Guanaroca Lagoon, Cienfuegos Province, Cuba

5mysticsyren 5:00 PM Dec 12, 2014

A bit of paradise!
Lagoon De las Salinas is on the road to the Rancho Luna Hotel. Best time to visit is in the morning. I found this excursion on the internet for the Cienfuegos area but no one in Trinidad knew of it and we asked everyone. For those traveling from Trinidad, if you want to do a day trip- I suggest you take the Viazul bus- (cost 6 CUC each way)– to Cienfuegos. From there, hire a taxi to take you the 20 minute ride. We paid our taxi 20 cuc to take us there and back- he waited for us at the canteen. (Cost to enter is 10 Cuc, and there is a small canteen for drinks and a light snack-use the bathroom here as there is not another one until you return from your excursion! This is a protected area for flora and fauna- quite a beautiful little walk for nature lovers. There is a very knowledgeable guide that takes you on a short 10 minute walk to see all of the various trees and many of the birds. You will see termite colonies, big ant colonies and the orange crabs here. Near the end there is a lookout tower- not too high to climb and you can take a few great photos of the surrounding area. You continue on to the canoes-where you have another guide. We chose the younger of the women in the boats and are glad we did- we were told by the other travelers later that we saw so much more than they did. Our guide rowed across the lagoon, changing direction when he saw the flamingos in the distance heading to a new spot and followed them there. The trip across the water to the flamingos only took about 1 hour- but can take much longer if you can’t find where they are. The water here is shallow- only 30 centimeters deep he said. No life jackets were provided- nor were they needed. You can’t see in the water as it is a very dirty brown-but the water is actually clean. It travels down from the mountains into the river and then the lagoon where the mangrove tree roots tint the water with their red die – and it ends up looking murky brown- but actually very safe if you were to fall in- you could still stand up- even though the whole thing looks really deep! They used to have a motor boat they used, but with the water so shallow, it filled with sediment and the motor broke. We traveled off to see the flamingos – got about 10 meters close to them before they started to move. There were only about 300- 400 hundred at this time of the year- they are just migrating in now. At the end of December they say there will be a few thousand of them! We saw really cute babies in the mix and watched them in fight a few times- it was a spectacular sight to see! On the way back across the lagoon, we spotted the snake bird- easy to see why they named it that. When it is in the water with just the head showing, it truly looks like a water snake! We also saw white and blue egrets on the way- as well as a few oysters that were clinging to the roots of the mangrove trees. My friend at first did not want to go with me but in the end was glad she did- she said she has never seen the flamingos so close up and so many at one time. Also- as I told her – it was a good business move- which is why I wanted her to come! No one in Trinidad knew about it- so since she is now independent as a tour guide- she can offer a day trip to see the flamingos and a city tour of Cienfuegos. It would be the first known tour of its kind for the hotels in Trinidad! I highly recommend this excursion! Make a day of it- Have the taxi driver take you on to the Thomas Acena cemetery on the way back to the city then drop you in the square to have lunch and shop. For those traveling from Trinidad- you can make your way back to the Viazul bus and return for 6 Cuc.

5Joost N 5:00 PM Aug 11, 2014

Stunning lagoon
Go there very early and you'll be suprised by nature. First you take a walk with guide and see birds and crabs and other things. Then there is a beautiful lagoon where you can spot flamingo's and you go by boat through the mangrove. Amazing :) Also take your musquito repelliant because there are so much....