Dear readers

We have just received the following information regarding the Vinales Valley area.
- Viñales roads are open and safe.

- La Ermita Hotel will open tomorrow and Rancho San Vicente is already open, Los Jasmines Hotel will take some time.

- Cayo Levisa, they are doing the excursions but not accepting clients to sleep there as the roof of the cabins are quite damamged.

- Soroa Hotel is in perfect condition.

If you have any questions please post a comment.

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

This is the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. It caused disaster in Baracoa.

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

As you all know, Hurricane IKE has just passed through Cuba, a week later after our Island been affected by Gustav. Both hurricanes with very strong rains and winds almost all over the country.
All our clients were protected; they felt safe and secure and were assisted by our staff and managers, all the time. That allowed us to guarantee that any personal injuries were suffered, as it is already common in Cuba, in situations like this.
Nevertheless, the Cubanacan hotels located in Pinar del Río (Viñales, Levisa and Soroa), Holguín (Guardalavaca), Camaguey (Santa Lucía) and Las Tunas (Covarrubias) have suffered some damages. Thus, interrupting their normal operations for the moment.
At present we are immersed in a reconstruction programme. The reopenings will take place in accordance with the situation in each specific region and hotel. We would like to present to you as proposed dates, the followings:
Holguín:
Brisas Guardalavaca (206 rooms)
• Villas/ Monday 15/09/08
Club Amigo Atlántico Guardalavaca
• Villas/ Monday 15/09/08
Granma
Marea del Portillo, El Yarey
• The operations remains, without any affectation
Santiago de Cuba
The city (Versalles, Meliá Santiago)
• The operations remains, without any affectation
Beach area (Carisol /Los Corales)
• Monday 15/09/08
Brisas Sierra Mar/Los Galeones
• Saturday, 13/09/08
Pinar del Río
Viñales (Rancho San Vicente – 34 rooms)
• Saturday, 13/09/08
Jazmines, Ermita and Soroa
• To be advine in a few days.
Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara and Sancti Spiritus
• The operations have been reestablished in all the hotels and all their rooms
Varadero (This includes Breezes Jibacoa)
• The operations remains, without any affectation
Península de Zapata
• Batey Don Pedro: the operations remains, without any affectation
• Playa Girón: Saturday, 13/09/08
• Other Services: Saturday, 13/09/08
La Habana
• The operations remain, without any affectation, with exception of Villa Megano, in which the electricity is still cut off. Possible reopening: 15/09/08
Camaguey /Santa Lucía; Las Tunas /Covarrubias
• The reconstruction works are taking place. The reopening dates will be announced later on, once the works have advanced.
In order to keep you frequently up to date, on how the recovery process of our hotels is going, the Commercial Direction will be issuing a systematic updating of each hotels situation and its recovering process.
Thanks for your continious collaboration and support.
Best regards,
Raul Naranjo Aday
Vice-president
Cubanacan Group

This is what is left of Givara after Hurrican IKE. Hurricane Ike barreled into Cuba’s eastern province of Holguin late Sunday.

Givara Town

Givara Town

 

Givara Town

Givara Town

13:00 Local Time: Hurricane Ike is heading South towards the sea – reported the Cuban National Meteorology Centre. The exit point is expected somewhere near Jaruco a small town on the south coast of Ciego de Avila province.

Experts fear that the category 2 hurricane could gain strength on the Caribbean Sea to then return to the Cuban Island.

HAVANA (AFP) — Hurricane Gustav rapidly gained strength Saturday as it bore down on western Cuba after ripping through the Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, leaving 85 people dead.

“Data from an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Gustav continues to rapidly strengthen and now has maximum winds 115 miles (185 kilometres) per hour with higher gusts,” the US National Hurricane Center said.

That made Gustav “a dangerous category three hurricane” on the five-notch Saffir-Simpson scale — equal in strength to Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall in the southern United States three years ago.

The western province of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth in the south were put on the highest level of weather alert.

Tens of thousands of residents were asked to leave their homes in advance of Gustav, which was forecast to hit Cuba later Saturday.

“It will produce a storm surge and torrential rains in the western part of the country,” warned Cuban meteorologist Jose Rubiera.

Gustav brushed past the Cayman Islands late Friday, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Barreling earlier across Jamaica, however, it killed at least 11 people. In Haiti, it left 66 dead plus 10 missing. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight.

At dawn Saturday, the center of Gustav was located about 410 kilometers (255 miles) east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba, the National Hurricane Center, based in Miami, reported.

It was moving northwest at around 19 kilometers (12 miles) per hour. If it keeps its present course, the center said, it could hit Louisiana — the same state hard hit by Katrina — in the early hours of Tuesday.

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters Friday that the storm had displaced between 3,500 and 4,000 people in his Caribbean island nation.

“I am concerned that there are still a number of persons who are still unaccounted for,” Golding said.

Streets in the normally bustling capital Kingston were soaked and reeking with the stench from overflowing sewers. Powerful gusts sent metal roofs flying and threatened to wreak havoc on banana production.

Although the heaviest of the rains had subsided, many Jamaicans worried about returning home. “It is all wet and I am afraid to sleep inside there,” said Kingston housewife Charlene Markland.

In Cuba, a fragile and aging housing stock is highly vulnerable to hurricanes. More than two million people live in the capital Havana, where many colonial-era buildings, crowded with families, are prone to cave-ins.

Anxiety meanwhile grew on the American side of the Gulf of Mexico.

In New Orleans, officials began busing out residents on a voluntary basis in anticipation of Gustav, and considered mandatory evacuations to prevent a repeat of the devastation and deaths of 2005.

President George W. Bush declared Friday a state of emergency in Louisiana and Texas — enhancing their access to federal disaster relief coordination and funding.

Katrina killed around 1,800 people, mostly in the New Orleans area, as it made landfall on August 29, 2005 as a category three hurricane, after reaching category five over the Gulf of Mexico.

Three major oil producers — BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell — on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.