Cattleya orchid in Orquideario, Soroa, Cuba

Before I talk about the Jardin Botanical Orquidereario in Cuba, I’d like to mention the common thread that seems to run through many vacations is the urge to spend more time in any given country, perhaps a winter getaway or a return adventure visit to explore another area, but Cuba was sadly not one of those places. I am glad that we went, and I enjoyed the experience but I don’t feel any compelling reason to return. I would probably go back to Key West or Jamaica before Cuba, but that’s just my personal preference.

Although Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean.

I spent a lot of time in the rain all by myself last year at the orchid greenhouse in Lanai, Hawaii, just shooting photographs of orchids. We’ve also been to the National Botanical Garden in Kauai to view orchids. I’ve recently started growing orchids myself, after attending the Sacramento Orchid Society orchid shows in East Sacramento’s McKinley Park. There is a magical quality to the plant, so many species and varieties, thousands. It’s easy to get sucked into the orchid world.

Outside of Havana about 90 km is a resort area nestled in the western Sierra del Rosario mountains in the province of Artemisa. The elevation is about 600 feet, and you’ll see many private resorts along the road to Orquidereario in Soroa. There we met with a groundskeeper who paused once during his orchid presentation to ask me a very serious question. His pressing issue was to ask if there is indeed a Hotel California and, having just watched the Eagles documentary, I knew the answer to that question.

The Orquidereario is a UNESCO World Heritage site, built by a Spanish lawyer, Don Tomas Felipe Camacho, who died in 1961. Today the garden features thousands of orchids and serves as an educational institution where students come from all over the world to study raising orchid seedlings and preventing orchid diseases.  If you love orchids, too, I hope you will enjoy the photos, followed by the waterfall at Soroa.

Photos: © Elizabeth Weintraub, Canon SX50