Locale: After Varadero, the Jardines del Rey, or Gardens of the King, are Cuba’s most popular tourist destination, and for good reason.  With their swaying palm trees, white sand beaches, and turquoise waters, these islands are nearly a parody of a tropical island paradise.

During the austerities of the Special Period, immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the Cuban government was astute enough to realize that in order to preserve their socialist experiment, they had to make some changes.  In 1990, in an attempt to deal with the devastating impact the collapse of the Soviet bloc inflicted on the Cuban economy, Cuban authorities announced the start of “the special period in time of peace,” an economic adjustment program. The following year the Fourth Communist Party Congress ratified the program and spelled out its main components; among them, international tourism was to be promoted as “an important source of revenue for economic development.”  Ten years after the Special Period was announced, many changes had occurred.  One economist summarized the decade in this way:

Economic reforms have gone further than the hardliners of the Fourth Party Congress envisioned, but have fallen well short of what economists (both inside and outside the island) deem necessary. Performance of the non-sugar agriculture sector remains dismal. Sugar lost its predominance in Cuba’s economy and in the 1990s, the sugar industry experienced the lowest annual production figures of the second half of the century. Hopes and expectations about the biotech industry proved illusory. Foreign investment has been erratic and has fallen short of expectations. Tourism, on the other hand, registered a strong performance throughout the decade and is no doubt the star of the “special period.”

Weather:  80s.  Sunny.

Itinerary: Camagüey to Rancho La Belén in Sierra La Najasa, back to Camagüey, west on Carretera Central to Ciego de Ávila, north to Cayo Coco, cross causeway to island

Overnight: Hotel Sol Cayo Coco, Jardines del Rey

Excursions: Breakfast at Rancho La Belén, birding along the interpretive nature trail, lunch at paladar (private restaurant) Chrono, birding on Cayo Coco, buffet dinner at hotel

Habitats: Secondary growth, some forest, some invasives.

Bird Species (partial listing, by family): Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator), Great Lizard Cuckoo (Coccyzus merlini), Limpkin (Aramus guarauna), Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola), Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus), Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres), Sanderling (Calidris alba), Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griscus), Willet (Tringa semipalmata), Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla), Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus), Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), Cuban Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium siju), Cuban Trogon (Priotelus temnurus), Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor), Cuban Green Woodpecker (Xiphidiopicus percussus), Cuban Parrot (Amazona leucocephala), Giant Kingbird (Tyrannus cubensis), Cuban Palm Crow (Corvus palmarum minutus), Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna), Greater Antillean Grackle (Quiscalus niger)

Guides and Driver: Angel, David, Liu, Camilo and Carlos

Observations:  At lunch, they served a pinkish-red drink made from mamey (Pouteria sapota); the fruit is faintly sweet and has a distinct flavor.  I’m not sure if I’ve had it before.

We are staying at an all-inclusive resort, which means that even the alcoholic drinks (meaning rum-infused of course) are free to us plastic wristband-wearing guests.  The hotel seems decently staffed and maintained, though it took us a while to get toilet paper for our bathroom.  There are many American TV stations available here as well.

Reflections:  If I were a German or a Canadian, I wouldn’t think twice about booking a week at an all-inclusive resort on Cayo Coco in the dead of winter.  What’s not to like about sun and sand and surf?  In fact, there are a lot of tourists in Cuba!  Most of them, of course, are not American.

I do wonder what the locals think about all of us tourists — I suppose we are a necessary nuisance, or something like that, though I’m sure they would be too polite to phrase it like that.  The embargo has caused genuine hardship, though I haven’t yet seen the kind of wrenching poverty that sometimes (rarely) makes news headlines in the First World.  Certainly the Cuban women I’ve seen have been stylishly dressed — quite the contrast to a dowdy, elderly woman like myself (and binoculars don’t count as a fashion accessory either).

Images:

The trogon is Cuba’s national bird.

I was fascinated by these living fences, which use trees as the fence posts.