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Topes De Collantes

Topes De Collantes is a nature reserve in the Escambray Mountains just to the north of Trinidad. We give up our comfortable coach for some more suitable transport and head to the park to spend a couple of days there enjoying the park.

There aren’t any hotels there. We stay at a hacienda, or large farmhouse, where we have a choice of a tent or sleeping on a mattress on the veranda.


We spend a couple of days doing fairly modest walks in the mountains and visiting some of the caves, pools and waterfalls. I also learn the names of some of the different plants and birds we come across in the park but I’m afraid that this information doesn’t stay in my brain for too long. At one point we nearly lose five of our group who are standing under the wrong tree when a branch comes down but it is mostly a relaxing couple of days.


We sleep at two haciendas, Guanayara and Codina. A group of us opt for the mattress on the veranda accommodation option but there is much jockeying for position {and many accusations in the morning!} as we try to predict who the likely snorers are. The haciendas have no difficulty in serving up food for our large party and both seem to have a large number of pets. Wherever we walk we seem to be accompanied by a couple of very tame dogs.

Click here to see a slideshow of the photos

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