From Havana we headed to Las Terrazas. This is an interesting government project of forest restoration. There is a community here who revegetated 5,000 hectares of mountainous forests since the late 1960s. They also now live in the small village here with school, bodega (ration shop), night club and little café. The population is approx. 1,000 people. There is also an old coffee processing facility and farmhouse on the property which is now a restaurant. The views and fresh air are great.
Soroa is a tiny village, west of Havana. It is raining when we get here, which is good as it cools down the afternoon! We spend the night here and enjoy a home cooked meal. We stop here to visit a medicinal farm. A lady brought this farm 5 years ago and singlehandedly transformed the semi barren land to a thriving farm with loads of traditional cures of many plants and herbs. She lives on the farm with her adult son. We learn about the benefits of many plants and also have some tea.
We then stop by the orchid farm- though not the peak season to see orchids (which number up to 700!) we see 20 and a lovely botanical garden. Out of the 20 the ones that stick out most are a species that smell like orange and our favourite- an orchid that smells like chocolate!!
We are due to visit some waterfalls but find out that due to low rainfall there is no water in them, and thus we do not go.
