What the pedraplen is
A pedraplen is a raised roadway built from rock and fill laid directly across the sea floor of a shallow bay, rather than a bridge on piers. The Villa Clara causeway carries a two-lane road out to the cays, with sections and culverts intended to let water move between the bay and the open sea. It was a major construction undertaking and remains the artery that everything on the cays depends on: guests, staff, food, fuel and supplies all cross it. Without the causeway, the cays would be reachable only by boat, and the resorts as they exist could not operate.
Crossing it as a visitor
For travellers, the causeway is both transport and experience. The drive is long, flat and surrounded by water and mangrove flats, with pelicans and wading birds common along the way. There is a control point on the road, and the crossing is used by resort transfers, taxis and tour vehicles. It is not a place to wander on foot. The journey reinforces the sense that the cays are a destination apart from ordinary Cuban life, a strip of beach infrastructure tethered to the mainland by a single ribbon of stone.
Environmental sensitivity
Because the pedraplen crosses a shallow, semi-enclosed bay, it affects water circulation and the surrounding mangrove and seagrass ecosystems, which is why its culverts and design have drawn attention over the years. For visitors the practical takeaway is simply that this is a protected, ecologically delicate coastal environment. Enjoying the beaches responsibly, sticking to marked areas and respecting the wildlife along the causeway are part of visiting well. The cays sit within Cuba's northern reef and cay system, one of the country's most important natural coastal zones.
One last point worth understanding: because a single causeway is the lifeline, the cays are entirely dependent on the mainland for everything from drinking water to fresh food. That dependence is another reason there is no independent town, property market or year-round resident community out here. The road brings the resorts to life each day and, in a real sense, defines the limits of what the cays can ever be. Seeing the pedraplen makes the whole resort-zone model suddenly legible.