Jardines del Rey ( en, Gardens of the King) 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 ...

off the northern coast 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 northern parts of the provinces of

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 ...

and

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 ...

Overview

Jardines del Rey developed on the

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes—deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock ...

system that lines Cuba's shore, between the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, the

Bay of Buena Vista The Bay of Buena Vista ( es, Bahía de Buena Vista) is a bay on Cuba's northern Atlantic shore. It is located in the northern part of the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila, between mainland Cuba and the archipelago ...

and Bay of Jiguey. The reef, part of the

Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago Sabana-Camagüey ( es, Archipiélago de Sabana-Camagüey ) is an archipelago that lies on Cuba's north-central Atlantic coast. It is located off the northern coast of the provinces of Matanzas, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila an ...

, extends for on a north-west to south-east direction.

Jardines del Rey Airport Jardines del Rey Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Jardines del Rey) is an airport situated on the island of Cayo Coco, part of the Cuban province of Ciego de Ávila. It takes its name from the Jardines del Rey archipelago, which includes Cayo Coco. In ...

is located on Cayo Coco. Additional access to Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo is by a causeway that connects the islands to mainland Cuba.

Cays

Of the many cays and islands that compose Jardines del Rey, the most important are (from north to south): * Cayo Guillermo *

Cayo Coco Cayo Coco (''Cays'') or (''The Keys)'' is an island in central Cuba, known for its all-inclusive resorts. It lies within the Ciego de Ávila Province and is part of a chain of islands called Jardines del Rey (''King's Gardens''). The cay is admini ...

Cayo Romano Cayo Romano is an island on the northern coast of Cuba, in the province of Camagüey. It is the largest cay of the Jardines del Rey archipelago with . Overview Administratively is part of Nuevitas, but the closest municipality on Cuban Mainlan ...

Cayo Guajaba Cayo Guajaba is a cay on the northern coast of Cuba, in the province of Camagüey. Geography It is part of Jardines del Rey archipelago, and is located west of Cayo Sabinal, east of Cayo Romano, north of The Bay of la Gloria (''Bahia de la Glor ...

Cayo Sabinal Cayo Sabinal is a cay on the northern coast of Cuba, in the municipality of Nuevitas, Camagüey Province. Has an area of 335 km². Geography It is the southernmost island of the Jardines del Rey archipelago, and is located north of the Bay o ...

Other islands include

Cayo Santa María Cayo Santa María (Saint Mary Cay or "Key") is an island off Cuba's north central coast in the Jardines del Rey archipelago. The island is linked by road and bridge to the town of Caibarién on the main island. Cayo Santa María is well known for ...

, Cayo Paredón Grande, Cayo Cruz and

Cayo Confites Cayo or cayó may refer to: * ''Cayo'' (film), a 2005 Puerto Rican film starring Roselyn Sánchez * Cayo District, a district in the west of the nation of Belize ** San Ignacio, Belize, a town in the Cayo District (originally named "El Cayo") * C ...

History

The islands were named in 1513 by Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

s to honor their king,

Ferdinand II of Aragon Ferdinand II ( an, Ferrando; ca, Ferran; eu, Errando; it, Ferdinando; la, Ferdinandus; es, Fernando; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), also called Ferdinand the Catholic (Spanish: ''el Católico''), was King of Aragon and Sardinia fro ...

. In the 16th century, the islands were refuges for corsairs and pirates.

Jacques de Sores Jacques de Sores was a French pirate and corsair who attacked and burnt Havana, Cuba in 1555. Other than his attack on Havana, little is known of de Sores. He was nicknamed "The Exterminating Angel" ("L'Ange Exterminateur"). He was the leader o ...

is said to have used one as a base of operations for his attacks of

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains ...

in 1554. In the 19th century, they were used as a point of entry for illegal slave ships after the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

was officially abolished.

El Bagá Nature Park

Bagá Nature Park ( es, Parque Natural El Bagá) was established on 29 December 2002 on land reclaimed from the former

Cayo Coco Airport Cayo Coco was an airport in Cayo Coco, Cuba that served as the main airport of the island until it was superseded by the Jardines del Rey Airport, which opened in 2002. The former runway of the airport was incorporated as the new route of a hig ...

. Named for the Baga tree (''árbol del pan''), it extends over 69 hectares of forests and lagoons on Cayo Coco and onto neighboring cays. The park has an interpretative centre, a walkway through a Bagá forest, a

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

village and fauna exhibits (

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, iguanas, flamingos and Cuban hutias). The archipelago is a natural habitat for Caribbean flamingos (''Phoenicopterus ruber'').

References

External links