Isla de Juventud

This beautiful island is known by many names, the native Indians called them Camarco or Siguanea, Columbus baptized them in La Evangelista. In the 17th century it was called Isla del Tesoro where many pirates sought refuge. With the colonization by the Spaniards they were called Colonia Reina Amalia. Robert Lee Stevenson had the inspiration for his book "The Treasure Island" after a visit to the island. Finally pirates floated on the island to mischief, Henry Morgan and Francis Drake were the most famous of them. In the 1950s the island was also called Isla de Deportados as it was one of the largest prison facilities of the Batista regime and Cuba's President Fidel Castro was interned here. Isla de Juventud is a dream place, away from mass tourism. It is characterized by beautiful nature and a very relaxed lifestyle of the locals. On Isla de la Juventud you will find one of the most attractive dive sites in Cuba and the Caribbean. More than 50 dive sites guarantee every dive fan fantastic experiences, a variety of old shipwrecks, an indescribable underwater flora and fauna, fish of every colour and size up to sharks.

General:

The Island of Youth is the largest island in Cuba and the sixth largest in the Caribbean. The island is located in the Gulf of Batabanó on the Caribbean side of Cuba and belongs to the archipelago de los Canarreos. Nueva Gerona is the main town and with 69,976 inhabitants at the same time the largest city of the island on the banks of the Río Casas. Altogether, about 89,000 people live on the island, which you can reach by plane from Havana (3 times a day) or by ferry. The city sometimes seems unreal because all the benches in the parks and on the streets, every counter and almost every countertop in the shop, even many floors in the houses are of pure marble. This is because the island has a huge occurrence of marble.