Jardin Botanico Soledad

The Jardin Botanico Soledad is about 16km / 10mi east of Cienfuegos towards Trinidad. The garden was the creation of Edwin Atkins, a sugar plantation owner, who in 1912 designed the garden as a type of experimentation ground in an attempt to improve his growing techniques. Atkin set aside a portion of his property for a sugar can research center and later added other tropical plants and trees. In 1919 the property was bought by the University of Harvard and turned it into the Harvard Botanical Station for Tropical Research and Sugar Cane Investigation. The land became the property of the government after in 1961, following the revolution and is now known as the Jardin Botanico Soledad, named for the Soledad sugar words that was owned by Edwin Atkins.

The garden covers 90 ha / 220 acres and contains some 2,000 plant species. The Jardin Botanico Soledad is best visited on a guided tour with explanations of what you are seeing.