Varahicacos Ecological Reserve — Attraction in Cárdenas

I went to this wonderful Ecological Reserve in March 2016.

To get there you can take the daily tour bus, for 5 cuc (which lasts all day) ask the bus assistance that you want to make a stop there when you get on and they will let you know when to get off. The bus stop is quite close by the entrance.

When you get there you pay 5 cuc each and you receive a piece of paper with information about the place. They asked what language I spoke, so I’m assuming that they have the information in a few different languages. Has you walk through it there are signs to point which way to go, and numbers on the different parts of the reserve. The numbers correspond to what is on the piece of paper.

There are a lot of cool and interesting things to see. One of the ones is number 9, the bat cave. I strongly recommend going inside and taking a look.

A few suggestions if you are going there, wear shoes or even hiking boots if you have them. You are basically walking around in a forest, it’s quite rocky. It takes around 2 hours to walk around the whole place, so ensure that you go there early. Where it does get dark in there before the sunsets, and the workers at the front gate don’t stay and wait for everyone to come back out.

Overall if you like nature walks and want to change it up from being on a resort, I would strongly...

It's a short 1km one way walking trail through the forest. To a Canadian who loves the outdoors it's amazing! It costs 5 cuc and comes with a map and small writeup of different things you'll see during the walk. We saw many cacti, beautiful birds, crabs, some kind of rodent, caves and mangroves. Oh and human remains. (Tribal burial site) Its quite a contrast to the forest back home. I very much enjoyed it. Staff on my visit was friendly and didn't insist on tip. I didn't want to post the the burial site to avoid offending anyone. Be warned it's quite the experience, you can get very close to it. I recommend to dress light, wear shoes (rocks are sharp), bring water and bug spray. Money for beer and soft drinks. Drinking in public is...

Look somewhere else if you want to hike.

Impossible to navigate. I was here Dec 8, 2019. I come from Canada and do a fair amount of hiking. First of all, the trail costs 5 CUC to enter. The trail is not a trail at all - completely overgrown with branches and vegetation. You basically need to force your way through every step. The trail is "marked" with infrequent empty pop cans that they hang from trees. The ground is full of holes that you can easily step into if not careful. After about 30 minutes I decided to leave. Didn't even see a single other person on the trail on a pretty and warm morning.

Don't waste...