Jardines de la Reina ( en, Gardens of the Queen) is an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...

in the southern part of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

, in the provinces of

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 321,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by ...

and

Ciego de Ávila Ciego de Ávila City () is a city in the central part of Cuba and the capital of Ciego de Ávila Province. The city has a population of about 497.000, in a municipality of 756,373. Geography Ciego de Ávila lies on the Carretera Central highway ...

. It was named by

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

to honour the Queen of Spain,

Isabella I of Castile Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 b ...

. Since 1996 a marine reserve was established covering a large swath of the archipelago. In 2010, Jardines de la Reina was established as a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

( es, Parque Nacional Jardines de la Reina). With an area of , it is one of Cuba's largest protected areas.

Geography

It is located in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexic ...

, between the Gulf of Ana Maria (north-west),

Gulf of Guacanayabo The Gulf of Guacanayabo () is a bay along the southern coast of Cuba, bordered by Granma and Las Tunas provinces. Overview The largest port on the bay is Manzanillo, and the gulf is bordered to the north-west by the Jardines de la Reina arc ...

(south) and Caballones Channel (west). It extends on a general north-west to south-east direction, paralleling the Cuban coast for from Cayo Breton to Cayos Mordazo. Cuba's second largest archipelago (smaller only than Jardines del Rey), it is formed by more than 600 cays and islands. Other cays in the archipelago include Caguamas, Cayos Cinco Balas, Cayo Anclitas, Cayo Algodon Grande, Cayos Pingues and Cayo Granada. Part of the archipelago is also known as Laberinto de las Doce Leguas (The Labyrinth of the Twelve Leagues)

Table of Islands

¹⁾The Islands area and population data retrieved from the 2012 census.

Fishing

The archipelago is a popular destination for diving and sport fly-

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

. Only catch and release fly-fishing and a limited, well-regulated lobster fishery is allowed in the park, although many other fisheries occur surrounding the park and close to cays out of the park limits. It used to be one of Fidel Castro's favorite fishing spots. Species of fish found here include

Cubera snapper The cubera snapper (''Lutjanus cyanopterus''), also known as the Cuban snapper, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean. It is a commercially important spe ...

Bonefish The bonefish (''Albula vulpes'') is the type species of the bonefish family (Albulidae), the only family in order Albuliformes. History Bonefish were once believed to be a single species with a global distribution, however 9 different species ...

, Yellowfin grouper,

Black grouper ''Mycteroperca bonaci'', the black grouper, black rockfish or marbled rockfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and se ...

Atlantic goliath grouper The Atlantic goliath grouper or itajara (''Epinephelus itajara''), formerly known as the jewfish, is a saltwater fish of the grouper family and one of the largest species of bony fish. The species can be found in the west ranging from northeaste ...

as well as '' Strombus gigas'' (the large Caribbean

conch Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Am ...

) and

Whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter feeder, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known Extant taxon, extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of .McClain CR, Balk MA, Benfield MC, Bran ...

. Besides being an extraordinary site for fly fishing, one its main attractions for diving is the abundance of reef sharks.

Diving

Jardines de la Reina (The Gardens of the Queen) is one of the most popular scuba destinations of Cuba. The underwater landscapes include canyons, pinnacles and caves. Healthy

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s, sponges and black corals cover the reef. The Jardines de la Reina also host numerous silky and

Caribbean reef shark The Caribbean reef shark (''Carcharhinus perezi'') is a species of requiem shark, belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. It is found in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Brazil, and is the most commonly encount ...

s. In the mangroves labyrinth it’s possible to find

crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant me ...

s and snorkel with them.

References

External links