Biniales

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I don't know what it was that really made me want to go to Cuba, but after many years of holding on to that dream, it finally came!

Two weeks is enough to get you to the main west coast hot spots such as Havana, Vinales and Trinidad with maybe another smaller place on the side.

We spent the first two nights in Havana and then took the Viazul bus to Vinales. Tourists in Cuba can only use one bus company (Viazul) to get around and with limited routes and limited buses per day, these get booked in advance.

If you don't book a bus, the chances of you getting a seat in and out of these hot spots can be very difficult and costly.I had booked our tickets online about a month before. It was a little annoying knowing that we had to actually have a plan on this holiday rather than go with the flow as we usually do but at least we felt getting around to where we needed to was secured.

Vinales is a great example of the Cuban countryside, on the west side at least! Limestone magotes, tabacco plantations, caves and ox farming give this place a timeless feel.

Vinales is small and I wouldn't worry about having to book accommodation in the smaller towns of Cuba as the country has opened it's doors a lot to tourism over the years. It almost seems that every second house is a Casa Particular or someone knows a person who owns one. Either way, as soon as we stepped off the bus, there wasn't a shortage of locals vying for some business.

We walked off the main road and found a nice place with an older local couple, Candita and Jose, for 15cuc per night which included a big breakfast (mostly the same in any place, fruit, egg, bread, juice). Most of the time there is too much breakfast so we would usually take some leftovers with us as a snack.

Cuba has two currencies, the CUP (local currency) and the CUC (tourist currency at the equivalent rate of the USD). A lot of prices are now quoted in CUC but that doesn't mean you can't use CUP, but you do need to be aware of when getting change back that the locals don't give you CUP in place of CUC, otherwise you could lose some money!

After settling in, we went to a local Tobacco farm and was shown how they make Cigars. It's quite interesting how they do it and we got to taste a few other specialities that the farm made such as honey and rum.

On another day we took a walk up near the odd Prehistoric mural and valley view point. Other ways of getting around Vinales sites can be by bike, taxi or a bus that loops around to all of the sites all day.

We also walked through country farms from Vinales to the main lookout point next to Hotel Jazmines. Thankfully we had downloaded Maps.Me (which allows off line maps to be used, once previously downloaded), to navigate the farm trails. The view near the hotel is very impressive and we then relaxed poolside at the hotel for a small price for the majority of the afternoon before walking back in to town.

Vinales has a few restaurants which now serve more of a western menu and the tales told of how bad the food in Cuba appeared non-existent.

Lines in Cuba are ingrained in to their culture when it comes to supermarkets and getting wifi where the word 'Ultima?' denotes some kind of informal queuing system even though there is no physical line. Be prepared to factor in up to an hour of waiting just to get a bottle of water!

The internet is improving but only in certain areas around towns and cities such as squares or parks. It's necessary to get a prepaid card from the ETECSA shop first but although we thought it was useful to have a card in case of emergency, being in Cuba where internet is not taken for granted really reminded us of stepping back and enjoying what is in front of us.

One night we even stumbled upon a night market, mostly of alcohol stands where the music in the background accompanied by cheap mojitos or pina coladas morphs in to one big street party where street salsa is the main event.

Vinales was a great place to start the trip, the landscape and feel of the place was incredible! Three nights felt like a good amount of time to see most of what's on offer but it could be extended if one likes to chill.

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