Cayo Guillermo
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Cayo Guillermo is one of about 15 km ² island in the Atlantic Ocean, located just off the northern coast of Cuba. It is one of the smallest islands of the archipelago of Jardines del Rey, which is associated with the located in the center of the island republic province of Ciego de Ávila.
Cayo Guillermo is like the larger neighboring island of Cayo Coco opened up to tourists and connected by a road system with Cayo Coco and Cayo Grande Paredón. The connection to the Cuban mainland is carried out over a 17 km long stone causeway from Cayo Coco.
The distance from Cayo Guillermo to the Jardines del Rey (CCC) International Airport is about 40 km. A trip to Morón takes about 70 minutes to Ciego de Ávila you have to expect good 2 to 2 ½ hours. By sea, the island and the island chain Jardines del Rey over the border and Marina Cayo Guillermo is reached.
The tourist area in Cayo Guillermo currently includes (as of December 2010) four hotel complexes that co- northeast lie directly on the Atlantic Ocean side. In addition, the location in the far north of the island beach Playa Pilar is accessible, which is considered one of the most beautiful and feinsandigsten sandy beaches of Cuba. Cayo Guillermo are upstream several tiny islets: in the west the Cayos hijos Guillermo (also Cayos hijos de Felipe ), and subsequently from west to east the islands of Cayo media luna ( Ernest Hemingway called it in his novel Islands in the Stream " Crescent Island" ), Felipito Cayo, Cayo Felipe and El perro ( "dog island "). Between and in front of these islets extends a coral reef. A connection to the island of Media Luna, a good place for diving and snorkeling, is made from Playa Pilar; numerous diving spots in the coral reef are also approached.
In the north of the island - facing the Atlantic side - extends a kilometer-long fine white sandy beach, interrupted only by a steep bay to end in the west of the island again as a fine white sand beach. The beach is far upstream diverse coral reefs.
The showdown of Ernest Hemingway's novel Islands in the Stream plays on the small, Cayo Guillermo to the west and northwest offshore islets and in the intervening shallows. If previously headed the ship on Cayo Guillermo, Hemingway places his protagonist Thomas Hudson following words in his mouth:
In the south of the island is a fascinating mangrove landscape that can be explored by motor boat covers. Snorkeling is possible there in selected areas.
Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Coco and Cayo just like Paredón Grande, is only available to tourists and employees of the various hotels and the Cuban police. From the Cuban mainland exists at the beginning of the stone dam a passport and residence control.