Day 1- Tuesday, June 3
Depart from Miami to Havana. 

• Your journey begins as you touch down at Jose Marti International Airport and are greeted by your English-speaking guide, Renier. From Havana, we will take a scenic 70-mile drive (about 3 hours) to Vinales, a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site (UNESCO). The spectacular and highly eroded mountains surrounding Vinales form a unique and unforgettable landscape. The fertile red soil in the valley makes this one of Cuba's prime tobacco growing areas. The UNESCO designation is based on the traditional way of life, which has remained largely unchanged for several centuries. Fields are plowed using teams of oxen where tobacco is planted, cultivated, harvested, cured, and made into world-famous cigars, all by traditional methods.

(L,D)

Day 2- Wednesday, June 4

• Much of the Vinales Valley is a National Park because it is an outstanding landscape notable for the steep-sided limestone hills known as mogotes. We will walk through a cave and then have lunch at Palenque de los Cimarrone. After lunch, we will enjoy a boat tour through a watery cave and visit a tobacco farm with spectacular views of the mogotes and fields to see how cigars are made. Last, we will visit a botanical garden with many unusual tropical flowering plants. 

(B,L,D)

• Day 3-Thursday, June 5
  Today, we will explore the natural areas of Viñales Valley National Park to look for wildlife and unusual plants. The mogotes have a unique flora of palms, shrubs,
  and trees growing from cracks in the limestone rock. We will also visit some pine-dominated forests growing on unique serpentine soils. These areas often have
  rare plants, birds, and butterflies.

(B,L,D)

Day 4- Friday, June 6

• After breakfast, we will drive (about 220 miles, 5 hours) to Playa Larga and the Zapata Swamp Biosphere Reserve. We will stop for lunch at a roadside kitchen on the way. The villages of Playa Larga and nearby Playa Girón were at the center of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 by Cuban exiles attempting to overthrow the socialist government led by Fidel Castro. Dive into the region's history by visiting the Playa Girón History Museum, a poignant reminder of the failed invasion.
• 
   Today, this area is the center of a bustling ecotourism economy. Playa Larga is the gateway to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Category VI Protected Area known as Ciénaga de Zapata Biosphere  Reserve.
  Zapata is similar to Florida’s Everglades National Park, with extensive freshwater marshes, swamps inland, salinas, and mangrove natural communities along the coast. Zapata Swamp is teeming with wildlife, including the endemic Zapata crocodile, Zapata wren, Zapata sparrow, Cuban parrot, and thousands of flamingoes. We are also likely to see the Bee hummingbird – the smallest bird in the world and many kinds of unique butterflies.

(B,L,D)                       

Day 5- Saturday, June 7

• Day 5- Saturday, June 7
  Zapata Swamp Biosphere Park
   We will begin our day birding at dawn in the sawgrass marshes of Zapata
  Swamp to find the elusive Zapata sparrow and Zapata wren. After lunch, we will visit a farm that features the endemic Zapata crocodile. Later, we will visit the Las Salinas Wildlife Sanctuary, part of the Zapata Biosphere Reserve. This area has four mangrove forests, shallow ponds, and salt flats (salinas). An expert bird guide will show us many water birds, such as the graceful flamingoes. We are also likely to see the Bee Hummingbird – the smallest bird in the world - in Playa Larga and maybe a Cuban Pygmy-Owl in a nearby coastal forest. There are also sandy beaches on which to relax and swim in the deep blue water of the Bay of Pigs.

(B,L,D)

Cuban Dark Calisto: Wingspan 35-42mm. Sexes similar. Differs from C. herophile by its darker hindwing background color, straighter post-median line and smaller post-median white spots. C. bradleyi has only two post-median white spots rather than four so that is easily discounted. C. muripetens also has only two post-median white spots and also has a muck darker wing-base and larger red patch on the forewing. C. torrei can be ruled out as that is a larger species and has only three post-median white spots, the central one of which is enlarged.
Range: Endemic to Cuba.
Status: One of the few Calisto to be found in more than one mountain range. C. aquilum is found in a few sites in semi-deciduous limestone forest (75-200m) in the Viñales valley in the western mountains of Pinar del Rio as subspecies occidentalis where it flies with C. herophile and C. bradleyi. Subspecies aquilum is found in both sections of the Escambray mountains of central Cuba at 450-1140m flying with C. herophile, C. muripetens and C. torrei..
Nectar Plants: Bidens pilosa.
Larval Foodplants: Unknown.

• Day 6- Sunday, June 8
  Drive to Topes de Collantes National Park
   After breakfast, we will drive about 140 miles (4 hours) eastward to Topes de Collantes National Park, high up in the Escambray Mountains. At 2,600 ft above
  sea level, temperatures will be noticeably cooler and refreshing. We will explore
  these rugged mountains and lush tropical forests for orchids, birds, and butterflies over several days.

(B,L,D)

• Day 7- Monday, June 9
  Topes de Collantes National Park
   The Escambray Mountains are an isolated geographic feature on the south-central coast of Cuba, located between Cienfuegos and Trinidad, with many endemic plant and animal species. Today, we will attempt to visit the top of Pico San Juan (the second highest elevation in Cuba) via jeep to look for the four species of Calisto butterflies only found in this region of Cuba.
• (B,L,D,)

Breakfast!

Day 8- Tuesday, June 10

• Drive to Cienfuegos
  • After breakfast we will drive westward about 45 miles (1 hour 45 minutes) to the beautiful city of Cienfuegos. On the way we will stop at a TREE Institute sponsored medicinal plant garden and then have lunch at the elegant Cienfuegos Botanic Garden, a tropical haven with plants from around the globe. A wealthy business man from Boston, Edwin F. Atkins, acquired the Soledad Sugar Estate located about 10 miles east of Cienfuegos around 1880. The Atkins family made their money from sugar grown in Cuba. The Soledad estate became his winter retreat. Mr. Atkins donated money to Harvard University to set up a research facility at Soledad to study and improve sugar cane varieties and production. After Atkins died, Harvard assumed control of the property via a 99-year lease and developed the Soledad estate into a botanical garden for the study of tropical plants. The Cuban government took over authority in 1961 and continues to maintain the garden, which has collections of palms and other tropical plants from around the world. In summer 2024 we observed hundreds of butterflies of many different kinds at Cienfuegos Botanical Garden.

(B,L,D)

Day 9 - Wednesday, June 11

• Cienfuegos
  • Cienfuegos is another UNESCO World Heritage site. The renown Beny Moré sang “Cienfuegos is the city I like best”. It is known to Cubans as "The Pearl of the South," with many beautiful buildings dating to the early 1800s. Cienfuegos is located at the far end of a deep and enchanting bay. The narrow entrance to the bay is guarded by a 17th century Spanish fort (Castillo de Jagua). The fort is said to be haunted by a ghost – The Blue Lady. We will explore dry tropical forests on the west side of the bay for butterflies and birds. A new species of metalmark butterfly was recently discovered in this area..

(B,L,D)                                 Cuban Pygmy-Owl

Day 10 - Thursday, June 12

• Drive to Havana
  • After breakfast we will drive from Cienfuegos to Havana, a distance of about 155 miles (about 3 hours). We will explore the cobblestone streets of Old Havana – a UNESCO Heritage City - and view the colonial architecture, courtyards, parks and gardens with sculptures, and colonial architecture in the heartbeat of Cuba's capital. The beautiful harbor and sea swept malecón promenade along the coast are enchanting features of Havana.

(B,L,D)                            Bee Hummingbird 

• Day 11- Friday, June 13
  Havana
   We will explore the legacy of Ernest Hemingway at his former residence, a place that inspired some of his greatest works. Later, indulge your senses at an art market, where local talents showcase their creativity. After lunch, we will visit the Havana Botanical Garden, which contains not only some of Cuba’s rich biodiversity but also collections of special plants from China, Africa, Australia, and other places.

(B,L,D)

• Day 12- Saturday, June 14
  Check in at Jose Martí International Airport and then fly to Miami.
   After breakfast, we will bid farewell to the enchanting landscapes of Cuba. As we make our way home, there will be time to reflect on life in Cuba, the kind and resilient people we met, the vibrant Cuban culture, and the natural wonders of a unique tropical island. We hope that you will cherish the memories of this TREE
  Institute International journey!

 (B)

A PREVIOUS TRIP GROUP PHOTO