Salto De Caburni Waterfall, Sierra Escambray
A visit to Parque Natural Topes de Collantes is an excellent way to sample the beauty of Cuba’s mountains. Situated at an altitude of about 790m in the Sierra Escambray, the park has a number of trails that provide a variety of natural delights. The park is served by a number of hotels, including the imposing, somewhat Stalinist looking Kurkhotel.
The 4km hike to Salto De Caburni, a 75 metre high waterfall, rewards hikers with the beautiful falls themselves, a most fabulous natural swimming pool in which to brave the chilly waters at the base of the falls and lush forests of fern, bamboo and eucalyptus. The views on this trail are captivating - deep reds and oranges of the trail meld with the abundant greenery of the forests and misty whites and blues from the sky. The soundtrack to your hike may comprise of the sounds of lizards rustling through the foliage and some distinctive call and responses by local bird-life.
As there are so many reasons to pause and feast on the audio-visual banquets served on this trail, add a couple of hours to the optimistic 90 minute round trip that guidebooks and on-site signs suggest for the trail. Get some local advice about whether you should bring rain gear with you - it can get wet here at different times of the day. The cost of entry to the trail is 6.5 Convertible Pesos (about $7 or 6 Euro) and it is about a 25 minute taxi ride from Trinidad (for about 40 Convertible Pesos a taxi driver will drop you there and bring you back to Trinidad when you are finished).
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