A nature walk

Gordon:  Yesterday we completed our bike ride across Cuba, arriving in Playa Larga at the head of the Bay of Pigs.  (That name may be familiar to some, but more about that in another blog.)  Crossing Cuba from north to south isn’t much of an achievement; our route was about 135 kms spread over two days.

Playa Larga is located in the Cienaga de Zapata, the largest swamp in the Caribbean.  It is known for its wildlife and, a short distance away, its snorkeling.  A young Catalan arranged for a guided nature walk for the three of us, as well as two young women from Malta.  We cruised out to the start of the walk in a beautifully restored ‘55 Chevy.  The roads here are still full of ‘50s autos.  They are highly valued, and as a general rule they are in better condition than when we were here 20 years ago.  There are many indications that the intervening years have been relatively good in Cuba, until the triple blows of COVID, inflation and tightened U.S. sanctions pummelled the economy.

Cuba has few surviving species of mammals, the largest (outside of a few manatees in the western part of the Zapata swamp) being the jutia, a large rat.  What it does have is an impressive variety of birds.  So our nature walk was mostly a birding excursion.  Our guide, Kiko, was excellent, calling and pointing out a quite a range of birds.  Among others, we saw a pygmy owl, several tocoro (Cuba’s national bird), a red legged thrush, a black and white thrush, a green hummingbird, and the carta Cuba bird.  We also saw a small Cuban crocodile, a Cuban slider turtle, and a metre long ancient fish, the Cuban gar.  This is a karst landscape, so we passed several crystal clear pools, one of which we swam in (not the one with the crocodile).  It was a fabulous outing.

The cell strength and wifi are generally very poor in Cuba.  Consequently we are posting fewer pictures on our blog.  There are more pictures on Facebook because it is easier to load pictures to that app.