The Cienfuegos Botanical Garden was not on our itinerary.  One of our fellow travelers found it in her Lonely Planet guide book.  A "94-hectare botanic garden, near the Pepito Tey sugar mill, 17km east of Cienfuegos” – seemed too good to pass up.  What we found blew us away...

With the recent passing of Fidel Castro, Cuba is back in the news – a good time to reflect on Cuba’s history.  What better way to explore this than by through a garden - the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden.  Several of the Garden’s formal features grabbed my attention.  An abandoned pergola and a grand allee of palms...

This garden offers a snap-shot of the history of Cuba: it recalls the ambition in the 1920’s to create a beautiful city; it remembers the roaring 1950’s modernist movement, and also the 1959 revolution; it reminds us of the important role of theater to create a sense of community...