By Joan Bazar
SPECIAL TO MSNBC
Sept. 7 — The rebirth of Cuba’s forests has
attracted a new breed of tourists — those with a
taste for natural wonders in an exotic tropical
setting. At Las Terrazas, they can sample fauna
and flora, as well as a sample of the island’s
native arts.
THE MINI-WATERFALL cascades from the riverbank,
splashing off my shoulders as I balance on a submerged
rock ledge. I’m cooling off in the Rio San Juan under a
canopy of tropical trees after a morning of chatting with
residents of Las Terrazas in Pinar del Rio province — a
45-minute drive from downtown Havana.
Las Terrazas is Cuba’s bid for the ecotourism market
— a model community nestled in the mountains of the
Guaniguanico range and a UNESCO-designated tropical
forest biosphere reserve. The Sierra del Rosario Biosphere
Reserve boasts the world’s smallest frog and 83 bird
species. (I spotted Cuba’s national bird — the small,
blue-feathered tocororo, patriotic in its white vest and red
cummerbund — next to the Rio San Juan.)
Surveying this 20-square-mile tropical reserve today,
with its royal palms towering over groves of walnut, teak,
mahogany, cedar, pine and hibiscus, it’s difficult to imagine
how it looked in 1971, when the reforestation project
began. Cuba’s forests had been logged and cleared for
sugar and cattle-raising in the centuries since Christopher
Columbus, who in 1492 called the island “the most beautiful
ever seen by human eyes.”
Half the tree cover was gone by 1900, and only 13.5
percent remained by 1959. Reforestation efforts since then
have restored trees to over 21 percent. This summer (July
21) the National Assembly affirmed its “greening” policy by
passing a forest conservation law mandating education and
penalties to protect the flora and fauna.
The swimmers along the Rio San Juan and their parents
took part in the replanting of the area surrounding what is
now Las Terrazas. They were campesinos living in shacks
(bohios) scattered in the mountains when the call for
forestry workers was issued in 1971.
As the seedlings took root, so did a new community.
The workers built clusters of red-tile-roofed white stucco
homes on the hillsides, linked by walkways. At the center is
a plaza with a day-care center, medical office, movie
theater, museum, hair salon and post office for the 850
residents.
FROM HIKING TO CRAFTS
Economic pressures in the wake of the collapse of
Cuba’s Eastern-Bloc trade brought Las Terrazas into the
tourism market. Tourism Minister Osmani Cienfuegos
designed the Hotel Moka “eco-lodge” as a means to
generate jobs and income, with 40 percent of the profits
going to the community.
The hotel, completed in 1994, lives up to its
“eco-lodge” designation, with trees growing up through the
floor of an open-air lobby and the balconies leading to its
26 rooms. A brochure at the desk describes hiking and
spelunking trails. One leads to the ruins of a 19th-century
hacienda, others to the habitat of the nightingale,
woodpecker, sparrow hawk or medicinal plants. Soroa,
famous for its 700 varieties of orchids, is reached by
horseback, mountain bike, car or motorcycle.
Along with maintaining the hotel, lakeside boat house,
stable and other facilities, residents work at fiber-weaving
and paper-recycling workshops, creating crafts for sale.
Abstract-looking beads spun from old magazine pages are
on display in the hotel garden the Sunday I drop by with a
Havana-based journalist friend.
We look in on some of the home-based enterprises,
each named informally for the proprietor. At Maria’s Café,
we sip Cuban coffee, strong and sweet on the balcony. She
tells of her son who helped build Hotel Moka and now
makes furniture, and her daughter employed in the
lithography workshop.
Alberto’s Workshop offers a beguiling aviary carved
from a palette of local wood. There are delicate
hummingbird mobiles, oversize serving spoons with owl
eyes — and a flat-footed rooster with an attitude. With a
beady eye, rosy-hued comb and tan-to-gray shaded wings,
he looks ready to crow.
Lester’s Studio features landscapes by Lester Campa.
One titled “Babel,” a misty, tree-covered hill, appears on a
postcard for his 1996 show at the Center for Cuban Studies
in New York City. Lester opens a drawer brimming with
small sketches. There’s a side view of Pope John Paul II,
who visited the island in January. Flipping it over, I see
President Fidel Castro, in a twin pontifical pose. “It’s not
for sale,” the artist explains — just a preliminary sketch for
a painting.
VILLAGE LIFE
The family doctor on duty this Sunday is Rodovaldo. A
6-year-old patient directs us to the office, volunteering that
her father had brought her in because of a stomach ache.
Rodovaldo says the pharmacy has difficulty obtaining
antibiotics and medicines to combat colds, allergies,
diarrhea and parasites. The U.S. trade embargo, coupled
with a ban on ships entering U.S. ports for six months after
docking in Cuba, has pushed up the cost of imports as well
as putting a crimp in cruise tourism. (Watch for new
inter-island travel alternatives in the wake of President
Castro’s visit to Caribbean neighbors in August.)
Canadians, Mexicans and Europeans, who accounted
for most of Cuba’s 1.15 million non-cruise visitors in 1997,
have little difficulty in traveling to the island. For the 84,000
U.S. visitors last year, the logistics were complicated by
Treasury Department regulations. However, a variety of
“study tours” have emerged to meet U.S. restrictions,
including an Eco Cuba tour slated to visit Las Terrazas in
November.
Of the 84,000 U.S. travelers to Cuba in 1997, an
estimated 43,000 were Cuban Americans and 17,000 were
journalists, academics or business people. John Kavulich,
president of the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and
Economic Council, says 18,000 went without authorization
— a figure that has grown by 20 percent annually in recent
years.
THE LOGISTICS
Las Terrazas:
Hotel Moka, Km51 Autopista Habana-Pinar del Rio,
has 26 rooms, each with private bath, air conditioning and
satellite TV at $88 per room double occupancy during high
season (December-April) and $78 per room off-season,
$62 single occupancy. For meals, add $5 a person for
breakfast, $20 for two meals. Group rates are also
available. Fax: 011-53-085-33-5516.
Regulations:
U.S. Treasury Department (202) 622-2480
U.S. State Department Cuban Interests Section in
Washington, D.C. (202) 797-8518 serves as stand-in for a
Cuban embassy.
Tours:
Usually the easiest route for first-time visitors from the
United States, since directors deal with the Cuban visa and
the U.S. Treasury Department regulations. The Treasury
Department does not bar U.S. citizens from traveling to
Cuba, only from spending money there. Licenses permitting
the spending of money are issued for people meeting certain
criteria, such as pursuit of professional interests. Study tours
are designed to fit that niche. Some groups offering study
tours obtain licenses, while others say the participants are
“fully hosted” by a Cuban entity and do not spend any
money on the island.
Global Exchange (San Francisco) organizes tours
around women in Cuba, African roots of Cuban music and
culture, sustainable agriculture and other topics. Its
Eco-Cuba tour Nov. 20-28 will visit Las Terrazas and look
in on organic agriculture cooperatives and herbal medicine
research. The price of $1,450 round trip from Cancun,
Mexico, includes transportation, all meals, visa and
departure tax. Call (415) 255-7296.
Center for Cuban Studies (New York City) has
upcoming tours on the Cuban legal system, education,
public health, artists, political and social issues, the
environment, architecture and historical preservation, and
Jewish history, as well as the Havana Film Festival and
Havana Jazz Festival (both in December). Prices range from
$1,100 to $1,800, traveling via Nassau or Cancun. (212)
242-0559.
Logistics:
Cubana ticket agents can arrange a tourist visa on the
spot for travelers in Cancun or Nassau. Visas are also
available in the United States from the Cuban Interests
Section in Washington, D.C. (but be prepared to wait) or
elsewhere in the world from any Cuban consulate.
Mexicana flies to Havana from Cancun and Mexico City (its
affiliate Aeromex from Tijuana), but its offices in the United
States are prohibited from making reservations to Cuba.
Try agencies in Mexico: Viajes Divermex in Cancun
(011-52-9-884-5005 or fax 011-52-9-884-2325); or
Taino Tours in Tijuana: (011-52-66-84-7001).
Marazul Tours in New York City can book seats on
direct charter flights from Miami to Havana only for
travelers with Treasury Department license and Cuban visa
already in hand. Call (800) 223-5334.