Perfectly transparent and covered in fluorescent purple spots, which give it a very elegant look, Periclimenes stares at me, conceitedly and curious. Once verified that I’m not worth much, it turns its attention to my camera, finding it far more interesting than me. Suddenly it decides to leave the security of its shelter (the green tentacles of the sea anemone in which I found it), it reaches the glass of my camera dome and starts immediately a laborious cleaning attempt. Periclimenes - what a lovely name for a shrimp, isn’t it? – is less than a centimeter long and lives in many other places in the Caribbean besides the peaceful Cuban sea bottoms.

The Jardines de la Reina archipelago was named so by Colombo. It is a spectacular region of cays and mangroves, which really resembles a well cared-for garden, both on the surface and under water.

Tiny sand islands covered in tropical shrubbery above, brackish lagoons, incredible gorgonian forests, black coral, gigantic sponges, deep canyons and caverns underwater. The archipelago, originated by some natural outcrops, runs parallel to the Cuban southern coast and stretches for more than 200 kilometres. So far it has remained totally untouched and presumably it will be that way for a long time in the future, considering that only the boat we are now using can take people there.

It takes only ten to fifteen minutes to reach our dive sites; they are all very close to our mooring site. We use a motorboat for the open sea fishing as a tender; it carries our tanks and our dive suits.We are also really tempted to dive along the mangrove tree coastline amongst the cays to look for manatees but our crew assure us that Cuban crocodiles Crocodylus moreletii, a quite aggressive species, inhabit the area…so maybe next time.

This time we shall limit our explorations to the “Queen’s Gardens”, characterized by vertical slopes and destinations with poetic names such as La Cabeza del Negro, El Hueco del Pulpo, Lemon Dulce, La Cueva de Carmen. All these places are rich in residing fish and blessed with an incredible underwater horizontal visibility of more than forty meters.

The first dive of the day is the deepest one, as it should be. We swim down until we see the sandy bottom and the rocky pinnacles, encrusted in multi coloured sponges. This is also the vertical drop to the Oceanic trench and we are likely to encounter big pelagic fishes such as manta rays Manta birostris, eagle rays Aetobatus narinari, porpoises Stenella plagiodon, dolphins Tursiops truncatus, and, for the luckiest, lemon sharks Negaprion brevirostris or the great hammerhead Sphyrna mokarran. We meet numerous big snappers Lutjanus and some gigantic groupers Epinephelus itajara.

We spend the rest of the day and the night diving in shallow, well-lit waters, in absolute absence of currents. The slope here is 20 meters deep; after that there is a sandy plain, which descends gradually to the open sea. We are guaranteed to meet several species of fish such as big specimens of Great barracuda Spyraena barracuda, Southern stingraysDasyatis americana, big schools of surgeonfish Acanthurus coeruleus, gruntsHaemulon flavolineatum, elegant angelfishes Holacantus ciliaris, Pomacanthus paru and Pomacantus arcuatus, spectacular tarpon Megalops atlanticus, groupers, damselfish and cardinal fish. But, most of all, it is the exploration of the caves and the canyons that gives the divers the best emotions.

From every crack appear spotted moray eels Gymothorax moringa, green moraysGymothorax funebris, zebra moraysEchidna catenata, cleaner shrimps Periclimenes pedersoni and yucatanicus, giant crabs Mithrax spinosissimus, multi coloured gobies, the yellow and purple basslet Gramma loreto and an amazing quantity of lobsters Palinurus argus. Not to mention the porcupine, trumpet, squirrelfish and all species of wrasses. The diving is always very easy: waters are quiet and warm and the visibility is really good.

The dive instructor is always around but his presence is discreet and he doesn’t interfere with the activities. Back on board we can relax under the Caribbean sun. The crew really like Italians and good food, so they constantly catch huge lobsters which they feed us every meal for seven days. We repeatedly try to convince them that we are very concerned about the ecological damage to the Jardines de la Reina. But everything we say is in vain: so, bon appetit!

The archipelago of the Jardines de la Reina is made up of countless virgin cays and sandbanks in shallow water and it stretches for more than 200 kilometres in the open sea along the southern coast of Cuba (at roughly a distance of 54 nautical miles from Jucaro). Between the main island and the archipelago there is the Ana Maria Gulf.

All dives are done in a totally intact environment, being at a top level but technically easy. These characteristic make the Jardines de la Reina the perfect destination for both absolute beginners and those experienced divers who for once are looking for an exciting but not too engaging holiday.

Typical of these depths are underwater gullies and vertical walls rich in cracks and grottos. Very common are lots of medium sized fishes, barracudas, jacks, and turtles. Very numerous are also reef fish of any possible colour: their reaction is typical of those species that haven’t been in contact with human beings yet. They are curious and suspicious but not scared. More rare but entirely possible are, on the other hand, encounters with the big species such as sharks, tunas and cetaceans.

This is the kingdom of sponges, which are numerous and incredibly diversified in colours (yellow, violet, purple) and shape (tubular, amphora, organ pipe, ramified, thread-like). Waters are warm and really clear, the visibility goes over forty metres. Dive tanks are built of stainless steel, so they are heavier than the aluminium ones which are normally used in the tropics: carefully gear up your weights. Remember to bring spares of everything as well as all camera equipment and film, practically unobtainable in Cuba.