Ampliar

Ampliar

Ampliar

Ampliar

Ampliar

Diego Velázquez baptized the cays and islets surrounding Cuba toward the north and the central area with the name of Jardines del Rey (Gardens of the King) in 1514. With this gesture, the Spanish conquistador wanted to render homage to Ferdinand, the Catholic, since Christopher Columbus had already named Jardines de la Reina (Gardens of the Queen) the cays of the south in honor of Isabelle of Castile.

The archipelago is also known as Sabana-Camagüey which extends all over the Cuban northern littoral on an area of 465 km, parallel to the provinces of Matanzas, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey. This archipelago is formed by 2,517 cays and islets, accounting for 60% of the insular territories that make up the large Cuban archipelago. Among them are the following cays: Romano with 777 km2 and Coco with 370, the largest ones of the whole.

Over seven hundred species of the terrestrial flora of which 126 are endemic inhabit the place. Other 958 belong to the terrestrial fauna and 900 to fish species. There are 450 km of front reef that make up the second largest coral reef, after the great Australian coral reef.

CAYO COCO Situated on the north of the central-eastern province of Ciego de Ávila by the Old Channel of the Bahamas, Cayo Coco (Coconut Cay) was given 22 km of beach and the necessary supply for subsistence by Nature.

The first ones to see these possibilities were the birds that migrate from North America to protect themselves from winter, fundamentally the flamingos. Regarding this specie, the pink ones have there the largest colony of the continent and their habitat is on the south of the island in areas of shallow waters.

Also white-feathered birds by the name of Coco (coconut) visit this site, honoring perhaps the exquisite meat of the fruit of coconut groves, abundant in this area. The overwhelming population of this bird made that this cay were so named. Currently their presence is not that common.

Among the access ways to the cay is a road on a 17-km causeway on Perros Bay, situated between the northern littoral of Morón municipality in Ciego de Ávila province and the cay. The work was completed in 1988 and was crucial for the development of the tourist resort.

At the end of 2000, the first part of the international airport began its operation to receive large aircrafts and for this date, the port with the 62-m pier began its works which with the operation of the new first marina and the development of other facilities of this type, will enable the access of tourists to both, Cayo Coco as well as to its neighbor Cayo Guillermo and also to the rest of the cays of Jardines del Rey. The hotel compounds were built following the standards of respect and preservation of natural environment. The buildings are not taller than three floors and their architectural design follow the same pattern of the Caribbean villages. Jointly with the construction of rooms, the outside hotel infrastructures are also being built at the same pace as amusement parks, aquarium, food chains, and sport areas including land and water sports.

An ecological park will be opened this year by the name of El Bagá which extends over 20 hectares where visitors can admire a representation of the flora and the fauna of this site. The offer includes ecological trails fit to be toured on foot, on horseback or on horse-drawn carriages. Breeding centers of crocodiles, iguanas and Chelonia can be visited as well as the Cueva de los Murciélagos (Bats' Cave). A dolphin aquarium and an ecological restaurant are scheduled to be built there.

Over 2,600 rooms of 4- and 5-star hotels are operated by international chains among which are the Spanish Sol Meliá, thus offering a first-quality service both in Cayo Coco as well as in Cayo Guillermo, also linked to a causeway that today reaches to Paredón Grande, still virgin as Cayo Romano toward east. Crystal-clear waters and pure white sand of light texture distinguish this cay, along with the villas and houses of Cayo Guillermo also one of the main points of tourism development in the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago.

The names of many hotels there built are associated with the celebrated American writer, Ernest Hemingway, due to his link with these sites. He lived in Cuba and was laureate with the Literature Nobel Prize.

Cayo Guillermo, located on the northeast of the neighbor cay of Cayo Coco, extends over 13 km2 of which 5 km show beaches of impeccable cleanliness. The coral reef is at a very short swimming distance and as to the fauna, Cayo Guillermo is populated by land and water birds as flamingos, seagulls and pelicans. Jardines del Rey provides accessibility to any spot of Cuba as well as the circuit of the Caribbean where choices are available to tour the island entirely.

Cayo Santa María In this sea portion of Cuba, a 48-km causeway was built with over 2,000 m of bridges which allow the flow of calm waters.

The causeway is born in the fishermen village of Caibarién, located in the northern central area of the Isle of Cuba in the Villa Clara province, until the present, the causeway extends only to Cayo Santa María, the newest proposal of Jardines del Rey.

Beaches of fine white sands are seen along the islets and cays and visitors are amazed by the bold shapes of the cliffs and behind these natural parapets, crystal-clear waters run from small coves where the sea bottoms can be seen. Lagging behind are Las Brujas Cay with its airport for small- and medium- size aircrafts. Another nice place is the sunken ship El Pascual with its concrete structure, aground since the 20th century, a revealing stop point over the waters. Finally Santa María, the last of the three cays that the causeway connects. The cay, measuring 13 km long and one or two km wide, exhibits a spectacular beach, extending a bit more of 11 km, and a hotel compound of 300 rooms, built following the standards of respect to Nature and integrated to the ecosystem. In a first stage of the projects, the aim is to build 1,200 rooms. Specialists believe that in the whole area of the northern cays of Villa Clara, some 10,000 rooms can be built and the necessary infrastructure without damaging the environment that grants the exclusive seal to this site.