El Salto del Hanabanilla, also known as Hanabanilla, is a
Cuban village and ''consejo popular'' ("people's council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of
Manicaragua,
Villa Clara Province.
[El Salto del Hanabanilla]
on EcuRed As of 2014 the town has 137 homes making up a total of 436 inhabitants. Is a mountain resort famous for the
homonym lake.
History
El Salto del Hanabanilla was originally settled by
Taino people; so far 35 aboriginal villages have been discovered around this area. After the
Spanish colonization it remained virtually untouched until the early 19th century, when it was finally settled in 1802 by Galician families trying to foment the production of tobacco and coffee and create cattle farms.
[
The idea to create a man-made reservoir is also quite old; it was first proposed in 1868, in order to efficiently supply the port city ]Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especial ...
with fresh water and electricity for its electrical tramway system. But it wasn't until 1908 when it finally was approved. Construction of the dam itself started in 1959 and finished in 1963, along with the construction of a clinic and a school in the centre of the village, nearby the dam
''The Dam'' (in French:''Le barrage'') is a painting by Luxembourg artist Dominique Lang from 1913.
Description
The 80.5 × 67 cm. picture is part of the collection of the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg.
Analysis
Dominiq ...
.
A 126-room hotel of the same name was built in July 1975 using a Cuban adaptation of the Russian construction system popular in the 1970s to create schools and hotels through the island. This precast technology is named Girón, after the same location where the Bay of Pigs Invasion took place in 1961. It has been recently restored and it is the deployment point for nature tourism and fresh water bass fishing activities around the surrounding mountains.
Geography
Located in the northern area of the Escambray Mountains
The Escambray Mountains () are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.
Overview
The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending ab ...
, by the Hanabanilla Lake, created by the Hanabanilla Dam
The Hanabanilla Dam is an embankment dam on the Hanabanilla River near the village of El Salto del Hanabanilla in Villa Clara Province, Cuba. The purpose of the dam is to provide water for irrigation and municipal uses and to generate hydroelec ...
, the village is surrounded by mountain tropical rain forest receiving a mean of 1,346.3 millimeters of rain water during rainy season (approximately 130 days of rain). Many rivers and brooks deposit fresh water into the lake being the largest ones Negro (Literally Black), Arimao, Caonao, Mabujina, Hanabanilla, Jibacoa and Guanayara, except for the first one -Black River- the rest of the streams and most of the geography around the area retain the original Taino Arawak names. Hanabanilla means "A basket full of Gold" in Taino language. The humidity around the lake forest has a mean of 82,73% water vapor which aids the evergreen look of the area year round.[
Linked to the Manicaragua-Cumanayagua road (8 km far) by a dead end road to the lake. A street crossing a dam links its populated area to the nearby "Hotel Hanabanilla".]Cumanayagua
Cumanayagua () is a municipality and town in the Cienfuegos Province of Cuba. It is located in a valley near the Guamuhaya Mountains (usually these mountains are referred as Escambray Mountains, east of Cienfuegos, the provincial capital.
Histor ...
, 39 from Jibacoa (in the southeastern shore of the lake), 50 from Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especial ...
, 52 from Santa Clara and 81 from Trinidad.
Gallery
See also
* Mataguá
* Güinía de Miranda
*Topes de Collantes
Topes de Collantes is a nature reserve park in the Escambray Mountains range in Cuba. It also refers to the third highest peak in the reserve, where a small settlement and tourist center is located, all sharing the same name.
Geography
Topes d ...
* Tourism in Cuba
*List of cities in Cuba
This is a list of cities in Cuba with at least 20,000 inhabitants, listed in descending order. Population data refers to city proper and not to the whole municipality, because they include large rural areas with several villages. All figu ...
* Municipalities of Cuba
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanabanilla
Populated places in Villa Clara Province
Tourist attractions in Villa Clara Province
Populated places established in 1802
1802 establishments in North America
1802 establishments in the Spanish Empire