CubaPLUS Magazine

Its official name since 1989 is Parque or Gran Parque Metropolitano de La Habana, although many residents of the capital prefer to continue calling it El Bosque (from Havana as well), as in patriarchal stories, although there was never a Creole Robin Hood inhabiting its verdant homes, on the margins from the city's Almendares river, a much-loved symbol of the city.

With the rise of modern urbanization registered at the beginning of the 20th century, the course of the famous Almendares River was trapped between the select neighborhoods of El Vedado -today Plaza de la Revolución municipality- and Miramar Country -presently part of the Playa municipality. Long before it was a large massif of splendid green vegetation of native and precious species, which supplied wood and drinking water to the city founded in 1519, through the Zanja Real.

Over time it was reduced in size, due to the deforestation that sustained the shipyards and city life, until it became the relatively narrow strip of woods that it is today when the inhabitants of the sprawling city strive to preserve it and rid it of constant contamination processes that they seriously threatened.

At present it is an extension of more than 700 hectares that border the Botanical Garden of the city, another highly prized green area. Within its boundaries is the so-called Parque Almendares, especially for children and family recreation, the Jardines de la Tropical and La Polar, where popular dances are held, as well as the Loma del Husillo.

Because it is an area surrounded by condensed urbanization, it is closely related to popular neighborhoods inhabited by very simple capital parts such as the El Husillo, Puentes Grandes, or La Guayaba communities, some 20,000 people closely linked to the river and its banks.

This turns them and the river current into very vulnerable sectors, in which the Government carries out projects to improve life and the environment, with the support of good friends. All these projects are priorities. The effort must be greater and it is redoubled, since this beautiful area, whose waters have been sanitized and the vegetation layer made more flourishing, receives hundreds of tourists who enjoy recreational activities and walks through its forest.

After overcoming difficult times, today it is a fact that in areas of the Havana Forest, although it still challenges its protectors and caretakers a lot, the environmental education of its neighbors and visitors has helped to increase and the forest is grateful for it, liquid and solid waste management plant system. For this reason, its main protagonist, the Almendares River, has visibly reduced the pollution of past decades and brings rumors of clear waters.