Bahia De Cochinos

The Bay of Pigs ( es, Bahía de los Cochinos) is an inlet of the Gulf of Cazones located on the southern coast of Cuba. By 1910, it was included in Santa Clara Province, and then instead to Las Villas Province by 1961, but in 1976, it was reassigned to Matanzas Province, when the original six provinces of Cuba were re-organized into 14 new Provinces of Cuba.

The bay is historically important for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. The area is a site known for its diving, with an abundance of marine fauna, e.g. 30 species of sponges belonging to 19 families and 21 genera,Caballero et al., 2009, p.95 to be found in the bay.

Etymology

In Cuban Spanish, ''cochinos'' may also mean the queen triggerfish ('' Balistes vetula''), which inhabit coral reefs in Bahía de Cochinos, not swine (''Sus scrofa'').

Geography

This bay is approximately south of Jagüey Grande, west of the city of Cienfuegos, and southeast from the capital city Havana. On the western side of the bay, coral reefs border the main Zapata Swamp, part of the Zapata Peninsula. On the eastern side, beaches border margins of firm ground with mangroves and extensive areas of swampland to the north and east. At the north end of the bay, the village of Buena Ventura is adjacent to Playa Larga (Long Beach). southeast of that, Playa Girón (Giron Beach) at the village of Girón, named after the notorious French pirate Gilberto Giron (c. 1604).Rodríguez Cruz, 1999, p.115

History

Playa Girón and Playa Larga were the landing sites for seaborne forces of armed Cuban exiles and the land strip for some American planes(but not many as America did not want Cuba to realize that it was American sponsored) in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, an American CIA-sponsored attempt to overthrow the new government of Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro in April 1961.

According to Fidel Castro's former bodyguard, the late Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, Castro lived in great luxury and had a private island called Cayo Piedra in the Bay of Pigs, replete with "mansions, guest houses, a heliport, dolphinarium, turtle lagoon, his luxury yacht ''Aquarama'' – a gift from Leonid Brezhnev – and deep-sea fishing speedboat".

Diving

The Bay of Pigs is a relatively quiet site for diving. Dive centers exist in Playa Larga, Playa Girón and Caleta Buena. Twelve dive sites in the bay display excellent visibility of , an average water temperature of in December and in July. Walls of coral, caverns and a variety of fish (including the barracuda, lionfish and groupers, among others), coral and sponges can be found in the Bay of Pigs.

The Cueva de los Peces, with depth the deepest cenote of Cuba, is located at south of Playa Larga.

Biodiversity

Surrounding the Bay of Pigs, the endemic wormlizards '' Amphisbaena barbouri'' and '' A. cubana'' have been noted.Rodríguez Schettino et al., 2013, pp.9–10 The following marine species have been registered along the eastern coast of the Bay of Pigs:

See also

* Geography of Cuba

References

Citations

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Further reading

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{{Authority control
Geography of Matanzas Province
Pigs
Underwater diving sites in the Caribbean