In April 2018, we traveled to Cuba as part of an Oceans for Youth Foundation people-to-people educational program. We spent two days seeing the sights in Havana before heading to Jucaro to board the Jardines Aggressor II and spending a week diving in the Jardines de la Reina (Gardens of the Queen).
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- Our hotel in Havana, the Parque Central Hotel
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- Old cars lined up to take tourists on a ride
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- Havana is an old car buff’s dream
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- The capital
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- Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro guarding the entrance to Havana Bay
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- Jose Marti Memorial at the Plaza de la Revolucion
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- Ministries of the Interior and Communications, with steel memorials to Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos
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- Presentation by Dr. Julio Baisre on the Cuban Marine Ecosystem and Fisheries
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- Loading the bus for the 6 1/2 hour drive to Jucaro
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- Happiness is getting off the bus!
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- Boarding the Jardines Aggressor II
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- Hanging out in the salon waiting for our boat briefing
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- Alberto telling us about the boat
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- Sunset – tomorrow we go diving!
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- Dive briefing with Michael
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- Heading to the dive site on the tender
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- The first of many sharks we’ll see
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- And the first of even more groupers
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- Green moray
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- Spiny lobster
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- Queen triggerfish
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- Crab
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- Gray angelfish
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- Curious grouper
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- Sting ray stirring up the sand
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- Tarpon and bushy black coral
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- Grunts
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- Parrotfish
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- Queen angelfish
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- Underwater life at it’s finest
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- Jacks
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- Silky shark
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- Hanging with the sharks on our safety stop
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- Heading back to the mother ship
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- The crew welcoming us back
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- The view out of our cabin
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- Nap time on our private deck!
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- Christmas tree worm
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- Blue tang
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- Basket star on a sea fan
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- Trumpetfish
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- Sharp nosed pufferfish
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- Cool coral and sponge
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- Juvenile spotted drumfish
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- Arrow crabs
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- Fairy basslet
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- Lettuce sea slug
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- Secretary blenny
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- Arrow blenny
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- Jawfish being nervous
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- And putting on a show
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- Spotted moray
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- Christmas tree worm
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- Anemone
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- Purple vase sponge
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- Heading into a canyon
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- Emerging from the canyon
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- Goliath grouper hanging out at the bottom of a canyon
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- Sea fan black coral – normally much deeper than where we found it
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- Tarpon
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- Feather black coral
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- Lionfish
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- Queen triggerfish
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- Gray angelfish
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- Adult spotted drum fish
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- Porcupine fish
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- Creole wrasse
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- Bluestriped grunts
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- Another curious grouper
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- Underwater life
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- Shark cruising the blue
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- Black durgon
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- Queen angelfish
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- Porkfish
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- Grouper up close
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- Feather duster worm
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- Lettuce sea slug
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- Four spot butterflyfish
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- Cocoa damselfish
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- Christmas tree worm
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- Juvenile spotted drum fish – can you tell I like these?
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- Juvenile trumpetfish hiding in the coral
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- Saddled blenny
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- Golden basslet
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- Spinyhead blenny
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- Christmas tree worm
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- Bicolor damselfish
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- Another jawfish – shy at first
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- And then emerging
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- Arrow blenny
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- Arrow blenny
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- Pederson shrimp
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- Christmas treewprm
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- Spotted moray
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- Cleaning goby
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- Fairy basslet
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- Juvenile spotted drum fish
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- Sea fan art
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- Queen angelfish
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- Green moray getting cleaned
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- Up close
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- Bushy black coral
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- Open wide
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- Michael and the curious grouper
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- Juvenile goliath grouper
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- One last shark
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- A visit to one of the islands to see (and feed) the iguanas…
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- …and the hutias
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- Searching for “Nino”, the elusive salt water crocodile
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- Nino is approaching
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- And now he’s checking out our bait
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- Nino from underwater
PMF Adventures 