Las Terrazas

     On my last day in Cuba, I went on a field program with my friends Shari and Carly. We traveled from Havana to Las Terrazas, which is a completely sustainable community about an hour and a half from Havana.  Las Terrazas has no trees in the area in the 1960s because of deforestation. The local community began to build back the area by building terraces, or steps, in the hills to stop erosion. The people planted over 18 million trees, which are now well grown. There are 24 different species of trees, where 20 of which are native. The 4 species of trees that were introduced were teak, two types of mahogany, and eucalyptus. Only around 3000 people took part in this reconstruction. The community opened up ion 1990 to ecotourism companies.

     Once we got to the community, we watched a local band play Cuban songs while we drank Coca Cola. After this, a local guide told us about the history of the community. Once he finished his lecture, we traveled to the community school, where they start to learn English in third grade. There are 670 students and 67 workers, where 47 of them are teachers. They go to school from September until July, but there are some breaks during the school year. There are 25 children per class in primary school, and 30 children per class. All of the teachers teach every subject, so the children do not switch classes for different subjects. They also have television sets to support their education. The school has associated with UNESCO for the past 14 years.

     After we toured the school, we drove to the old coffee plantation, which was in business until the mid 1800s. The area receives 100 inches of rain a year, with 90-95% humidity. There are 92 different species of spiders, 131 species of birds, and 14 species of bats.

     After the coffee plantation, we visited with a  famous local artist, Lester Campos. We were served Cuban coffee after we toured his personal studio. We ate lunch at the end of the tour, which was one of my favorite meals of this voyage. We had white sticky rice, black beans, smoked chicken, taro chips, and bbq beef.