Playa
Girón, on the eastern side of the famous Bay of Pigs, 48 km. south
of Boca de Guamá, is named after a French pirate who frequented
the area centuries ago. Upon the shores of this beach, on April 1961,
an army of cuban exiles based in the USA invaded the island in order to
overthrow Fidel Castro’s newly established revolutionary government,
and was defeated in less than 72 hours. A museum and several monuments
bear witness to this event.
The
clear Caribbean waters washing these shores make Playa Girón a
favourite destination for scuba divers and snorkelers. A lasting legacy
of 1961 is that the entire Bay of Pigs area is strictly out of bound to
cruising yachts.
A more accessible site is the Cueva de los Peces, a flooded tectonic fault about 70 m. deep on the island side of the road, almost exactly midway between Playa Larga and Playa Girón. These half-rounded lagoons, called cenotes have arisen from the partial caving-in of cave’s roofs.
Like
at Playa Larga, wall-diving can be practised here. Underwater areas are
immensely attractive because of the steepness of the ocean wall, which
is extremely close to the shore and covered by astonishing coral beds,
including black ones, as well as sea fans, sponges and blind fishes.