Los Ingenios Valley or San Luis Valley

Discover this unique treasure of the development of the sugar industry where monuments, society and nature are mixed.

Los Ingenios Valley or San Luis Valley
© Wilder Mendez

The Ingenios Valley, also known as San Luís Valley, is an ecological and cultural system in which monuments, society and nature are mixed, which is set up in a large grassland made by the valleys of Agabama-Méyer, Santa Rosa and the Southern coastal plain. To arrive to the valley, the visitor can use a local train which arrives everyday from Trinidad, or a steam engine which works as a touristic train with a circuit of two hours and a half.

The valley was one of the biggest sugar regions on the 17th and 19th centuries due to its favorable natural conditions and its great resources such as fertile lands or ports available for boarding. In the start the land was used by the Spaniards for planting tobacco, farming and other crops, until the boom of the sugar industry. This phenomenon had an effect on the city of Trinidad turning it into one of the cities with greatest economic and sociocultural wealth in Cuba. However, along the second half of the 19th century was produced a great decline in the valley producing an exodus of capitals to other regions due to the not-so-fertile lands, the 1857 worldwide crisis and the Independence War of 1868.

Although this decline, there are still preserved many archeological remains and plantation houses from that time. The best preserved plantation houses are the Manaca-Iznaga, Buena Vista, Delicias, Guáimaro and Magua, all of the of Neoclassic architecture. Some of them are very interesting to visit, as the belltower of Manaca Iznaga or the Sugar Museum which is hoted by Guáimaro.

Another of the beautiful attractions given by the Ingenios Valley is the Slave Route from where we can visit the Mirador del Valle Overlook and the beautiful sights given by the Trinidad Grassland. Following this route, we arrive to the Casa Guanichango House, and old plantation house turned into a cafeteria and restaurant. Furthermore, to end the day and rest from the route, there is nothing better than getting close to the Cascada de Jabira Waterfall, around 8 km far from there, and have a refreshing bath.

In 1998 Trinindad dn the Ingenios Valley were declared World Heritage by the UNESCO.

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