Jardines de la Reina

Jucaro · Ciego de Avila · Cuba

Jardines de la Reina is the Caribbean that time forgot. This archipelago of 250 coral islands and mangrove cays stretches 120 kilometres along Cuba's southern shelf edge, protected as a marine reserve since 1996 and accessible only through a single operator running liveaboard trips from the mainland. The result of this isolation and protection is staggering: reef health and shark populations that have not existed elsewhere in the Caribbean for half a century. The journey begins in Jucaro, a sleepy fishing port on Cuba's south coast. A fast boat delivers you to one of several floating hotels moored within the archipelago. These permanently anchored platforms serve as base camps, with dive boats departing multiple times daily to sites scattered across the reserve. My first descent set the tone for the entire trip. Dropping onto a reef wall at Pipin, the coral coverage was immediately shocking. Elkhorn coral, virtually extinct throughout the rest of the Caribbean, grows here in thickets. Staghorn forests carpet the shallows. The diversity and density of coral species approaches 60 percent coverage, figures that marine biologists describe as pre-decline Caribbean conditions. Then the sharks arrive. Caribbean reef sharks appear on virtually every dive, not one or two but groups of eight to twelve cruising the reef edge with calm authority. These are not baited encounters. The sharks simply exist here in numbers that healthy Caribbean reefs once supported universally. Silky sharks join them in deeper water beyond the wall, and massive goliath groupers occupy caves at 25 metres. The crocodile encounters add a dimension found nowhere else in diving. In mangrove channels between cays, American crocodiles rest on the bottom in clear shallow water, regarding snorkelers with ancient reptilian indifference. It is unnerving and extraordinary in equal measure. Jardines de la Reina demonstrates what Caribbean reefs could be without overfishing, coastal development, and uncontrolled tourism. It is simultaneously a world-class dive destination and a scientific baseline for what the wider Caribbean has lost.