El Templete Has A New Ceiba, The Second In A Year

Havana’s El Templete has a new ceiba tree that replaces another that was planted a little over a year ago but did not thrive. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 24 April 2017 — The place where the town of San Cristóbal was founded in Havana has a new ceiba tree, the second planted there in a little more than a year. The specimen comes from the road between Managua and Boyeros, south of the Cuban capital, and comes to fill the void left at El Templete by its predecessor, planted a few days before President Barack Obama’s arrival in Cuba.

On this occasion, the arrival of the ceiba was not surrounded by the excitement that marked the planting of the previous specimen. The 8-year-old, twenty-foot tree reached its final site at midnight last Friday, an hour that specialists recommended because it is cooler, and therefore less damaging to the newly transplanted tree. It rained while the neighbors watched a crane lift the imposing tree and plant it in the historical site of the city.

Now, the waiting period for this Havana symbol begins. Will this tree be able to adapt to its new habitat? Will it survive the salt air, the compaction of the soils of the area and the rigors of urban life? No one wants to risk predicting its future, but next November, which will mark 498 years after the founding of the Villa, Havanans will need a tree to perform the ritual of walking around its trunk and making a wish.