cuba: vinales and cayo levisa

Getting from Havana to Vinales was easy, though not on time. I caught a taxi to the bus station in Havana, then waited. The bus was a bit late pulling in, and it was behind another bus. For a reason unknown to me, there is only one lane for incoming and outgoing buses at the main bus station of the capital city of a country. In other words, when one bus is late, or slow, or has a problem, it affects every other bus. Argh. Eventually, we boarded, and the bus ride itself was fine. Cold, as expected. I knew ahead of time to bring my malong with me on the bus.

There was a lady waiting for me as we pulled into Vinales, holding a sign with my name. At this point in the trip I'd really come to appreciate the system of casa particulares owners having 'friends' across the island. I never had to worry about finding a place to stay.

It was an easy, short walk to the house. Part of checking in was a glass of fresh juice, and a sandwich. Since I'd just come off the bus I wasn't hot so it felt good to eat.

Vinales isn't a big town, and is almost entirely dependent on tourists. It exists because the area around the town is gorgeous.

There are limestone karsts sticking up everywhere, and the locals grow nicotine for cigars. Visitors come to town, then book day trips and multi day tours to explore the surrounding area.

There are several tour shops on the main street of Vinales, but all were closed except one. Well, another one was open, sortof. There were a couple people sitting at deks in there, but neither was allowed to book tours, if I understood them correctly. What is the point of having a shop where only one person can take money, and that one person is out to lunch?

I queued up with everyone for the one place that was open, and settled on two options. One three hour walk through the nearby valley area, mostly to see some of the families and farm operations. I think it was called a culture walk, or something along those lines. I would've preferred a hike/trek through the limestone karsts, but that wasn't an option. I also signed up for a day trip out to an island with a pretty beach.

After getting my tours sorted I went back to my room, changed, and filled my camelbak with water. While on the bus into town I had noticed a sign for a national park. I knew I didn't have time to get into the park, but I was hoping for a couple pretty overlook spots.

I walked out of town following the main road, which went up a hill. The hill kept going for a while, a lot longer than I expected. Since the road wasn't straight, I was never sure when I would finally get to a place where I felt like turning around.

I finally decided to turn around not long after coming to a restaurant where the tables were built on decks of a sort, designed to take advantage of the beautiful landscape view. I took a few photos with my tripod, but I was covered in sweat, yuck.

From there I walked back home. I didn't feel as though I'd done or seen very much but Vinales is a small town, and I didn't find it easy to get out and explore outside of town.

The next morning I was up in time to have breakfast before meeting up with my tour. Breakfast was what I'd come to think of as standard for my entire trip: fruit, a big pitcher of fresh fruit juice, eggs, bread with meat and cheese slices, and tea.

I went back to the tour office, and met up with everyone who had signed up for the same walking tour.

It ended up being a small group, just me, a father with two of his almost adult kids, and two irish chicks on holidays. (I loved the mix of English accents, though I think it surprised our guide.) Our guide gave us some introductory information about the area and what we would be seeing, then we started walking.

The entire town of Vinales is surrounded by tobacco farms. The trails we followed took us through and around several of those farms. Our guide knew everyone it seemed, and had plenty of information for us about all that we were seeing.

We passed one family that was cooking a giant pot of stew to celebrate one of their sons coming home from army basic training. We watched one man roll a cigar. Another man was happy to pose for photos on the porch of his home. We saw kids riding horses all over.

We saw all kinds of fruit trees. We saw a giant cart full of corn that hadn't yet been husked. We saw pigs in a barn, they 'greeted' us by almost climbing the walls of their pens.

At one point we sat and had a drink from a little bar that catered entirely to tourists. Since it was hot and humid, all of us appreciated the break.

While sitting and drinking we all got to talking. Since one of the adult kids in the group was studying international relations at university, I took the opportunity to ask his thoughts on current world geopolitics. It was a really good conversation.

Eventually it was time to walk back to where we had started in town. Everyone said goodbye, and I took the opportunity to go to the baseball stadium we'd just passed. Baseball is the national sport of Cuba, I was a bit gutted I'd missed the season. Then again, attending a game in this weather didn't sound very appealing.
I found an open door, so I took the chance to walk around the field, and pretend throw a couple pitches. The view the players have from the field has to be one of the best I've seen from any baseball stadium: they could see several limestone karsts. Very cool.

From there I went back to my room to lay down, cool down, rehydrate, and relax.

Later in the afternoon I decided to go see the one sight in town: the municipal museum. It was tiny, just three rooms. I was the only visitor, and there wasn't much to see, so it only took me about twenty minutes to stroll through looking at everything.

Even though I wasn't really hungry, I decided to get dinner at a local restaurant. I saw a menu listing ropa vieja, which I'd enjoyed in Havana, so I opted to try again. The listed menu wasn't the same as the menu they handed me, so I asked about the difference. The waiter said there were 'lunch' and 'dinner' portions. It isn't normal for me to want a smaller portion, but this time I did. Even so, I was pushing myself to clean my plate. When I got the bill I noticed 10% had been added to the bill, a tactic which annoys me. I didn't recall seeing this on the menu, but I wasn't in the mood to ask.

After eating I wanted to walk off the full feeling in my belly, so I decided to walk through town. It took all of 15 minutes, so I did it again. And again. Like I said earlier, Vinales is not a big town.

Since I was finished with everything I could do in town, I decided to use one of my internet cards for an hour. It dropped out twice within thirty minutes, so I gave up, and saved what was left of the time on that card for another day. This is what happens in a country with state controlled internet access.

That night I arranged with my landlady to have breakfast earlier the next morning (0700) so I could eat before boarding my tour bus. It worked out really well, and I made sure to eat and drink everything she fed me. I don't think there is a thing as too much fresh fruit juice.

I boarded my bus on time, at 0820. It took off, and almost 90 minutes later we got to a small port. I guess it wasn't really even a port, just a single dock. Since we'd arrived early, we had to wait for our boat to arrive. The queue developed at the end of the dock, there was absolutely NO shade. I was surprised that people stayed pretty quiet, and very well behaved.

When the boat came we all boarded quickly, and it took off. It was a double decker ferry, which took us to Cayo Levisa. There is nothing to this island except a resort, with a beach and mangrove swamps. To most people that probably doesn't sound exciting, but I was thrilled to have another day to spend on a beach.

I found a chair, and got myself sorted. I put my camelbak under the chair, so it was sortof protected by shade, and I spread my malong over the chair so the plastic didn't get too hot. I went in the water, which felt amazing. White sand and blue water made a happy me.

I spent the rest of the time laying out, flipping over every 30 minutes and going into the water each time I flipped. I spent an hour eating the lunch that was included in the price of the excursion, which was okay but not great.

I did get burnt, but it could've been much worse.

I queued up with everyone else to get back on the ferry boat, and made sure I sat in the shade. Being somewhat burnt made the cold bus ride back even colder, but I didn't mind. I didn't eat dinner in town that night, as I'd already eaten two meals that day, which was a lot for me by my Cuban standards.

The next morning I ate breakfast even earlier, at 0630. Then I paid for my room, and walked back to the bus stop. If I ever come back to Vinales I want to make sure I get further out into the valley. I want to explore/hike the karsts in particular.