CubaPLUS Magazine

A beautiful property identified with the picturesque name of Jones ´ Jungle  extends its about 15 hectares about 17 kilometers from Nueva Gerona, the capital of the southern Isle of Youth, which with the curious shape of a shrimp or quitrin (old car) sails south of Havana.

A natural emporium that has known splendid and also difficult times, but for all of us, nature has remained alive, sometimes twisted and tangled when neglected, but always beautiful, mysterious and generating legends and attracting visitors.

Well yes, today the Jones Jungle is one of the most mythical Botanical Gardens in Cuba, perhaps because it was the fruit of its creator's obsessive passion for nature. But it would be unfair not to recognize that the love that scientists and citizens of the world who founded it was also decisive in the construction of the singular Eden.

And it is in that land that the couple formed by naturalist Helen Rodman (maiden name) and Harry Sanford Jones, biologist, both from from Chicago, Illinois, settled at the beginning of the 20th century to establish permanent residence in the place, even when they traveled with frequency.

In the enclave they began to plant a wide variety of plant species, many of them exotic that were brought to the country by sea and air. Love, added to the wisdom and constant investigative spirit of both spouses, achieved the realization of their tropical botanical garden project.

For this they had the collaboration of the US Department of Agriculture through Dr. David Fairchild. Along with the enjoyment of scientific experimentation, the place became a paradise, not exempt from the seductions that its rare foreign species, together with those native to the island, contributed to it. It was a quiet space that they also visited with pleasure.

They were going to receive treatment in the therapeutic hot springs nearby and the called Jones' Jungle gained fame and recognition from scientific institutions in its time, early 20th century.

After the death of her husband, Helen survived him for many years, without leaving the place, with a life very lonely. Upon her death, came the mantle of silence and abandonment. Myths were born. As if it were Sleeping Beauty's tangled forest, everyone seemed to forget that it was a beautiful garden, with recognition even at the national level.

Until 1998, another married couple, Cubans this time, asked to rescue the values of the valuable species of the site, something they noticed on a tour. It is so that the Jones Jungle began to be reborn since then.

The old Tree of Love still bears witness to one of the most persistent legends of this great natural park, next to which the existence of a specimen of snake of Santamaría (harmless Cuban snake) that was Mrs. Helen's pet companion in the last years of her life, very sad and lonely.

Regarding the symbolism of the Tree of Love, we will say that by natural chance, it shows some branches intertwined in what everyone feels like a hug. Locals claim that it is the embrace of the Joneses, whose souls live forever in that enchanting place.