Major towns in the province include Cárdenas, Jovellanos and the capital of the same name, Matanzas. The resort town of Varadero is also located in this province.
The second largest in Cuba, Matanzas province is largely flat, with its highest point (Pan de Matanzas) at only 380m above sea level.
The north coast has numerous small cays of its coast, and scrubland and mangroves near the shoreline.
The southern coast has one of Cuba's most distinctive features: an enormous marsh, Ciénaga de Zapata that covers both the southern part of the province and the peninsula of the same name. East of the peninsula lies the Bay of Pigs, the site of the failed US backed invasion.
Of Cuba's provinces, Matanzas is one of the most industrialised, with petroleum wells, refineries, supertanker facilities, and 21 sugar mills to process the harvests of the fields of sugarcane in the province.
Pinar del Río Province
Pinar del Río is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba.
The Pinar del Río province has one of Cuba's three main mountain ranges, the Cordillera de Guaniguanico. The mountains are divided into the easterly Sierra del Rosario and the westerly Sierra de los Organos. These form a landscape characterised by steep sided limestone hills and flat, fertile valleys.
The province relies on tobacco farming, with Pinar del Río producing 70% of Cuba's crop, used to make the cigars that are so prized overseas. The best tobacco, used for more expensive cigar brands, is grown in the flat lands of San Juan y Martínez. Tourism in the Viñales Valley is another important part of the economy.
Isla de la Juventud
The Isle of Youth () is the largest Cuban island after Cuba itself. It is the sixth-largest island in the West Indies. The island has an area of and is southwest of mainland Cuba. It is across the Gulf of Batabanó. The island is almost directly south of Havana and Pinar del Río. Because of its superficial extension, population and for its economic characteristics, it is considered to be a Special Municipality. It is therefore not a part of any province. The Isle of Youth is administered directly by the central government of Cuba.
The island is the largest of the 350 in the Canarreos Archipelago ('). It has an estimated population of 100,000. The capital and largest city is Nueva Gerona in the north. The second-largest and oldest city is Santa Fe in the interior. Other communities are Columbia, Mac Kinley, Santa Bárbara, Cuchilla Alta, Punta del Este, Sierra de Caballos and Sierra de Casas. The island was called the Isle of Pines (') before 1978.
Little is known of the pre-Columbian history of the island, though a cave complex near the Punta del Este beach preserves 235 ancient drawings made by the native population. The island first became known to Europeans during Christopher Columbus's third voyage to the New World in 1494. Columbus named the island La Evangelista and claimed it for Spain; the island would also come to be known Isla de Cotorras ("Isle of Parrots") and Isla de Tesoros ("Treasure Island") at various points in its history.
Pirate activity in and around the area left its trace in English literature. Both "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "Peter Pan" by James Matthew Barrie are rooted in part on accounts of the island and its native and pirate inhabitants, as well as long dugout canoes (which were often used by pirates as well as indigenous peoples) and the great American crocodile ("Crocodylus acutus") on the island.
Following the victory of the United States in the Spanish-American War, Spain dropped all claims to Cuba under the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The Isla de la Juventud was not mentioned in the Platt Amendment, which defined Cuba's boundaries, and this led to competing claims to the island by the United States and the now-independent Cuba. In 1907, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the island did not belong to the United States. A treaty was signed between the U.S. and Cuba in 1925, recognizing Cuban ownership.
Much of the island is covered with pine forests. These are the source of the island's large lumber industry. The northern region of the island has low ridges from which marble is quarried. The southern region is an elevated plain. Agriculture and fishing are the island's main industries, with citrus fruit and vegetables being grown. A black sand beach was formed by volcanic activity.
The island has a mild climate, but is known for frequent hurricanes. It is a popular tourist destination, with many beaches and resorts, including Bibijagua Beach. Until the Cuban government expropriated all foreign-owned property in the early 1960s, much land was owned by Americans.
The main transportation to the island is by boat or aircraft. Hydrofoils (kometas) and motorized catamarans will make the trip in between two and three hours. A much slower and larger cargo ferry takes around six hours to make the crossing, but is cheaper. The province has only one municipality, also named Isla de la Juventud.
From 1953 to 1955, 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. Later, Castro used the same facility to imprison counterrevolutionaries and dissidents, such as Huber Matos (once a comandante of rebel troops supporting the Cuban Revolution but later came into conflict with Cuban government), who claims to have been tortured there , and Armando F. Valladares.
Presidio Modelo is now closed, and turned into a museum. It is replaced by more modern prisons. These include (MAS = maximum security prison; COR = correctional):
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), also known as Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist. Hergé was born in Etterbeek, Brussels from a group of people in Belgium called Walloons. He's best known for his 23 completed comics, "The Adventures of Tintin". Hergé first made Tintin in "Le Petit Vingtième" in 1929.
"This famous Belgian artist is often considered to be the most influential European comic artist ever and his "clear line" style was widely copied by new generation of comic artists."
Hergé died in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert on 3 March 1983. He was 75 years old. Hergé's life's work is watched over by his widow. She shut down Hergé Studios. She started the Hergé Foundation in 1987. It is now called Moulinsart S.A.
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the state of Kentucky in the USA. The settlement that became the City of Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark. It is named after King Louis XVI of France. It was an important riverport in the 19th century. Many people come to the city in May for the Kentucky Derby horse race.
Here are some pictures of buildings in Louisville:
Notes
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore is a famous mountain and memorial near Keystone, South Dakota in the United States. It has the heads of four of America's presidents carved on it: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The Mount Rushmore Memorial is a part of the United States Presidential Memorial, which covers and is above sea level (altitude).
Before the memorial was carved, the native Lakota Indian Tribes called the mountain "Six Grandfathers". Later, the mountain was named after Charles E. Rushmore, a well-known later, after an expedition in 1885. The memorial was carved to help increase tourism in the Black Hills, where the mountain was. Doane Robinson first formed the idea in 1923. Robinson convinced many influential people in the United States government to build the memorial. Congress soon allowed construction to begin.
After gaining Congress's approval, Gutzon Borglum, a famous American sculptor, was hired to begin the project.
The work of carving the heads began on March 3, 1925. It was completed on October 31, 1941.
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