Las Guanas is the small nature reserve that lies just west of the Luna y Mares hotel on the promontory of the bay. There is a small charge of 3CUC to get in and you can then walk the trails. The mozzies can be a nuisance so it pays to use Deet if like me you are the sort that gets bitten. The erosion of the coral limestone shows that sea level used to be very different in the past. The trails are not very well marked and it is quite easy to get lost if you don’t have your wits about you but the area is not large so you can’t go too far wrong.
We saw six species of reptile today including one in the hotel grounds. Anolis lucius Slender Cliff Anole is one that we don’t see very often but there were several here running about on the low limestone cliffs.
On the butterfly front the best was having a Cuban Kite Swallowtail Eurytides celadon settle briefly in front of us. We have occasionally seen them take nectar at flowers, fluttering all the time as they do so, but this is the first time we have ever seen one settle, all too briefly as it turned out. Another surprise was seeing four Obscure Skipper Panoquina panaquinoides on one of the central trails – the first time we have seen this in Holguin province. The larvae of Caribbean Ruby-eye Perichares philetes seem to be not uncommon around here but finding adults is a different matter though maybe we just come in the wrong months.
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