Tropical plant adventures, exotic birds and the warm Cuban people await you in 2014. Reserve your space today on a tour to Cuba with UWBG director Sarah Reichard.

Director Sarah Reichard muses on another reason to visit Cuba: fabulous birds. “I may not shift to studying birds instead of plants, but I thoroughly enjoyed my foray into bird-watching in Cuba.”

UWBG Director, Sarah Reichard, recounts her recent study tour to Cuba, a beautiful, musical and confounding country.

We have been back from Cuba for about a month and I am still sorting it out in my head. As I said before, it is a far more complicated place than I expected to find. My fellow adventurers continue to email new articles and books they are finding about Cuba, suggesting that they also are trying to reconcile what we experienced. 

(click photos to see full size image)
We were privileged to go to an “ecologically protected area” known as Mil Cumbres (Thousand Peaks). Our bus wound its way up a very rough dirt road (though our expert driver, Miquel, did a fantastic job of missing the giant potholes) to the field station. The area of Mil Cumbres is geologically varied, including large patches of serpentine soil. 

We headed out of Havana early on a Sunday morning. This was really our first look at the countryside, and at the transportation system. The stories about huge numbers of old American cars from the 1950s? All true! Under Cuban law, cars registered after the 1959 revolution could not be bought or sold, though that is changing. The result is that those who had a car hung onto it and tried to keep it running, passing it down as an inheritance. 

Sarah Reichard, professor and Director of UW Botanic Gardens, recounts her recent experience leading a tour group to Cuba. This post describes shabby but elegant old Havana and a meeting with agroeconomist Miquel Salcines.

But before our schtick, we were to take a tour of the garden that Uragus had planted with the help of kids and community members. Our tour guide was a little girl with a bright pink shirt and a long red stick for pointing at things (or snapping our attention).

The benefits Alexandra pointed out that had resulted from these combined projects were, increased scientific knowledge, community engagement and biological preservation. Brilliant! I want to steal that and make it our new tagline.

We had made our presence felt in Vladivostok, now it was time to take our act on the road.