Punta del Este Caves, Isla de la Juventud. Cuba

• ( 1 reviews)
• Isla de la Juventud. Archipielago de los Canarreos. Cuba
• Daily
• Destination: Isla de la Juventud

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Punta del Este Caves are located 20 km from Cayo Piedra. Through Lanier Swamp there are an eastern way giving access into the place. The first data obtained about Punta del Este, located at south-eastern of Isla de la Juventud were taken in 1903 by Charles Berchona French geographer, but until 1922 first real archaeological information aren’t obtained with Fernando Ortiz’s visit to the cave, confirming it was the rests of a pre-Columbian temple. . Unfortunately it wasn’t until 1967 when started a successful ransom and conservation work of these caves, but by that time those caves had been hardly mutilated by previous populators who made from the caves their home. The populators plundered the pre-Columbian objects these people damaged the original paintings with the soot of their cookers. These painting are the main attractive of those caves. Punta del este cavesMore than 230 cave paintings are drown in the 5 caves in Punta del Este, in a cavernous space more than 20 mts wide and 20 mts depth. The size of these imposing cave paintings made on these caves walls and ceilings give the name of Cuba’s Sistine Chapel. The drawings in Punta del Este are lineal, abstract ad geometric remaining curvilinear lines. Its position is completely symbolic and chosen colours are red and black . According to carbon 14 test the ancient of the drawings is 850 years AC although it is thought they could be even older. Punta del este cavesIn the symbolic allusions of these cave paintings is represented the succession of days by nights in the worship calendar, 28 concentric circles, in which are detached a red arrow represent the lunar month. Every day sunbeams enters through the porch of the main cave (No.1) following this astral route and lightning different sections of the mural. On march 21, date corresponding to the spring equinox a sunbeam enters through a hole in the ceiling and reaches the centre of a rounded stone located in the cave centre.

Punta del Este Caves Map

Punta del Este Caves is located in Isla de la Juventud

Also called "the island of a thousand names" because of the many names it has had since Christopher Columbus discovered it and called it La Evangelista. The Indians called it Camargo, Guanaja and Siguanea. Governor Diego Velazquez called it Santiago.

Others have called it Treasure Island (because it was where Robert Louis Stevenson set his famous novel); Cotorras (Parrot) Island, because of the abundance of parrots there; and the Isle of Pines. In the 1970s, because of the many schools in the countryside that were built there, its name was officially changed to Isle of Youth.

It is the second largest island in the Cuban archipelago (2,357 square km. - 910 square miles). Its many attractions include the Punta Frances National Marine Park, Bibijagua Beach, the Los Indios-San Felipe Natural Preserve, the pictographs in Punta del Este caves, the Colony International Scuba-Diving Center, El Abra Farm and the "Model" Prison.

Review about Caves: Punta del Este Caves