Gran Piedra Park

The Gran Piedra National Park stretches northeast of the resort of Santiago de Cuba and is famous, above all, for a huge rock, the origin of which is unknown for certain.

There are two main versions: one says that the rock was caused by the explosion of an underwater volcano, but this assumption is closely related to the opinion of the once fallen meteorite.

One way or another, the stone is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the third largest natural monolith. Its dimensions are impressive: 51 meters long, 25 meters high and 30 meters wide, and the park itself is named in his honor: “La Gran Piedra”, which means “Big Stone”.

The area of the park is 3357 hectares, and the weight of the rock itself is about 65 thousand tons. Rock Gran Piedra is part of the country's highest mountain range Sierra Maestra.

The Gran Piedra National Park amazes the imagination not only with its majestic giant rock, but also with the riot of the tropics, an abundance of flora and fauna. Here you can find exotic birds kartkubas, hawks - quailets, tocororo - the national bird of Cuba.

Of great interest to tourists are the numerous tree species in the nearby Botanical Garden, which has been declared a “biosphere reserve” by UNESCO.

In the park you can find the national tree of Cuba – the royal palm decorating the coat of arms of the country. There are 20 million palm trees on the island, almost twice the Cuban population. In addition, you can visit the zoo, dolphinarium and nature museum.

Not far from the park there is a tourist center of the same name, an observatory, a flower farm and numerous coffee plantations, actively developed in the XIX century, which are now in an abandoned state.

In the park, climbing and exciting walking walks are organized. Among tourists, these excursions are the most popular and they pass daily, although a small fee is taken for the climb.

Climbing the cliff is difficult to call easy - it is 452 steps that are located around the mountain. But the effort is certainly worth it, for from the top of the Gran Piedra, tourists enjoy one of the most majestic and breathtaking views in Cuba. On a clear day, you can see even the nearest islands of Jamaica and Haiti.

For true connoisseurs of nature, the magnificent Gran Piedra Park is a must-see.