Jardin Botanique de Deshaies in Aruba

A Spectacular Botanical Garden and Wildlife Park Open to the public since the 1st April 2001, the Botanical Gardens at Deshaies are a recent creation. This park, whose youth is imperceptible, has very quickly imposed itself as the place to be for nature enthusiasts and lovers of tropical plants. Situated on the windward coast of Basse-Terre, 100m in altitude up above the town of Deshaies, the garden stretches out over 5 hectares of sloping mountainside. Its favourable location guarantees beautiful views over the coast and an unrivalled vantage-point overlooking the bay of Deshaies. The site was already home to a nursery created by Guy Blandin, a plant-lover who brought rare and unknown plant species from his travels around the world back to Guadeloupe. Many of them unfortunately disappeared when Cyclone Hugo hit and severely damaged the island in 1989. The humorist Michel Colluci, also known as Coluche, acquired the property in 1979. A few years later, in 1985, he invited his friend Michel Gaillard, an interior landscaper in mainland France, to set up his nursery there in exchange for taking care of the property's garden. A year later, the death of Coluche brought the future of the property back into question. Michel Gaillard bought back the property in 1991 to honour the memory of his friend, with the idea in mind of creating a botanical garden. This risky and ambitious project required several years of planning, of research into its feasibility and then of execution. The garden was finally brought about in accordance with Michel Gaillard's and the landscaper Samuel Craquelin's plans. Over the course of the path which snakes its way through the gardens, visitors today discover a world of real abundance: a world with 800 species of plant all brought together, with several animal species, which were introduced much to the delight of children, and with the most spectacular and unexpected landscapes following one after the other. Tourists are invited on an unforgettable walk amidst fifteen or so different scenes.