Damien Enright: Baracoa is a Cuban paradise you could stay in forever

Baracoa, this town of 80,000 in Oriente province in the far southeast of Cuba — literally at the ‘end’ of the island of Cuba — was for me

Cuba was Columbus’s second landfall in the New World and 20 years later, Baracoa became its first town. Picture: iStock

Last year, an Examiner reader told me he'd once read an article I'd written about Cuba some years before and, as he and his wife were planning the holiday of a lifetime there, he'd be grateful if I could send him a copy. Sure, I said, but which article? I'd written a few in 2009 and I should warn him that they might be dated. However, Cuba being Cuba, he might well encounter little change. I selected him a piece I'd written about the farthest east, farthest from Habana town on the island and sent it. When he returned from Baracoa in January this year, he said almost nothing had changed.

Columbus, whom I wrote about last week, established the first town there, having sailed from La Gomera in the Canaries. Many Gomeros have migrated to Cuba and many have stayed there. Here in Gomera, the Health Service is largely run by Cuban-trained doctors.