Sunday, December 17, 2917 Cienfuegos, Cubas

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cienfuegos (100 fires) is renowned for its French influence. Built on the wealth of sugar, tobacco, and coffee barons, the “Pearl of the South” was once an elegant playground for the island’s elite.  After an interesting briefing about Fidel Castro this morning, we boarded tenders to head for the dock and waiting tour buses to take us on our first excursion.

Immerse yourself in Cuba’s bucolic countryside with a tour of the Botanical Garden of Cienfuegos. Founded in 1901 and once part of a Harvard research project, the sprawling, ten-acre garden is now run by the state government and is one of the largest of its kind in Latin America. Explore the area with local botany experts and learn more about the 1,400 different species of tropical plants, including 195 types of palm tree, that are cultivated on the grounds as you walk along its winding paths. 

Our first stop was at Jardin Botanico, one of two botanical gardens on Cuba.  Our guide there was a hoot!  He is an expert on tropical trees.  For instance, did you know of the 3,000 varieties of palm trees, Cuba has 195?  

And in this tropical area, bamboo grows 2 to 3 per day!

In Hawaii this is called Bird of Paradise.  I forget what our guide called it today.

Our second stop for the afternoon was at Laguna Guanaroca, Zapata province’s only protected wildlife refuge and a paradise for birdwatchers. Pelicans and colonies of flamingos routinely inhabit the mangrove-bordered lake, which is also home to crabs and many species of fish. You can walk along a raised platform to an observation deck to get a better view.

Our first item of interest was of a termite nest.  Termites can kill a tree in six months.

Termite tunnels conceal the termites as they move from the ground to their nests high in the trees.  The termites were easily exposed in the soft tunnels.

This crab is of a land species, tunneling deep into the ground/mud for protection.

These ant hills form a large colony.  Rain does not seem to bother the critters and does not compromise their hills of tunnels.

If you have not known anyone before who has been to Cuba, now you do!

We will be here for another day and a half.  Tomorrow we are off to Havana; it's a 4 hour bus ride each way and we get to spend 4 hours there.  Long day ahead.  Better get to bed.