Casa Jardin Botanico de Caridad

The 2 casita we rented were very nice and clean and located next to the small cafe restaurant where we had breakfast both mornings. Everyone had eggs, bread, homemade marmalade’s with fruits from the garden, butter, juices and more garden fruits and delicious Cuban coffee made any way. This 100+ year old botanical garden is beautiful and cleaned constantly. The guides can show you the plants and garden resident bird nests. Lots of interesting birds...Cuban Emerald and ZunZun Bee Hummingbird. Also Red Legged Thrush & more. Maria and the entire staff are very friendly and so helpful! Maria can arrange taxis to any other destination like Havana, Trinidad and more and to local attractions. Go riding! She can arrange any tour you want. In coming months they might set the garden up as a birding site with bird feeders for hummingbirds and more.

Gardin Botanico is a great and unique place. over 10,000 square meter " or one hektar " of collected and cultivated plants, scrubs, trees, flowers, orchids in a parkland like setting with free ranging chickens, hummingbirds also called kolibri, native papagoje/parakit and a host of butterflies. The oldest trees are over 100 years old, en some off them, special the Ceiba in one corner off the park provide excelent photo oppertunities

Its amazing that trees and plants that can grow up to 30 cm every day, that drop leaves constandly, are kept and maintained so that its possible to walk through the whole forrest on well maintaned paths, and enjoy the explanations of the very well informed local guides that offer help in excelent France, German, English and Spanish.

Allthough thearden is in most national guidebooks from Cuba, the place is easy to overlook when walking through vinales, it would be nice with more exposure from the street.
We were so fortunate to book an almost 3 week stay at the casa privata in the Gardin botanico, just across from our breakfast and dining place, and we used almost all our meals here, excelent cooking from Maria and her staff, a great range of vegetables, meat, fish and fruits in the middle of the garden where shade is provided of towering trees in the normaly hot environment.
We could sit on our terrace til late in the evening enjoying a cigar and mojito or coffee and pinja

Maria and her staf have also been extremely friendly and willing to help finding and advising places to visit, and our most memorable tours came through Maria,s help on horseback or with a horse driven buggy orderet in front of the casa by Maria and her staff.
A place that is a must is a two hour tour to Valle de Palmerito by horse buggy, we have been fortunate to experience the start of tobacco hosting and were alloud to take pictures and get explanations of the ever so friendly workers and host, we realize that this is commercial, but they hide it very well and you never have a feeling that you are just one of the many that come to visit every day.

One day we spend on the beach was on a whole day trip til Caja La Vista, a small island of about 200 meter wide and 2 kilometer long that is reached by a 40 minutes boat ride
The beech is soft and on white sand and the water as blue as it can get, the prices are cheap like in all of vinales, fresh coconut always available and free chairs at the beech, a full day and well recomendet trip

We walked around town everyday, exploring the local shops, which in comparison to Europe and USA are very small and with a limitid selection of foods
Dont expect to be able to buy clothes or shoes, for them you have to travel to Panama. on the othere hand, fresh fruit in abundance, the best cigars in the world for very small prices that support the local farmers, if you buy the local ones that are not bandarolled. the are just as good as the goverment supplied Cohiba,s and most certainly more fresh, unlike Europe or USA, smoking is widely accepted everywhere.

Another thing to enjoy is a scooter ride into the county, beware that gas for the scooters is not always available. Then tre option is there to rent a Electric bike at the town info centre, and if you are lucky a el scooter, where there are a lot off in Cuba, here they are way ahead of other contries, whitch is a relief from the oozing old vehicles.
Riding a bicycle is another way of traveling, dont expect good roads when you turn off the main roads, its mostly dirt roads, but that makes it all the more exciting, always make eye contact before taking pictures out in the country, otherwise are most Cubans very willing to smile when taking pictures of them and the places they live.

The many organised bus tours from the town center are all on high quality busses for very reasonable prices, most places accept Euro,s which are the equivalent of the Cuban CUC

As the Gardin Botanico is becoming more and more popular, please book in very good time if you want to sleep in the ever green garden, a experience for a lifetime.
We will be back next year.