Wingsch Real Estate Investments   

Theme Week Cuba – Isla de la Juventud

26 April 2016 | Author/Destination: Caribbean / Karibik | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Isla de la Juventud (English: Isle of Youth) is the second-largest Cuban island and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies. The island was called the Isle of Pines (Isla de Pinos) until 1978. It has an area 2,200 km2 (850 sq mi) and is 50 km (31 mi) south of the island of Cuba, across the Gulf of Batabanó. The island lies almost directly south of Havana and Pinar del Río and is a Special Municipality (2,419 km2 (934 sq mi)), not part of any province and is therefore administered directly by the central government of Cuba. The island has only one municipality, also named Isla de la Juventud. The largest of the 350 islands in the Canarreos Archipelago (Archipiélago de los Canarreos), the island has an estimated population of 100,000. The capital and largest city is Nueva Gerona in the north, and the second-largest and oldest city is Santa Fe in the interior.   read more…

Theme Week Cuba

25 April 2016 | Author/Destination: Caribbean / Karibik | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  23 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Cuba is comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. It is south of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 110,860 square kilometres (42,800 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants. Prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, which led to nominal independence as a de facto United States protectorate in 1902. As a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batista’s ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, which afterwards established a government under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Since 1965, the country has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A pawn during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war nearly broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America. It is a multiethnic country whose people, culture and customs derive from diverse origins, including the aboriginal Taíno and Ciboney peoples, the long period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of African slaves, and a close relationship with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.   read more…