CubaPLUS Magazine

The Toa River, the largest in Cuba with a flow of 31 cubic meters per second and 72 tributary streams, is considered a whole water factory in the east of the island.

Its name comes from an aboriginal word that means frog, and it was born in the so-called Cuchillas del Toa, an area considered a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, belonging to the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountain group. 

Also called the Cuban Amazon, for its dense and beautiful forested contours and its meandering course, it ends at the coast of the province of Guantánamo.

Parallel to the coast and separated from the land by the river current of the Toa, you can see the Tibaracones, classic geographical feature, typical of these places. Its basin, of approximately 1,060 square kilometers, covers several municipalities and is, without a doubt, the one with the greatest rainfall in the territory and where the purest and most crystalline waters of the Cuban archipelago are preserved.

Due to its rainy regime and its particular mountainous relief, the area is a privileged place of nature; It is one of the areas with the greatest biological diversity and endemism index in Cuba and also in the insular Caribbean.

This territory has an almost unique rich landscape that comes from its particular environment and the existence and activity of the flora and fauna that develop in it. It brings together various plant forms, one of the most representative being the rain forest, characterized by exuberant woods that provide a unique forest heritage.

It has been said that its forest is so dense that the sun almost never reaches the humid ground with its rays. Among the largest plant species are the najesí, the yagrumo, the cupey and some types of palms, but the tibisí, the lombricero liana, the beautiful orchids and fresh ferns are also abundant.

Animal life is represented by a population of birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects, which together with the curious almiquí, an insect-eating mammal in danger of extinction, make up a surprising and remarkable fauna.

In some of the studies carried out in different parts of the basin, the existence of 85 species of birds have been reported, of which 11 are endemic to the country and two to the eastern region; the charismatic parrots and the no less attractive cateyes abound in this land privileged by nature.