The drive from Havana to Matanzas is 100 kilometers or 60 miles in length, and passes through a section of country every mile of which brings to view charming bits of tropical scenery, together with an opportunity to see something of the life of the inhabitants in the interior of the Island. If one has time to stop, or cares to leave the main highway at Ceiba and cross the ridge of hills about a mile distant, a beautiful little valley lies below, on the other side of the divide. The drive from Havana to Matanzas is usually made in about three hours, and, aside from the attractions furnished by the city and its suburbs spread out along the western side of the harbor, will furnish a very pleasant diversion for an early morning or late afternoon excursion. Another of the old Spanish colonial military roads, leaving Havana through the suburb of Marianao, sweeps away towards the southwest in a comparatively straight line until it reaches the city of Guanajay, 42 kilometers distant. Here the road divides, one branch running due south to the little city of Artemisa, located in the center of the pineapple district, which furnishes a large part of the fruit shipped to the United States. From Havana to Artemisa, 58 kilometers, Cuban laurels, royal palms and flamboyans furnish a continuous and often dense shade throughout its entire length. In some places, for miles, the road resembles a long green tunnel passing through foliage that arches up from the sides and meets in the center above. From Las Mangas, 7 kilometers south of Artemisa, the road swings sharply to the westward and so continues through a more open country with less shade and less traffic. There is no speed limit on the country roads of Cuba, and if the condition of the drive permits, one can skip along at a 40 or 50 mile clip between villages, with little danger of interference. This westerly drive swings on through Candelaria, 82 kilometers from Havana, where one gets the first glimpse of the long picturesque range of the Organ Mountains some five miles away to the north. These parallel the road to the western terminus of the Island.