The Republic of Cuba comprises more than 3,715 islets, keys and islands, with the Isle of Youth as the biggest of all. Its main archipelagos areCamagüey and Sabana along the Atlantic Ocean coast and Jardines de la Reina in the Caribbean Sea.The island nation lies in the way of the Gulf of Mexico’s two entrances westward, the Florida Straits up north and the Yucatan Canal down to the south. Cuba abuts la Hispaniola to the southeast divided by the Wind Passages, a maritime route linking the Atlantic Ocean in the north with the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. keeps a naval base in the Guantánamo Bay, located in southeastern Cuba. Mountains and hills form roughly a quarter of Cuba’s surface, while the remainder of the land is covered with plains. Mountain areas are scattered throughout the island and do not come down from a core. The main mountain ranges are Guamuhaya or Escambray, Guaniguanico and Sierra Maestra. The latter, located in southeastern Cuba, dominates with the highest peaks, extension and size. Sierra Turquino (featuring the Turquino Peak) juts out over the rest of the mountains with 1,974 meters high, thus ranking as Cuba’s highest peak. The island nation’s soils are relatively fertile. One of the country’s most extraordinary natural elements is a huge number of limestone caves like Cotilla, just near Havana, Trinidad Caves and Bellamar Caves in Matanzas.Cuba’s coastline is extremely irregular and zigzags amid countless gulfs and gullies, like the Batabanó Gulf and the Guacanayabo Gulf. The coastline is 3,735 kilometers long. Cuba’s climate is semi-tropical with an average temperature of 35,5 degrees. Heat and relative humidity extremes –of 27,8 degrees and 80% respectively in summertime- are triggered by the prevailing Northeastern Winds.
The Republic of Cuba is an archipelago formed by the Island of Cuba, with a surface of 104 945 km2, the Island of Youth with 2 200 km2 and, surrounded by 4 200 keys and islets. Its has a total suface of 110 860 km2.The Island of Cuba is narrow and elongated and it covers 1 250 km, from San Antonio cape to the point of Maisi, Western and Eastern side, respectively. Its width varies from 190 to 30 kilometers. The wider part corresponds to Camagüey and the narrower, to La Habana. On the other hand, United States has a navy base in Guantanamo bay, located at the Southestern side of the Island.
Until the XIX century, Cuba was divided into three departaments: Western, Central and Estern, which are represented in that country´s flag. Later, on 1878, the spanish goverment divided the island into six provinces, Pinar del Río, Havana, Matanzas, Las Villas, Camagüey and East , and 126 municipalities. On 1976, it was necessary to reorganize a division related to the need of planification and control of economic, political and social activities. That´s how the island was organized in 14 provinces, 168 municipalities and a special one, La Isla de la Juventud(Isle of Youth), located to the South of Havana. From West to Est the provinces are: Pinar del Río, Havana, Havana City, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Las Tunas, Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. The capital, the biggest city and main port of the country, is Havana City, with an estimated population of 2 119 059 inhabitants. Other important cities are Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, Holguín, Cienfuegos and Matanzas.
Maritime limits: 12 nautical miles and 200 nautical miles of territorial waters, exclusively for economic purposes.
Cuba´s line of coasts is quite irregular. It´s integrated by several gulfs and bays, just as Batabanó gulf and Guacanayabo gulf. The total length of the island´s coasts is about 5 746 kilometers. There are also excellents beaches and bays.
Most of Cuba´s rivers are short and they aren´t navigable.The most important are Cauto, Toa, Sagua la Grande, Zaza and Caonao. Cauto river is the longest of Cuba and it´s located at the Estern region. It covers a surface of about 9000 km2, while, Toa river is the widest river and it´s located at the Estern region of the island.
Cuba has a wide diversity of tropical vegetation. In the Estern part of the isle there are big stretches covered by forests. The predominant tree species are palm trees, many of which are endemic of the isle, among which the royal palm tree, Cuba´s national tree, is highlighted. Other species of the autochthonous flora are: mahogany tree, ebony, palosanto, poplar, campeche, rose stick, cedar tree, majagua, granadilla, tobacco and citrics. Before the Spaniards arrive, a huge part of the island was covered by forests, which developed an outstanding function in the economy during the colonial period. In late XIX century, when the island just had a million and half inhabitants, the jungle still covered half of the surface. In early XX century, why the development of the sugar cain cultivation, the cutting of forests was intensified in order to use the woods. In 1945, forests just covered 11 % of the country´s surface. That´s why, one of the first enviromental gools of the Revolutionary Goverment was to reforest the national territory with pine trees, eucalyptus and precious wood trees.
Cuban archipelago has a great animal diversity. It posses about 13 thousand species of animales, between invertebrates and vertebrados: mammalian, birds, amphibious and reptiles, and, a big part of them, live exclusively in this territory. There are no fierce or poison animals for man. About 900 types of fishes live in adjacent seas, some of them are sea bream, wreck fish, saw fish, rabirrubia, bonito, grey mullet, shad and the shark. Manjuari is a native sweet water fish, just as some species of blind fishes who live in caves in the Western-central region. There are also 1 700 species of mollusks, who live in land as well as water. Among the snails the one who live in the Estern region mustn´t be forgotten, famous polimite (Polymita picta), native from Cuba, considerated the most beautiful land mollusk in the world. Arthropods are more than seven thousand species, some of them, like certain scorpions, are native. Among bugs, the cuban archipelago has a great representation with thousand varieties, distributed in all the ecosystem, including caves. The island also has about 100 varieties of reptils, among which are native: iguana, green chipojo, and the enroscado tail little iguana, Santa María´s snake, and the crocodrile. Cuban fauna doesn´t have big land mammalians, but there are 27 species of bat; which live since prehistoric times, more than a half dozen of rodents like the jutía; as so as the peculiar insectivorous named almiquí and the great mermaid of cuban waters: the manatee. The variety of cuban fauna species, with the beauty that characterize some of its specimens, have brought about the island to be called “Paradise for Naturalists”.
