Viñales

Earlyish the next morning I headed out of my Casa Particular, and up to the Hotel England to meet the boys by the car to head off to Viñales. He loaded up the car, and thank god it was a big one so we could fit in all four backpacks! The car ride there was full of conversation and laughs, and even though we were just getting to know each other, it felt like we had known each other for ages. The atmosphere was easy going and laid back as we made our way through part of the Cuban countryside. As we got closer to Viñales our surroundings changed. Suddenly there were little mounts everywhere made of limestone that gave the smooth valley a more rugged look.

We arrived in Viñales by mid afternoon, and we drove around for a little while looking for accommodation, and the sights. We finally found a casa Particular that was central, and also very nice. So we moved into Gracielas and Carlos’ house. It was 2 houses, where we could use one completely, and just a bedroom in the other. Tobias and me shared one and Howie and Sebastian the other. I think the only reason I was sharing with Tobias, was that he had the least jealous girlfriend. We got settled, ordered dinner at the house, and headed into town to find a tour for the morning.

Once we had ordered our Tour, we headed of to see some of the sights, such as the Cuevas del Indio (Indian caves), on our way there we stopped at a fruit stand by the road to get some fruits. It was the cutest little place, and the man running it was super friendly. He gave us four coconuts, a pineapple, and some Maya pineapple (little yellow fruits that grow from a plant that look the same as the pineapple plant). As I was searching for the money he must have thought I didn’t have enough or something, so he said to me, “you can come back another day and pay of you like”! We all giggled at this, as people in general in the world don’t seem to be that kind anymore!

We hopped back in the car stocked up with fruit, and headed for the caves. We paid 5 CUC to get into the cave, and only once we were in there did they inform us that most of it was shut. The cave was nothing to see really, but with good company most things can be great! Afterwards we headed for the lookout point over Viñales, to see the sun set (as we had been told this place was great for that). However the sun does not set in this direction we quickly realised as we stood there admiring the beauty of the valley below us.

After some relaxing time on the porch and a nice shower, we sat down for dinner, and the smell and the sight that met us was wonderful. The dinner consisted of pork, chicken, and lobster served with rice, beans, salad and noodle soup. It looked and smelled so great we threw ourselves over it. We enjoyed dinner and the great company for four hours, then we moved onto the porch again for some more get to know each other time, and some compulsory rum. We all sat in the rocking chairs that you see on every porch in Cuba, and enjoyed the quietness of this little village. We chatted about the war, history, ourselves and each other, and anything else that came up. We took turns pealing the Maya pineapple fruits and passing them around to each other. This little fruit is some of the best fruit I have ever tasted. It has a hard yellow shell on the outside, and it has a juicy, sweet and sour, white fruit on the inside. I have never tasted anything like it before. The hours on the porch passed, and before we knew it was four in the morning, and we had to head to bed as we had planned a horse tour in the valley for 8am!
We knew it would be hard to get up again after so few hours of beauty sleep, but we were motivated to do make it. So after a few hours we hopped out of bed, and headed for town to meet our guide for the day (Reynaldo). We drove to where the horses awaited us, and hopped on. I think the boys were feeling a little nervous, as they had never ridden a horse before in their lives. The sky was looking a little dark, but we assumed it would clear up soon. Only 15 minutes into our tour the skies opened up and the rain came down heavily. We did try to keep our spirits up for a long time by singing “I’m singing in the rain” etc, but unfortunately it became too cold and too wet for us to carry on. We headed for a local farmer to find some shelter, and perhaps breakfast, as we had yet not eaten anything. When we arrived at this work shed, he offered us rum, sugar cane juice, cigars, and fruit. We thought it was a little early, but we all decided to go with the flow. So our breakfast consisted of pineapple, and rum! Not quite the perfect start to the day, but definitely a merry one!

The rain did not ease up, so we ended up staying with this man for 5 hours, chatting away to him, the guide and his father in law that turned up to find shelter as well. The poor father in law had been caught in the rain, and was left soaking wet and shivering. I had Toby’s towel at the time to dry off with and to heat up a little, and I dried to give it to it, but that did not work of course, as he would never except help from a woman…. I then handed over the towel to Tobias and he gave it to him, as he placed it on his shoulders the tears collected in his eyes, and he gave him a great big hug. We tipped generously when we left both the farmer, and the guide and we also gave some money to the old man. We could see they appreciated it, and it was nice to give to someone who did not ask for it.

After hours of fun and play at the farm we headed back to town to get showered and to head towards Havana again. We all discussed the day in the car and all agreed on the fact that although the weather had been terrible and we had not actually seen anything, it had still been a great day for all of us. The plan was to head for the airport to get some money out, and then head toward Trinidad, but by the time we finally found the airport (hours later), and realised they did not accept MasterCard’s there, we surrendered and found a casa to stay in Havana so that we could have a nice dinner and a drink to distress after the tiring drive back fromViñales. Poor Sebastian who was driving, had started off with the patience of a saint, but ended the day in a slightly bad mood, and having lost all his sense of humour. Tobias and I tried to keep the situation positive by singing in the backseat, but apparently that did not help at all!

As we arrived back in Havana we got showered, and ready to head out, when I realised my makeup was gone! We made a phone call to the previous people we had stayed at and tried to make arrangements for my stuff to be sent to me the next morning if it was found. After borrowing some makeup we found a place to eat and drink on Obispo. After dinner we went to Hotel Florida to watch some people dance and to enjoy some live music, and funnily enough we were the only four foreigners who did not leave with a Cuban woman or man that night!

Tobias (my roommate) and I headed back to our rooms for some beauty sleep, and ended up talking for quite some time about our day and what our impression of Cuba was so far. It was really nice to have someone to exchange ideas and opinions with about this country that causes many mixed emotions!

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