Viñales

Just a peek. That’s all we had, really. Two nights and one full day allowed us just a small sample of lovely, lush Viñales, a northern valley studded with majestic mogotes. This area is a magnet to hikers, climbers, and lovers of beauty the world over. We packed a lot into our one full day. But first, a good night sleep in our new casita.

Casa Dos Sonrisas (Two Smile House) contained the most comfortable bed of all our Cuban homestays, with a snugly fitted sheet stayed on, a rarity among our home stays.

The private bathroom was roomy with elegant blue tile work and an unusually warm and wonderful shower. We even had WiFi that worked occasionally in the casa! What more could we want?

Breakfast, perhaps?

We kicked off the next morning with an in-casa breakfast (3 CUC$ each) of coffee, eggs, bread, butter, homemade jam, fruit, and juice blended from fresh fruit. We appreciated the lighter option. For two more CUC each we could have added ham and cheese. Our feast was ample without that.

Craig and I outfitted ourselves as best we could for horseback riding—- longish pants, sturdy shoes, hats, sunscreen—- and then walked, following our escort, a fellow on an electric motor scooter, to the stable where our horses were waiting. Off we clopped, first on and along streets, and then onto the rough and rutted roads and paths of the valley, passing little casitas along the way. Our guide, whose name now escapes me, spoke little English, but we did our best to communicate. He pointed out different crops and an organic garden.

 Our first planned stop was a tobacco farm. It felt wonderful to stretch our legs again! Behind several tobacco barns stretched fields of green tobacco plants. A farmer worked a new field with oxen and plow. In the barn, we joined four tourists from Europe and began learning about the production process. Thousands of tobacco leaves were suspended above our heads and on vertical drying racks. The golden glow was magical.

Next, we all sat around a table in the shade and our guide demonstrated the cigar rolling process. Whole leaves tightly wrapped form each cigar and, surprisingly, honey is used as a final sealant at the edge of the final leaf, holding all together.

Then it was time to smoke a cigar—- a pretty hilarious experience for the inexperienced like me. We laughed like crazy. Not much coughing, though, so we must have succeeded at taking the smoke into mouth only and not inhaling. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps dipping the mouth end in honey helped! We bought five cigars (20 CUC$) and mounted the horses.



Riding on, we passed fields of tobacco, granjeros (farmers) harvesting tobacco leaves, and even a new drying barn under construction.

Yorjan

Our next stop was a place to learn about coffee and rum, but mainly an opportunity to sit in the shade, buy an expensive rum drink, and bottles of rum, if we wanted. What we enjoyed most was chatting with our on-site tour guide, Yorjan, a young man soon to graduate with an English degree. His daily grind involves educating tourists about coffee and rum and answering the same questions day after day. He’d prefer more of an opportunity to expand his English vocabulary. I gave him my email address and, of course, my blog address.

We left, vowing to sample more rum at home.

 

Junior and Bimba (with guitar)

Soon it was time confront the outhouse and to mount the horses once again.


We rode through the beautiful Valle de Silencio (Valley of Silence), viewing tobacco in various stages of growth, and other crops that flow like green water around the mogotes. Our last stop was a lake with a lakeside shack offering food and drink. Some folks swam, but we weren’t much interested or prepared.

By this time, we were ready for the ride to end, so we remounted and started the journey back to the stable. I now understand why cowboys wear boots; my ankles were exposed and I had to keep repositioning my feet so my skin didn’t chafe. Our buns were ready for a break. On the way back we had the strange, disconcerting, and refreshing experience of sloshing through and across stream beds. The ride was a great experience. As we walked back to our casa, I knew my inner thighs would be remembering this ride for days to come!

Back at the casa: showers! Ahhhh.... Our beautiful, private bathroom had a strong, warm shower, a rare treat in Cuba. No time to rest, however, since this was our only day in Viñales.

We walked down the hill a couple blocks toward town and quickly found a little restaurant with an appealing menu and prices. We shared the lovely view and a plate of ropa vieja (old clothes), delicious stewed pork with threads of onions and peppers at La Cachurra Grill. We had earned our cold drinks and a moment of relaxation.

View from our table at La Cachurra

Great food, great value

On to the cave!

Our next adventure was to catch a taxi to an ancient indigenous dwelling, Cueva de los Indios (Indian Cave), a few kilometers north of Viñales. It was a lovely drive through mogotes that soar straight up from the flat floor of the valley. We arrived at the site only a half hour before closing. The walking portion within the cave is short but dramatic, about 200 meters. We soon arrived at the spot deep within where we awaited the next of two boats that ply the underground river. After a fifteen minute wait we boarded a flat-bottomed boat along with about fourteen other people, and ooohed and awwwwed as we were ferried through the final 400 meters. Craig even said he’d go back and do that a second time!

Disembarking after exiting the cave

The next challenge was hailing a taxi or collectivo back to town. Always an adventure! We wanted to go to “El Balcon,” one of the restaurants recommended by our charming casa host, Daily. She had said this one had a gorgeous view and great food at more reasonable prices. Our taxi driver tried to persuade us to go to a different restaurant with good food, better view… He probably would have gotten a kick back. We almost fell for it—-heard about menu, even sat down—- but we tuned in to our own discomfort, got up and walked out, found the taxi driver and requested to be taken to El Balcon.

Mogotes rise up from the valley floor

At that point it was a very weird situation. The cabbie and his girlfriend told us to walk down a sketchy looking dirt road behind a fence to get to El Balcon. She seemed okay, but we didn’t trust him! After looking around a beautiful hill top lookout and asking around, we discovered that truly, down that sketchy road we would come to El Balcon. It was a 5 minute walk to a gorgeous series of decks suspended over the valley.

El Balcon

This panorama is clearly distorted, but still captures the exquisite beauty of this site.

The sun was dropping in the west. We had arrived just in time. They squeezed us in and we enjoyed a phenomenal meal of shrimp in garlic and assorted sides as the sun set over this breathtaking valley.

We shared the cost of a taxi back to town with a couple of European tourists, and swapped stories of being hustled and cheated, and our accompanying feeling of stupidity. Back at Casa Dos Sonrisas, Craig and I collapsed on the bed. The respiratory crud I’d been coping with for weeks was flaring up, but Craig had a second wind so he walked downtown to see the Saturday night action we’d been told about. The central square and several blocked off streets were party central with music and dancing. He danced some, and rubbed it in for days. I’d missed out!

We had a good night sleep and woke very early for a 6:30 breakfast before saying goodbye. It was a long walk pulling our rolling suitcases down the street toward the central square where we would catch an 8:00 bus. There we watched the Cuban flag being hoisted up the flag pole. We also bumped into Yorjan who was there to connect to WiFi in the square.

Goodbye Viñales! We will remember this beautiful valley and our perfect casita.