Cayo Guillermo History Facts and Timeline

(Cayo Guillermo, Ciego de Avila, Jardines del Rey, Cuba)

The history of Cayo Guillermo is hardly impressive, owing to its remoteness on the north coast of Cuba, within the Ciego de Avila province. However, it has certainly had its notable dates over the past few centuries.

The coral 'cay' is best known for its beaches today, as well as for being adored by famous writer Ernest Hemingway. Many holiday makers come here for the plentiful sandy beaches alone, although there are certainly a number of interesting sights to see from yesteryear.

Founding and Sugar

Diego Velazquez, the first governor of Cuba, founded Cayo Guillermo in 1514 as part of the Jardines del Rey for Fernando el Catolico. Due to the region being remote and somewhat inaccessible from land, the island understandably remained little developed.


The 'nearby' settlement at Moron was the only significant activity in the region, attracting a community in the middle part of the 18th century. It survived mostly on sugar production, along with charcoal making and fishing. Early folk typically used dinghies to fish, remaining inshore at Cayo Guillermo, where they also kept animals - some stone fences remain today. Transport to the mainland was by small sailboat, a journey that would take several hours.

The Trocha

Moron lay on the path of the so-called Trocha defensive line in the 1800s, which included a succession of forts that ran here from Jucaro in the south. The Spanish built them to keep out Cuban rebels in the east during the First War of Independence (in the year of 1869) and incorporated a railway line in order to better transport people and supplies.

The town of Moron noticeably grew in the second decade of the 1900s, when it became something of a junction of rail lines connecting the various outlying sugar plantations. Building began in earnest, including a large station and some local stores, while, according to history books, development of Cayo Guillermo remained quite stunted.

Ernest Hemingway

The acclaimed American writer, Ernest Hemingway, loved to sail and fish and was drawn to Cayo Guillermo in the 1930s, since it was an ideal launch point for fishing trips. He was inspired by Cayo Guillermo to pen his best-selling novels 'The Old Man and the Sea' and 'Islands in the Stream', and they named the main beach here after his boat, the Pilar (the Playa Pilar). It is said that Hemingway even hunted for Nazi submarines off these cays during WWII, a time when the islands were home to known Nazi sympathisers.

Fishermen and Tourism

By the 1960s, Cayo Guillermo was the serious focus of deep-sea fishermen, who came here to snag profitable marlin and swordfish. A road was eventually built to the coast, although it wasn't until the 1990s that it would reach Cayo Guillermo (through Cayo Coco), via a much-needed manmade causeway.

The islands were then opened up to tourism, resulting in the building of a marina and various modern hotels. Today, there are no less than four luxury resorts based within the province of Ciego de Avila, all on the rather appealing northern side. These are the Gran Caribe Villa Cojimar, the Melia Cayo Guillermo, the Iberostar Daiquiri, and also the Sol Cayo Guillermo. Cubans initially could not visit (during 'tourist apartheid') unless they worked here, with most hotel workers choosing to commute from nearby Moron.

The main attraction is the draw of the coast, namely the nudist beach Playa Pilar, along with the Playa Larga and the Playa Los Flamencos beaches. People take trips from the Marlin Marina and also head into Moron, to learn more about the history of Cayo Guillermo at the Museum of Archaeology and History. Moron's railway station hails from the 1920s and is also quite historic in its own right.