El Yunque (Cuba)

Bay of Baracoa with El Yunque in the background

El Yunque (Spanish for " the anvil ") is a table mountain in eastern Cuba. The 575 m high limestone rock is surrounded by dense tropical rainforest about 7 km west of the port city of Baracoa in the province of Guantánamo.

The natives of Cuba, the Taíno, the mountain was sacred. Sailors served the El Yunque by its distinctive shape as Orienthierungshilfe. 1987 the UNESCO declared the entire area around El Yunque, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve " Cuchillas del Toa ".

Flora and Fauna

The vegetation of El Yunque can be roughly divided into two stages. At the foot of the mountain and as long as the slope permits, determine the timber industry and the typical cocoa and banana plantations appearance. Once the terrain is too steep for use of the forest, you will find unspoilt tropical rainforest with numerous animal and plant species.

Relatively little water is available for plants, since up rapidly in the porous limestone rainwater. This led to the development of a variety of endemic species. Thus, two carnivorous plants are for example located here and also the Podocarpus - one of the oldest plant species in the world. On the green slopes of El Yunque are also numerous specimens of the endemic palm Coccothrinax yunquensis to find.

Next to the amazing flora of the mountain El Yunque holds ready an equally extraordinary flora: Endangered bird species such as the ivory woodpecker and the Cuban snails consecration have their home here. Also only a few millimeters measured Sminthillus limbatus, and the rat-like Cuban Solenodon have their habitat here.

Credentials

• Mountain in North America
• Mountain in Cuba
• Mountain under 1000 meters
• Mountain in the Caribbean
• Guantánamo Province