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Ecotourism
Cuba, with more than four thousand keys and islands, included the Isla de la Juventud, is an ideal place for the development of the eco-tourism. According to the specialists, in the country six thousand 370 botanical species exist, of which some three thousand 180 are endemic. The fauna is extraordinarily abundant and varied, with more than 13 thousand species and prevalence of the invertebrates.
In the occident of the country we offer diverse packages to the tourist that allow him to know the Sierra del Rosario and the Viñales Valley, in the province of Pinar del Rio, the Zapata Swamp, in Matanzas or simply to carry out travels by caverns or caves without having previous expeditionary experience.
The Sierra del Rosario is a natural botanical garden, because there are some 600 species of superior plants, and 250 species of the inferior ones. In that area were reported more than 50 species of birds.
The Viñales Valley, is one of the most attractive areas in Cuba, it is part of the Sierra de los Organos, in the Cordillera de Guaniguanico. Different types of calcareous, slates, schists and gritty prevail. For its beauty and extension, the valley is the most outstanding exponent of the groups of carsick valleys existent. It presents in its interior numerous hillocks, and there is great quantity of caves, among those that stand out the Cave of the Indian and the great cavern of Santo Tomas. The fauna is also of a marked endemic character. The mollusks present exclusive forms and also the species of birds and plants; it occupies an excellent place the "zunzún", the"tocororo" and the "cartacuba", the nightingale and the "tomeguín del pinar”. |
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The Zapata Swamp counts, on the other hand, with the most significant vegetation in the country. Valuable wooden species, some of great size are located in its central portion, while in the rest of the territory big extensions of swamps, forests and vegetation characteristic of the marsh appear. It possesses more than a hundred species of the fauna, among those that stand out the "ferminia", the "gallinuela de Santo Tomas", the "zunzuncito", the goatherd of the marsh, the long-tail sparrow hawk, the "catey" and the parrot.
The marsh is one of the areas of more important hibernation of the Cuban archipelago, because it serves from refuge to big groups of migratory birds. Equally, there are 16 species of reptiles there, among them, the Cuban Crocodile and the American Crocodile are the exponents of more size. Mammals like the dwarf hutia and the "conga", and a kind of aquatic mammal, the" manatí", inhabits the area. As for the spineless ones, there are more than a thousand species among which the arachnids stand out, with more than a hundred.
In the central region, the Cordillera de Guamuhaya has one of the most notable areas, the Topes de Collantes Natural Park, in which exist places of unsurpassed beauty as plentiful, as the jumps of the river Caburni and Vega Grande. As for the flora, it is remarkable the presence of endemic local and of arborescent ferns.
The fauna is excellent for the existence of birds with a great population of parrots. Another place of great interest is San Luis Valley (Valley of the Sugar Cane Factories), in the own territory of Sancti Spiritus, declared by UNESCO World Cultural Heritage, with its elegant houses and ruins of sugar cane factories.
The Coco, where there are four interpretive paths that drive to places of unlimited beauty, Guillermo and Paredon Grande keys, the hills of Cunagua and of Florence, in the north, and the Jardines de la Reina,(Gardens of the Queen) archipelago, in the south, constitute natural areas to develop the eco-tourism in the Cuban province of Ciego de Ávila.
The northeastern coast, in the province of Holguín, shows a similar landscape to that the discoverers found in America. Los Pinares de Mayari constitute equally other interesting place full with millennial arborescent ferns, creeks, cascades, wells and ponds of fresh waters, wonderful orchids and birds of songs and blinding colors.
As long as, skirting the south coast of the provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba, it is the Sierra Maestra National Park that enjoys the cathegory of Protected Rural Area, and the Turquino National Park, where the Turquino Peak runs off, that of the biggest height of Cuba.
The elevation of the Great Stone, in which a rocky promontory 63 thousand tons weight exists, to a height a thousand 226 meters on the level of the sea, there is an excellent observatory. While in the Baconao Great Park, declared by the UNESCO Reserves of the Biosphere, is other of the attractions that is found by the visitor, lover of the environment in the oriental region of the country.
Baracoa, the most oriental Cuban city and first village been founded by the conquering Diego Velazquez, contains for the naturalist more than a secret. High mountains, fluvial valleys, beautiful beaches and marine terraces stand out there. The climate is tropical rainy. It is the most humid region in Cuba. In the territory there is a great quantity of rivers, the mightiest in Cuba, mainly the Toa. The Yumurí forms in its outlet a deep canyon. The Toa, the Duaba and the Miel, they have abrupt fluvial valleys in the inferior course.
Two main formations of vegetation are the forest denominated pluvious mountain, with abundance of epiphytic plants and the pinegroves. Baracoa is a refuge of some curious species as the "almiquí", the bat butterfly, the sparrow hawk, the real carpenter, the "polimita" and others. |
