Cuba Guide
Pinar del Río
María La Gorda
Turn left after La Bajada to get to the most popular spot on the Peninsula de Guanahacabibes, María La Gorda, where there is an international dive centre and a small hotel complex. The relaxing drive here follows the shoreline of the bay, with dense forest on one side and an open expanse of brilliant, usually perfectly placid blue-green water on the other. Along the way are a few slightly scrappy but likeable little beaches, which you can make your own if you want complete privacy, but it's best to wait, as there's usually plenty of room on the much larger beach belonging to the resort at the end of the road. The easiest way to visit María La Gorda is to book a transfer with one of the national travel agents based in Viñales village.
Practicalities
You have the choice of two distinct sets of accommodation at Villa María La Gorda ( 
82/77-8131, 77-3072 and 77-3067 
comercial@mlagorda.co.cuPrice: $80-120CUC), which is used as a base camp for divers as much as a hotel for beach bums; the cost of the room includes a buffet breakfast and dinner. Lined up along the top of the beach, no more than 30m from the water's edge, are wood-panelled bungalows and two-storey concrete apartment blocks, all facing out to sea. There are also the newer, characterful log cabins, hidden away from the beach in their own little wooden gangway-linked complex on the edge of the forest thicket that covers most of the peninsula.
María La Gorda has two restaurants. The buffet Las Gorgonias (daily 8–10am, 1–3pm & 7–10pm), located at the top of the beach with serene views out to sea, serves $5CUC breakfasts and $15CUC dinners – each meal a good-quality, all-you-can-eat feed; at El Carajuelo (daily noon–3pm & 7.30–10pm), with its wooden-walled interior and shady front porch, you can get decent pizzas for around $6CUC and a number of pricier chicken and seafood platters.
The virgin waters around María La Gorda are widely regarded as among the best for diving in the whole of Cuba, protected by the bay and spectacularly calm and clear, averaging 25m in depth. Diving here is enhanced by a quick drop in water depth, with a large number of the fifty-or-so dive sites only ten to twenty minutes by boat from the shore, while the spectacular variety of fish life here includes barracuda, moray eels, several species of rays, lobsters, whale sharks and more. Amongst the specific dive sites of note are Ancla del Pirata, featuring an eighteenth-century two-ton anchor covered in coral; colourful Paraiso Perdito, which reaches depths of 33m and is particularly abundant in coral and fish life; and Yemayá, a two-metre-high cave at 32m deep, which ascends almost 20m through a long, gently curving, mysterious tunnel.
The three yachts belonging to the resort's diving club, Centro Internacional de Buceo María La Gorda (daily 8.30am–5.30pm; ring Villa María La Gorda and ask for the Centro de Buceo), depart every day at 8.30am, 11am and 3.30pm. You need to be at the club at least thirty minutes before departure time to arrange equipment and pay for your diving. A single dive costs $35CUC but there are a number of more economical packages, starting with five dives for $135CUC all the way up to twenty dives for $400CUC; you will need to add an extra $7.50 for equipment rental, unless you bring your own. The club caters to both first-timers and advanced divers, with a short initiation course involving some theory and a single immersion ($45CUC) four- to five-day ACUC Open Water courses ($365CUC) and a number of other specialist courses such as "Stress and Rescue" ($200CUC).
Several boat trips are offered at the marina as well. You can opt for an all-day excursion (four-person minimum) which includes a visit to a beach, two dives, snorkelling and lunch on board, all for $68CUC, or the Romantic Sunset cruise, which lasts three hours and is aimed at couples, with an on-board dinner included in the $24CUC per-person price. The club also runs fishing trips, starting at $50CUC per person for one hour for a minimum of four people.