30-Jun-2008 --

A virgin confluence point within easy reach: No doubt, we had to do it.

Touring around in Cuba with the family, we were travelling from the western part of Cuba (Pinar del Rio, spending two nights in the beautiful area around Vinales) towards Havana, later to the East.

The point is very close to the northern shoreline of Cuba, or as we found out, on the southern shore of an old bay bar (or spit, or 'Nehrung' in German) on the north coast. The bar itself is some 4.8 km long and 1 - 1.5 km wide, very little relief (upto some 40 m). It is partly covered by citrus plantations, partly by very dense shrubs (like the confluence point itself). The bar closes a beautiful bay to the South, with an outlet of only 400 m width to the Gulf of Mexico in the North.

There is plenty of land under sugarcane in the surrounding, with a major processing plant at Orozco in 4 km distance, but all the plants and installations look in a terribly poor stage, everything run down.

3 km to the West there is a communist-style sea resort with very little facilities, for me almost a kind of depressing.

Travelling on the northern coastal road, turning off into Orozco, 4 km to the North, then on a dirt road onto the bar to the East, another 2 km. This is the closest to get there. 250 m to the South are not possible because of really heavy shrub and a nearby small Cuban military base. Walking around with the GPS Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox, we made the pictures, as usual taking good quality pictures of the GPS or Pocket PC is not an easy task at bright sunshine. (I really have to look for a screenshot utility for Pocket PC / Windows Mobile).