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| ABOUT CUBA |
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The Republic of Cuba is a group of islands surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico at the north-west, the North Atlantic Ocean at the north and the Caribbean Sea at the south. The main island Cuba with it’s 2000 mi. (3200 km) long coastline has one-fourth of it’s terrain covered by mountains. The second biggest island is the Isle of Youth that has grapevines, pine trees, marshes and white beaches. Other than these two islands, Cuba also consists of the four groups of islands that surround the main island. These groups are namely, the Colorados, the Camagüey, the Jardines de la Reina and the Canarreos.
Cuba that has hundreds of hectares of it’s nature reserves, wilderness areas, wetlands, landscapes, seascapes, and national parks protected by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an island whose terrain is covered not only by mountains but also by plains, caves, plantations, and forests. It is hard to ignore the tobacco plantation of the Pinar del Rio province or the orchid plantation of Soroa of the same province.
The shores of Cuba are not uniform and have innumerable bays and gulfs. The shores at the North consist of coral islands, white beaches, and harbors. The southern shores consist of reefs and swamps too. The excellent harbors of Cuba are mostly land-locked. Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Nuevitas, Guantanamo, and Santiago de Cuba are the largest of Cuban harbors that have provided services such as trade, ship repair and naval defense, over the past five centuries.
The three mountain ranges of Cuba are found in the western, south-central and eastern parts of Cuba. The western part of Cuba contains Sierra de los Órganos range that rises to a height of 800 m above sea level. This range also consists of hills whose peaks are rounded and hence the hills are called mogotes. It is to the south of this range that 2320 km of fine Cuban tobacco plantations are found. In the south-central region, Sierra de Trinidad rising to a height of 1,150 m above sea level is found. Cuba’s tallest mountains are found in Sierra Maestra in the eastern part of Cuba. Sierra Maestra contains Real de Turquino which is the tallest mountain and has a height of 1,005 m above sea level. To the north of Sierra Maestra, there are the Baracoa highlands that rise up to a height of 1230 m above the sea level.
Cuba has 200 rivers of which only two are navigable. The Cauto river, eastern Cuba, is the longest and flows form the East to the West and into the Golfo (gulf ) de Guacanayabo. Plantations of sugarcane, tobacco plantations, fields of rice and cattle are raised along the river side. It is navigable for about 120 km (70 mi). The 45 km long Almandares river in the western part of Cuba acts as the water supply to Havana. The Sagua la Grande of central Cuba is navigable for short distances and supports a hydro electric power project. The rest of the rivers provide trophy sized fishes to the world market.
Cuban soil is relatively fertile and this explains the Cuban sugar, coffee and orchid plantations. Of the Cuban lands that are not mountains, 27% are meadows and pastures, 30% are agricultural lands and nearly 24% are forests. Cuban dry forests are the most prevalent of forests and are spread over an area of 25,400 square miles (65,800 square kilometers) -- about the size of West Virginia. Less than one fourth of the forests are the Cuban wet forests that spread over 8,300 square miles (21,400 square kilometers) -- slightly larger than Massachusetts. The southern Zapata Peninsula is home to the Cuban wetlands that contain swamps and marshes.
The physical features of Cuba are a mix of shores, mountain ranges, rivers, fields and plantations, forests, and wetlands. Smoke Chuba ChubA! - JoNy Was HerE!
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