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• Holguín
• 10 / 14 / 2007

The largest Insular Caribbean waterfall is located in the north-eastern region of Cuba. Its magnetic and attractive geography is a tourist hoot placed on the banks of the plentiful Toa River.

The stream of water falling from 305 m high is called Salto Fino, just as the surrounding region, runs to the Arroyo del Infierno, a tributary flowing into a mainstream Quibiján formed by almost 70 smaller rivers to become the largest in the island.

However, Salto Fino is smaller than many others located in other parts of the world. Its known there are 19 taller waterfalls than the Cuban according to Revista Excelencias recently presented at the International Tourist Festival (FITUR) held in Baracoa.

The visible difference in height gives rise to a natural Park called Alejandro de Humboldt and the ecological reserve Quibiján-Duaba-Yunque de Baracoa.

Typically, Toa together with Duaba flow over large steps in the rocks formed by an ancient fault line, which caused over the centuries a deep pool just below the waterfall because of the kinetic energy of the water hitting the bottom made out of cold crystalline sweet water.

Recently El Explorador - Cubas speleological webpage - published a review on the underway study conducted on the types of cascades in the Caribbean Islands by the Cuban Institute of Tropical Geography and the External Club.

They have explained that Arroyo del Infierno is a permanent current stream course of a shallow-like formation known as rock-shelter, where water spreads horizontally - 3000 m approximately - as it descends, while remaining in contact - 3 km2 - with the bedrock.

Then it falls 600 m to a first step and from there to a sudden break in elevation 295 m springing out into 8 smaller cascades and 20 consecutive waterfalls of 15 to 5 m high.

Source: By Pablo Soroa Fernández, CubaSi