Monday, March 5, 2012

A quick trip to Cuba

Some friends and I decided to take advantage of a last-minute, all-inclusive, week-long Cuban vacation deal. Leaving from Thunder Bay on March 23rd, our only option was to fly into the gated tourist enclave of Varadero. After one bewildering night at the all-inclusive resort we headed south ~135 km to the famous Ciénaga de Zapata National Park where, for three days, we explored wetlands, woodlands and palm savannahs with the highly-regarded local bird guide Mario Morejon.

[click on images to enlarge]
The area is rich in endemic bird species and, only with the benefit of Mario's local knowledge, we saw most of these; however, we were no less impressed by the flora, herps, insects, crabs and land snails.












It was an amazing week. We could have spent a month exploring more of Cuba; however, we made the best of what little time we had. I'll most more photos in the coming days.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent story and photos!

    I stumbled upon your Blog looking for information on Cuban savannas. I created a link on my own latest writing redirecting people here, since I believe they should not miss your wonderful photos of the Zapata swamp.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete