CUBA - JULY 2012

A very, very late decision (ie just days before!!) saw myself and Maria heading off to the Caribbean yet again. This year the destination was somewhere neither of us had actually considered before, Cuba. But thankfully it turned out to be an excellent choice. It had a beautiful beach for Maria to relax on, and enough greenery and wildlife for me not to get too bored! Our hotel was in the area of Holguin on the east of the island. It was a stunning area, with gorgeous white sandy beaches surrounded by miles and miles of lush exotic forest. Perfect for a relaxing, peaceful holiday.
As ever this was in no way a wildlife holiday, but as usual I managed to get myself a couple of hours in early in the morning and the odd wander in the evening, so I still managed to see a fair bit. The hotel grounds themselves had a great variety of wildlife, with lots of species of birds, hundreds of butterflies of various types, plenty of lizards, and loads and loads of crabs! They were absolutely everywhere. But there was one creature that thankfully we hardly seen at all, mosquitos! As we were in the middle of the rainy season we were expecting to be bombarded by them, but we hardly seen any at all around the complex. Admittedly I did get a fair few bites when I went exploring in the surrounding forests but that is to be expected. In total I saw 48 different species of birds, 19 of which I had never seen before. The highlight was easily seeing the Cuban Tody, an absolutely stunning little bird which was thankfully very common. Another was the huge Great Lizard Cuckoo. Great to see and even better to hear! Away from birds, another highlight was snorkelling with a huge shoal of Barracuda fish. A great experience!