Feb. 18 - In the morning, before dawn had broken into its million pieces, we headed off to La Guira National Park and Cueva de los Portales. On the drive to La Guira, we stopped at what appeared to be someone's vegetable garden to look for (and actually found!) the Giant Kingbird, a Cuban endemic. The gentleman working in the garden seemed a bit puzzled, but not overly concerned, at our interest in the birds around his plot of land.Then we headed up and up to La Guira. Did I mention that we were headed uphill? We finally parked at a wide spot in the road and walked on what, in this country, would be called a logging road. We were surrounded by a lovely woods of tall, but slender trees. (Yes, Judy, that's some Gumbo Limbo in the photo! Made me think of you!) We saw Cuba's national bird, the spectacular Cuban Trogon (not for the first time, but this one was very cooperative for the photographers). After a bit of searching, we finally did get to see another endemic, the Cuban Solitaire, an unobtrusive, but lovely bird.
Finally, we left this road and headed back downhill to the Cueva de los Portales, the place in the mountains where Ché Guevara hid out during the missile crisis of 1962. I was impressed with the incredible history that seems to permeate every part of this country.
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