We set off towards Vinales stopping for picnic lunch at Cueva las Portales 11km west of Parque la Güira, This was Che Guevara’s cave base during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Here we eventually had good views of Cuban Solitaire and cottoned on to the distinctive calls of Cuban Vireo. We also made a stop at Hacienda Cortina gardens to try and see Gundlach's Hawk without success. This site is an early 20th century folly set in the tropics! The Vinales valley is meant to have a large proportion of the butterfly fauna of Cuba including many endemics though I think we must have been looking in the wrong place! We are looking forward to our next trip when we will be staying there with Rayner Nunez to show us what we missed. The views of the valley are spectacular and it is a UNESCO Heritage site very popular with tourists. The conspicuous karstic mounds rising out of the valley floor are called mogotes. At Parque la Güira we saw Olive-capped Warbler, Fernandina’s Flicker, Giant Kingbird, Summer Tanager and La Sagra’s Flycatcher.
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October 2024
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