The City and Province of Camagüey

Where is Camagüey?

The province of Camagüey is part of the Antillean island Republic of Cuba. It has Atlantic and Caribbean coasts. The Atlantic coast features the unspoilt Playa Santa Lucía in the Muncipality of Neuvitas.

Situated in the eastern central part of Cuba the city is about 350 miles from Havana. It has a flourishing cultural life and with a population of about 279,000 people it is the largest municipality in the province of Camagüey which has a total population of about 732,000 people.

El Ferrocarril Cubano

Cuba is unique in that it is the only Carribean island with a public railway system. That is in addition to the network supporting the sugar plantations of the island. The locomotive was built in Russia and the man drove it before he retired!

Ciudad Camagüey is a railway centre with links to the Atlantic port of Neuvitas, Guantánamo and to Havana. You can see these and the plantation railways on a Peter Loud map.

Las Guardias de la Escuela

Workers are on a rota to guard their workplaces. These are teachers at Escuela Primaria Martha Abreu in Camagüey - I took this picture about an hour before the start of a Conga procession during the San Camagüeyana in June 2004.

You can see one of the endemic busts of the Cuban Apostle, José Martí, in the background. The representation of black people as in the mural is not seen as derogatory or racist in the Cuban culture of today. José Martí proclaimed that to be human gives a person "the right" and that nothing more is needed.

The Conga is a dance of Cuban slave origin and it was the limited movement imposed by their shackles which led to its characteristic shuffle. Of course it has become more elaborate today.

The road to Playa Santa Lucía and a socialist transport system

Another unique feature is the sharing of the use of government vehicles.

The people are waiting for transport and they will get it from any government vehicle going the direction that they are going.