One of the old colonial, solidly-built military roads leaving Havana was constructed along a comparatively straight line for 48 kilometers to the little city of Guines, located in the southeastern center of the province of Havana. The road, bridges, and culverts are built solidly of stone, while giant laurels, almonds and flamboyans on both sides of the way furnish a continuous stretch of shade beneath which the voyager travels from one end of the road to the other. This drive is over a rolling, and in places a decidedly hilly country, which relieves monotony and at the same time adds greatly to the picturesqueness of the highway. Many little villages such as San Francisco, Cotorro, Cautro Caminos, Jamaica, San Jose, Ganuza and Loma de Candela or “Hill of the Candle,” are passed between Havana and Guines. These, to the stranger are always a source of novelty and interest. From the top of the Loma de Candela, a beautiful view of the valley below spreads out towards the south. This is known as the Valley of Guines, a large part of which has the good fortune to have been brought under a rather crude but nevertheless efficient system of irrigation many years ago. The water for this irrigation comes from a large spring that, like many others in the Island, bursts from some big cavern below the surface and forms a river that eventually reaches the sea a little east of the village of Batabano, on the south coast. Some three miles from Guines the river is brought under control by a rather crude dam of cement through which it is distributed by ditches over the lands, referred to usually as the “Vegetable Garden of the Province of Havana.” Here large quantities of tomatoes, egg plants, peppers, squash and Irish potatoes are grown during the late fall and winter months. The produce of this section is shipped to the United States as long as market prices justify, after which ready sale is found in the local markets of the capital. From Guines another drive extends some 13 kilometers towards the northeast to the town of La Catalina on the way to Matanzas. The distance from Havana to Matanzas is shortened by a connecting link 16 kilometers in length which branches off the Guines highway at Ganuza, and runs due east through La Catalina to the town of Madruga, 63 kilometers from Havana. This section of the road follows a ridge of low hills or mountains. From Madruga the drive turns sharply to the northeast, entering the Province of Matanzas, 25 kilometers east of the border line.