Cayo Coco (Cuba)
16th - 23rd October, 2010
Animals: Cayo Coco is a small island. The tour guide mentioned a number of bird species that inhabit the island. Cayo Coco literally means “Coconut Island”. However, the interesting bit of trivia is that Coconut (and palm trees) are not endemic to the island. There are lots of these trees but all have been planted. Why the name Cayo Coco you ask. Ah ha. Here is our tour guide’s explanation: Cubans don’t know snow. When they want to say something is white they give the analogy of a coconut, whose inside is, of course, very white. So why did the Cubans want to call the island “Coconut Island” or “White Island”. Well there is a bird endemic to this island which is as white as snow, or as white as a coconut if you are Cuban :) And hence the name Cayo Coco.
The bird that gets the most attention is the Flamingo. Cayo Coco plays host to about 40 thousand pairs of these beautiful pink skinny creatures which are quite a site. Although they avoid noise one can often see thousands of these birds on the horizon as a beautiful pink over the turquoise water.
What was most interesting was the number of wild cows. It turns out that the initial settlers had brought over domesticated cows but over the years many had been let loose. Now hundreds of cows roam the island free.
Below left: Some random cool looking bird.
Below centre and right: Domesticated Flamingos at the resort.
Resort Entertainment: It seems that the Cuban Government (and the hotel management) understands the need for quality entertainment. While on a tour to the nearby town, I remember being told by our guide that we were passing by an Entertainment University: essentially people attend the university to learn how to be good entertainers (an arts college of sorts). Talking to a few locals I also found that entertainers are paid quite highly and therefore, entertainment is considered a good job. At our resort (Tryp Cayo Coco) there was a nightly entertainment show on a centre stage. We were there for seven nights and there were seven different shows.
