Advertise Now
  Home > Travel Central America > Central America Destinations > Nueva Gerona


Nueva Gerona




Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is variably defined either as being a region of the Americas in its own right or as the southern portion of North America. Physiographically, Central America is a tropical isthmus that connects North and South America. It includes 7 countries and many small offshore islands. Overall, the land is fertile and rugged, and dominated through its heart by a string of volcanic mountain ranges with a few active volcanos.
 
Nueva Gerona is the capital city of the Isla de la Juventud special municipality of Cuba. The city is located between the hills of Caballos and Casas, about 3 kilometers up the Rio Casas, which provides a navigable waterway to the Caribbean Sea.
 
The Isle of Youth is the largest Cuban island after Cuba proper and the sixth-largest island in the West Indies. The capital and largest city is Nueva Gerona in the north, and the second-largest and oldest city is Santa Fe in the interior. Much of the island is covered in pine forests, which is the source of the island's large lumber industry. The northern region of the island has low ridges from which marble is quarried, while the southern region is an elevated plain. Cuban leader Fidel Castro was imprisoned in the Presidio Modelo on the Isla de la Juventud by the regime of Fulgencio Batista after leading the failed July 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in the Oriente Province.

Nueva Gerona city was founded in 1830 by American pioneers. There is an American graveyard in Nueva Gerona to this day. As it is often regarded as among the most beautiful parts of Central America one of the most visited places amongst the most die-hard travelers the world over.

Back to Central America Destinations