Pico Turquino

Pico Turquino National Park was established in 1980 in south-eastern Cuba, in the Sierra Maestra, between the provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba, and protects some 229 km². Its summit, Pico Turquino, reaches 1,974 metres and is the highest point in the country.

The range concentrates a very high diversity because of its gradient and its isolation: semi-deciduous forest at lower altitudes, montane rainforest in the middle belt and cloud forest with tree ferns and mosses on the summits, with a high proportion of Cuban endemics. It is home to the Cuban trogon, the national bird, the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world, and the Cuban solenodon, a nocturnal insectivore of a very ancient and very rare lineage.

The massif holds a central place in Cuban history. Between 1958 and 1959 its slopes housed the Comandancia General de La Plata, Fidel Castro's headquarters during the guerrilla war, preserved today as a national monument inside the park, with the campaign house, the hospital and the Radio Rebelde transmitter. On the summit stands a bust of José Martí placed there in 1953, and the ascent of Turquino has combined natural appeal with symbolic weight ever since.