• Submitted by: admin
• Editorial Articles
• Travel and Tourism
• Culture and Traditions
• Destinations
• 09 / 07 / 2007

---

Guama tourist small village reminds an authentic Taino small village with all the comfort of modern tourism. This facility has the name of a brave Taino cacique that commanded the first struggle against the Spanish troops between the years 1522 and 1533 in the surroundings of the first Cuban village of Baracoa to the northeast area of the country. He died fighting against the conquerors troops.

This tourist facility is located inside the Laguna del Tesoro, the greatest natural fresh water deposit of the island covering a surface of 16 square kilometers and 5 kilometers of diameter. According to the legend, the name of this lake reminds an event in which the inhabitants of the place decided to throw their appreciated treasures to the lake to avoid that the Spanish colonizers would take possession of them.

The facility has 49 cottages distributed between the seven of the 13 small islands of the lake. They were built in the aboriginal style using polished palm wood in the woodwork roofed with the ribs of cana palm and covered with precious wood. Although they have a rustic appearance, they are equipped with the best comfort that modern tourism demands. They communicate each other through aquatic way using boats or crossing the 10 bridges that link these islands.

At the entrance of the village, in one of the first and greater small cays there was erected a true copy of a real Taino hamlet, work made by the prestigious Cuba sculptor Rita Longa. They are 25 sculptures at a natural size distributed in a way that reproduce different activities of the everyday life of those small villages. There are 4 huts and a large Caney that provide originality to the environment. Visitors can meet Dayamí, the dreamer Indian young girl; Cajimo, the jutía hunter; Abey, the great crocodile hunter; Yaima, a playful young girl; Maguanay, the mother of a family preparing casabe; and the great cacique of the Guamá tribe.

In another small island, a museum shows the different pre-Columbian cultures of this country.

From island to island, we can find a great Caney that gives place to a spacious restaurant with Taino sculptures in the decoration and a set of dishes that remains that used by those Indians. In another cay, there is the hotel desk and the medical services. In addition, we will see in the other cays the swimming pool area, cafeteria, bar, game room, disco and at the entrance; there is a high viewpoint to enjoy a beautiful view of the whole village and great part of the lake.

Fishing is another attractive option that the complex offers, trouts and shads are the most common fishes but also there are biajacas and pink carps.

This is an ideal place to live some time in total privacy in the most natural environment.

In order to access that faraway Eden it is necessary to pass by the place known as Boca de Guama, a tropical space where you can stop to enjoy the restaurant and the souvenir shop built at a Taino style. There we can find the reproduction and breeding center of crocodiles they can be seen in their large cages.

The jetty, of course, to get the boats or the ships that will take you thorough a canal of 7 kilometers within pine forests up to the treasure lake.