The Bahía de Cochinos (in english Bay of Pigs) is a bay known for snorkelling and diving and is being best reached from Playa Larga. Therefore my Cuban travel buddy and I took the bus to one of the most famous snorkelling spots.

I think the journey there I will remember forever, because I have never seen so many crabs at once in my life. The entire road to the bay was full of aggressive crabs covering the road and the sides of the street. And to be honest there were also crab carcasses, because it was simply impossible to drive down the road without killing a crab. Not to mention that the crabs actually wanted to take it on with the bus and literally stood in the way of the tyres. So the bus driver basically had no choice.

When we arrived at the part of the Bahía de Cochinos where we had wanted to go, everything was also covered in crabs. Whether on the ground, on the walls, in holes, in the trees… Crabs everywhere. Really everywhere. And all defending their territory at the same time and not exactly shy. Nevertheless they didn’t attack you directly, but rather just posed ostentatiously with their claws and rattled when you got closer to them. It was an absolutely crazy scene. I’ve never seen anything like this before. They were even inside while we were eating and on the walls by the tables… It was… basically a crab invasion.
Regarding snorkelling… I’m not much of a snorkeller, so I can’t really comment on that aspect. Nevertheless I was still blown away by the crabs…

Go or not? To this day I still can’t get over how many crabs there were everywhere. And that’s despite the fact that the entire road leading to the bay was full of crab carcasses. Still there just never seemed to be fewer of them. I also saw crabs eating the flesh of other crabs that were already dead. It was… just absolutely crazy. The place and the scenery itself weren’t actually that beautiful or impressive to my mind, but the experience was still worth it. Simply because… there was just something fascinating about it.