Cayo Saetia
There is a tucked-away place in the far east of Cuba where Cuba Private Travel recommends the strangest safari you could ever hope to find.
Cayo Saetía is a deserted 42 square-kilometer cay in the Bahía de Nipe comprising of a dozen or so sugar-white coves lapped by a turquoise lagoon, thick forest and rich red earth. communist-party officials hunted hogs and deer during the 1970sand ‘80s. From 1992, it was repopulated with animals presented to Fidel Castro by the government of Mozambique. Their descendants now roam the cay and range from camels, zebras, buffalo, antelopes, ostriches and deer to native macaws, iguanas and jutia. Accommodation is in a simple but comfortable 12-room lodge and you can go on safari in an old Russian jeep.
Fidel Castro’s childhood home is less than half an hour drive away – a sugar cane estate near Birán, open for visitors. Fidel Castro’s Socialism was heavily influenced by his privileged childhood in these rural parts, where he witnessed how the great poverty of the farm labourers contrasted with the great riches of corporations and landowners. It is a fascinating, rarely visited, corner of the island.