A Cuban content creator documented the current state of the beach at Santa Lucía in Camagüey on TikTok, and what she found in the Residential sector—historically the tourist hub of that resort—left viewers speechless.
The user @dalaisy_makeup posted the journey in mid-August after a bus trip that started at five in the morning, during a total blackout: "The only light we could see was from the moon, you can imagine how dark it was," she recounted.
After two and a half hours on the road, the scene he encountered was far from the tourist postcard that Santa Lucía once was.
"The beach was completely empty and also extremely dirty; there was seaweed everywhere, with mounds upon mounds along the shore," described the author of the video.
The deterioration of the infrastructure was equally striking: "Imagine a place that was once filled with cabins, and now the only ones left are these that you see here," he noted while pointing to the few structures that remain standing.
The conditions were so precarious that getting into the water was out of the question: “I preferred a thousand times to start taking a thousand photos and try to record the loveliest little videos I could in the prettiest places I saw, because getting into that filthy beach really wasn’t an option for me.”
The author added that "she was not the only one who thought that way," implying that other visitors shared her discontent regarding the condition of the place.
This testimony is not the first to raise concerns about the situation in Santa Lucía. In July 2025, a lifeguard at the beach reported an accumulation of sargassum more than a meter high that obstructed visibility and made it difficult to use the area.
Environmental degradation has also been observed at other points along the Cuban coastline. In August of this year, La Boca beach, also in Camagüey, was reported for the accumulation of trash, with beer cans, bottles, and glass scattered both on the sand and on the seabed.
During the summer, the beaches of Mayabeque were also reported to be in critical condition, while in September Ancón beach, in Trinidad, closed the summer season covered in waste. In July, moreover, several beaches in Baracoa were found to be covered by large amounts of sargassum.
Santa Lucía also faces significant environmental challenges. A study on resilient tourism and climate change in the destination, conducted by researchers and institutions from Camagüey, warns that human activity — including tourism — and natural phenomena have impacted its resources and ecosystems. The research also indicates that the tourism activity in the area is exposed to high levels of risk due to extreme hydrometeorological events and the rising average sea level.
The situation coincides with the severe crisis facing Cuban tourism. Cuba had only 450,000 international visitors in the first eight months of 2026, amid a significant decline in the sector.
"There is nothing more horrifying than watching your country be destroyed day by day," wrote @dalaisy_makeup in the video description, summarizing her impression of the current state of Saint Lucia.
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