Vinales festival time

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After several days in Havana, we went to the western province of Pinar del Rio, where we were just in time for the biggest festival of the year in Vinales.

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Photos

Our casa particular
Outside of resort areas, the only places foreigners can stay is in designated private homes, where hosts have to follow very strict government rules.

Pets watching us eat
We typically ate most of our meals, which we arranged for in advance each day, in the casas particulares. The average Cuban could only dream about the good meals we had.

Non-motorized transportation
Many homemade contraptions that are ingeniously built. Notice the shock absorber system here.

Tobacco farmer
Campesinos are known as 'guajiros' in Cuba and earn not much more than $100 per year.

Dancers in the main square
The festival lasted for four days, with plenty of salsa day and night.

Viva Fidel y Raul
Fidel mostly lets the words of Che speak for the revolution, but he gets the odd sign in his honour too.

Afternoon at La Ermita
This is one of the two designated tourist hotels in Vinales. We could pay a few CUCs (hard currency for tourists) to use their pool for the day and look at the beautiful valley. Cubans can't stay in these hotels, honeymoons excepted!

Cayo Jutias
We got to the beach here after a tour bus did, and this was the only shelter left. The rent should have been half price we thought, but no discounts here!