The 240 people who live in very basic lodgings on the southern tip of a sunny Caribbean island may wish to reconsider the less-than-rosy opinion they have of their surroundings.

No less an authority than Miss Universe has visited Guantánamo Bay and pronounced the infamous US detention centre a "relaxing, calm, beautiful place".

According to a blog posting that will strike fear into the hearts of diplomats in Caracas and Washington, the beauty queen - who is also known as Dayana Mendoza from Venezuela - visited the facility last week with her friend, Miss USA, Crystle Stewart.

"It was a loooot of fun!" Mendoza wrote on the Miss Universe blog. She also recounted how she and Stewart met US military personnel and toured the camp, with its barbed wire fences, minefields and watchtowers. As well as a bar on the base, the pair also discovered an "unbelievable" beach in the bay.

"We also met the military dogs, and they did a very nice demonstration of their skills. All the guys from the army were amazing with us."

But the "deployment" - organised to entertain US troops and "boost morale" - also had its educational aspects.

"We visited the detainees' camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the[y] recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting," wrote Mendoza. "I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful."

Her experiences are a far cry from those of former detainees, who have alleged that torture, including "waterboarding", was practised at Guantánamo Bay.

Britain announced last week it would investigate whether its secret services were complicit in the torture of a UK resident released from the camp last month.

Barack Obama has set a one-year deadline for shutting the prison.