I’ve always wondered why Uvero Beach is so popular among the people from Central Cuba, mainly among residents from Sagua la Grande, the closest municipality. It is not a particularly pretty place. In quiet days, mosquitoes and gnats won’t leave beachgoers alone. The sand is not real sand, it’s artificial. Despite all that, however, people continue to frequent it.
It’s unbelievable how Cubans living abroad miss the place and its distinctive features: the houses raised on wood posts; the parade of crabs that go crazy when it starts thundering; the rain water people save in tanks; the tanks themselves…
The smell of sulphur floods the shore sometimes, and some people look for the smelly mud to put on their faces.
The town is divided into three neighbourhoods – La Botella, El Vedado y Los Canalizos – and united by docks and marshes, and is populated by fishermen who have seen good times, but also the tragedies sown by the destructive wake of each hurricane.
Uvero Beach looks the same as ever, adorned by its picturesque houses. It’s a tantalizing beach for many, even if I continue not to understand why.
