Thurs, March 22 - To Cayo Coco

As today is a driving day, we were allowed to sleep in and have breakfast at 7 AM, much to the relief of our cook, I’m sure!  We are staying in a casa particular, a privately-owned small B&B run by the family who lives there. This is a fairly new development in Cuba as all hotels are owned by the government.   We had our usual lavish breakfast spread of fruit, crepes (with sprinkles!) jam, cake, & eggs, before saying goodbye to our gracious hosts and joining the others on the bus.  

Cuban Street Scene

We drove north back to the Autopista Nacional, the highway that runs east-west through much of the country, and continued our way east.  We stopped at a small cafe for coffee and pastries and then drove on another hour until we stopped for lunch near Santa Clara at a large open-air restaurant that had a buffet set up, so we weren’t presented with huge platters of food!  I just had some black beans & rice and yuca with a beer.

Lunch!

Band-headed Anole, A. lucius

Cuban Green Anole, A. porratus

We walked down to a nearby stream and saw two lovely anoli lizards, and then got back onto the highway.  The traffic on all the roads on which we have traveled has been rather light.  Not that many people own cars and gasoline is $5 a gallon.  Many of the old restored American cars have newer, more efficient engines installed and a lot of loving care is put into maintaining them.  Along all the major roads is a dirt track for the horse-drawn carts used for hauling wood or hay, or used as taxis for transporting people.  It is very charming for us first-worlders to be able to frequently hear the the clopping of hooves on the pavement!

We turned north once again and headed for the other coast of Cuba where the horrendous Hurricane Irma hit last fall.  We passed through a forest of blow-over trees and then crossed over a long causeway about 30 KM long reaching Cayo Coco, Cuba’s fourth largest island.  The island plus the others in this chain were uninhabited until 1992 when the government established a single hotel and then a continuous stream of more.  Cubans aren’t allowed to stay here, just to come for work - it is just set up for tourists.  At five we arrived at our hotel, Hotel Sol Cayo Coco, a large noisy beach-oriented all-inclusive resort.  We received blue wrist bands, which allow us to eat and drink as much as we want! 

Hotel Sol Cayo Coco

Before the hurricane we could have easily seen our target birds, but now who knows?  Everything looks in good repair, but most of the trees are without many leaves and many birds have been driven away.

Hotel Beach

We took a quick bird walk and then returned to the hotel for The List and a crowded noisy buffet of an amazing variety of foods.  The staff are very well trained and friendly and cooked us pizzas to order, or cracked crab, roast beef, etc..   with an ice cream sundae bar for dessert!

I tried the wifi...but had problems - I’ll try again tomorrow.

Wed, March 21 - Visiting Parque Nacional Cienga de Zapata

After breakfast at 6:15 we joined the others in the bus along with Frank, our local guide.  

The endemic bird species are mostly endangered, but the local guides know exactly where they are, so we have a good chance of identifying them.  We also have a representative of the Cuban Conservation Trust along and our Cuban naturalist guide, Dr. Luis  Diaz, who is  one of the top herpetologists in Cuba and has been pointing out a wide variety of beautiful lizards for us. Gonzalo manages the logistics for our trip and gives us lectures on Cuban culture.  With all this assistance, its no wonder that of the 48 possible birds Bob was hoping to add to his life list, he already has 37!

Zapata Sparrow

Our driver, Arturo,  turned off a main road onto a narrow dirt one and very slowly drove down it in the dark.  It has been frustrating as we were told not to bring a GPS to Cuba (not sure why) so it is very difficult to tell where we are especially in the dark!  We figured out later that we had been traveling through the huge marshy area north and west of Playa Larga.  The ground fog lifted and we found ourselves in a lovely swampy area with open water and scattered islands, called La Turba.  Frank quickly called up the Zapata  Sparrow and other local species.  

Two Greater Flamingos & A Roseate Spoonbill

Black-necked Stilts

Arturo somehow managed to turn the large bus around on this one-lane road and we drove to Las Salinas, an area of open shallow water with some platforms from which we could see beautiful Black-necked Stilts, a favorite Santa Barbara bird, but lovely to see in such numbers, White Pelicans and gorgeous, dark pink Flamingos and one Spoonbill.

View from the Tiki Hut

We went back to town and stopped at the Tiki Hut Restaurant for lunch on an open-air terrace overlooking the bay.  Most of us had Pina Coladas and then a platter of red snapper, squidZS()  and shrimp.   Not the obvious beverage for an afternoon of serious birding, but Jon, our Wings leader, suggested it, so why not?

After lunch we drove to the little village of Palpite and stopped at Bernabe’s house. 

Bernabe’s House

 The lady greeted us and took us to her back yard where she has set up several hummingbird feeders.  We took turns holding the feeder and experienced having the world’s smallest bird, the Bee Hummingbird at 2.5” in length, inches away from us!  This tiny creature zooms around and looks even  smaller than its size!   It has a iridescent red throat, white underneath, and an iridescent blue back—just gorgeous!    The Cuban Emerald Hummingbird, at 4”, that we have been seeing these past few days, was there also so we could compare their sizes,

The Bee Hunmingbird!

We returned to Casa Kirenia for several hours of relaxation!  I grabbed a shower and then walked the one block to the town beach with lovely views due south to the Caribbean Sea.  I waded in the bath tub-warm water!    We gathered together at 6:15 for the List and mojitos and then return to our guest houses where our host served us local lobster tail, huge grilled split tails, which I’m afraid I couldn’t finish. 

We are going to have to cut down on eating on this trip or we won’t be able to roll ourselves onto our jet next week!a

My wrist, elbow and leg bump are a little better today, so I guess I'll survive!

Our Room at Casa Kirenia - with Swan Towels!