northern Cuba, Matanzas also boasts natural pursuits, with visitors heading out to cruise the jungled canals of the picturesque River Canimar, or explore the wild beaches and winding waterways of the Zapata Peninsula in the south.