28th October, 1492 Columbus reached Cuba

On the 28th of October, 1492 Columbus landed in the north-east of Cuba in the Bay of Bariey. Traveler mistakenly thought that was one of the peninsulas of Asia. After all, the main goal of navigation was to find a sea route to Japan. If you study the route of the expedition and follow it on the map, it becomes obvious that the ships were moving toward North America.

Map of Cuba demonstrates that it is an island nation located in the western Caribbean Sea. Stepping on the unknown land, Columbus was delighted with the beauty of landscapes and exclaimed: "This is the most wonderful place I have ever seen." Indeed, the Cuban nature has a special unique color, sea surface water shimmers of different shades from pale blue to dark emerald color. Not surprisingly, in our time, Cuba is marked on the tourist map of the world as one of the most popular places for visit on the planet.

But as for the traveling of Columbus, the team examined the coast for a long time and even snuck into the territory in hopes of finding the palaces, the rate of the Great Khan. In the course of communication with the local population navigators learned that there were no spices, no gold, no large cities. Indigenous people (guanahatabey) built houses from cane and wood branches, grew potatoes, corn, cotton and tobacco. According to one version, guanahatabey moved to Cuba in about 530 BC from South America. Some scientists believe that they could originate from the territory, which now occupy the United States. By the time of the arrival of the Spanish population was estimated 100,000 people.

We cannot reliably say exactly when travelers first started smoking tobacco. But the first record of this event in the logbook of Columbus is dated November 15. Some researchers believe that the Indians called the tobacco the tube through which they inhaled smoke.

Columbus believed that he was in the poorest part of China. So he decided to take a course to the east along the northern coast of Cuba, where , in his opinion, was a rich country Chipangu. So in medieval cartography was called Japan. Discoverer was seriously wrong. If you look on the map of Cuba, you can see that it borders with the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Haiti, and is situated 180 km north of the United States of America (State of Miami).