Ghost towns
Top tourist destinations empty amid shortages, US energy blockade
Above: A German tourist walks into the water April 8 on a mostly deserted beach in playa Larga, Cienaga de Zapata, Cuba.
Left: Maria Rosa Fernandes, 62, owner of a rental house, sits outside her property April 7 in playa Larga, Cienaga de Zapata.
Anglers fish on an empty beach April 8 in playa Larga, Cienaga de Zapata, Cuba.
Empty sun loungers sit at a rental house April 8 in playa Larga, Cienaga de Zapata.
A scuba instructor prepares to dive with a U.S. tourist April 8 in Giron, Cienaga de Zapata.
SPOTLIGHT | CUBA
As the sun sets in Pálpite, a small town on the edge of Cuba's vast Zapata Swamp, the road suddenly swarms with activity — but not with the red land crabs that once attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists annually to one of the island's top eco-tourism destinations.
The crowds now are residents pouring out of their homes in search of a cellphone signal when the lights flicker back on amid a U.S. energy blockade that condemned a large swath of the island to live without electricity.
"What tourist will want to visit us under these conditions?" laments Manuela Arencibia Báez, owner of a rental house — now mostly empty — 2 miles away in the beachfront Playa Larga, the region's top overnight destination.
She said she lost count of all the reservations she had to cancel, including those from tourists already in the country unable to find a taxi driver with sufficient gas to make the two-hour trip from Havana.
Official data underscore Arencibia's concerns. International tourist arrivals plunged 56% in February from a year prior. Both of Playa Larga's hotels are closed and most of its tourist attractions are shuttered.
Cuba has been plagued by shortages for decades, hampered by a state-run economy and a Cold War-era U.S. trade embargo that complicates everything from financial transactions to the import of fuel. But this time is different, more than a dozen residents and tourism industry workers of the Zapata region said.
"We are much worse off even than during the coronavirus pandemic," Arencibia said, rattling off a list of lost reservations from countries like Switzerland, Canada, France and Germany.
Power cuts now run for 22 hours a day, with just a couple hours of light in which residents scramble to call loved ones in Miami or Havana, or to prepare food before it rots in refrigerators.
Water runs short across many communities. Medical services — always complicated in far-flung corners of the country — are now a remote possibility, hampered by power cuts and lack of communications. Fuel for independent travelers who once flocked to the area in rental cars is largely unavailable.
'Rock bottom'
Trump's fuel blockade coincided with what historically is peak tourism season for Cuba, all but ensuring a disastrous year — a death knell for an industry that in 2024 still accounted for as much as 10% of foreign currency earnings.
Many hotels and services, from Havana east to top beach destinations Varadero, Cayo Santa María and Cayo Coco, were forced to close when fuel shortages prompted many airlines to cut flights.
"In these months, I am always booked," said Fidel Silvestre Fuentes, 67, a rental home owner who long provided accommodations to birdwatchers who come from around the world to see the bee hummingbird, the world's smallest, among other endemic species. "Now, we're empty."
The Zapata Swamp region, much of it in a pristine national park, has more private rental homes open to tourists than even Cuba's top sun and beach destination, Varadero. Now, though, it feels like a ghost town.
The potholes grew deeper along the region's single access road. The coastal route between the white sands of Playa Larga, at the foot of the bay, and Playa Girón, further out, feels abandoned, inhabited mostly by stray crabs, wayward residents on horseback and men and women on bikes.
Even the region's top attractions are closed. The Cueva de los Peces, a transparent seemingly bottomless cave filled with colorful tropical fish, has been shuttered for two months, a guard told a reporter.
The effects are especially dire in regions like Zapata, which offers residents few other options for work beyond tourism.
"If you don't own a rental home, you work in a restaurant; or if you don't work in the sector, maybe you are related to someone who does," said Jorge Alberto Brito, a hat and souvenir seller who now lives off a scarce few pesos a day. "Without a doubt we have hit rock bottom."
Lucky few
Fidel Fuentes Rayó, who rents a home in Playa Larga, is among the lucky few with money enough to purchase solar panels and a lithium battery for storage, giving his home a leg up on the competition.
It hasn't helped, he says. "Tourists do not come to Cuba for comfortable accommodation," he said, but "to tour the National Park and enjoy bird watching, diving services, boat rides, fly fishing … experiences that are just not available now."
Still, some tourists roll the dice. Blair Andrews, 51, an American tourist who often visits Cuba, said electricity and cell service were the least of her concerns.
"I come back because the Cuban people are good hosts and have a beautiful culture," she said before diving into the clear aqua-green water of the Bay of Pigs. "I'm very sad about what's happening to them."
