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| Breakfast in Vinales |
On Sunday Andrew, Michele, and I took a cab (prearranged by Yomani) from Havana to
Vinales, and it turned out to be my favorite day in Cuba. And not just because
it perfectly aligned with my birthday. Our driver, Bruno, was really nice and
chatted with Michele on the ride out (about 1.5 to 2 hours) while Andrew and I
napped in the back. We asked Bruno for a casa hookup, and he drove us right to
a nice house in town with two rooms. Based on the ride in, Vinales looked
pretty small and was nestled quaintly in rolling green hills. There were two
parallel main streets with shops and restaurants, and side streets between them
filled with vendors’ stalls. Our casa was a couple blocks off the main streets.
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| Vinales SUV |
We left our bags in our casa and went out to a late
breakfast. We told Bruno and Amaury (our casa owner) that we wanted to do a
horseback tour of the valley, and they told us to be at the casa by 12. When we
returned after breakfast we found a very enthusiastic lady on a scooter waiting
to lead us to the stables. We walked through town and headed east toward the
countryside for about 30 minutes, and the whole time she kept scooting ahead
and then waiting for us to catch up, chatting with locals whenever she stopped.
It was silly but it got the job done.
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| To the horses |
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Horseback riding
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We made it to the stables and met our tour guide for the
day, Yovani. He set us up on our horses and then we hit the trail. Our first
stop was a coffee plantation that was basically an excuse to drink rum. Yovani
parked our horses and a lady named Rosana came up to greet us. She took us to
look at the coffee plants for a minute and then walked us to a patio to sample
rum (not coffee). She gave us a few different kinds of rum and honey to try, then upsold us on a cocktail each. It wasn’t a hard sell.
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Bar pretending to be a coffee plantation
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After our cocktails
we hopped back on our horses and headed to the next stop, a shed on a cigar
farm with Dixon, looking as iconically Cuban as I could imagine. He explained
that we were at his grandfather’s farm, which is still run by his family, and
that he grew up rolling cigars. He laid out tobacco leaves and explained the
process of soaking leaves before rolling, and letting the cigars sit for a
specific time after rolling to mature. He gave us cigars to try and then sold
me and Andrew a few to take with us. He also explained how the business works:
the government gets 90% of their cigars at a non-negotiable price, and the
farmers keep 10% for their own use and sale to tourists like us.
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| Dixon rolling us a cigar |
After we said goodbye to Dixon, Yovani helped us back on our
horses and we rode a short distance to a cave. I thought it was just going to
be a photo op, but after we clambered around for a few minutes and started to
head out, Yovani led us to a hidden crevice in the back of the cave and walked
in. We were going spelunking! Okay, not really spelunking, but we did get to
crawl through claustrophobic, winding passages deep in the rock. He made sure
Andrew turned on his phone’s flashlight before we started and I’m so grateful.
It was pitch black and I hit my head once, but it would have been so much worse
without the flashlight. We crawled through the tunnel for about 20 minutes, and
just before I started to get panicky about the tightening cave walls, I saw
sunlight gleaming from ahead. We came out of the tunnel on the other end to
find a little stand with a family waiting to collect $2 from each person who
came out. We walked back to our horses and headed off to the stop.
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| Into the tunnel |
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| Cave |
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Farm
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Between each stop we were riding through beautiful, lush
woods and picturesque farmland. There were no cars but we passed other people
on horseback on occasion. Our horses started climbing up a steep hill and when
we reached the top we were treated to stunning views of the entire valley and a
little bar. Of course we had to stop and have a Bucanero with Yovani and watch the
bar chickens chase the bar kitty. Sadly that was our last stop on the tour, so
we headed back to the stables. It was about 30 minutes and we took in the
countryside views on the way.
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| Valley view |
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| Lookout bar |
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| Traffic jam |
After walking back to town we were ready to eat. The tour took about 4 hours, with about an hour of walking, so we didn’t feel too lame looking for dinner at 5. We picked a restaurant pretty much at random and were the only people eating on the sidewalk. After dinner we stopped at another restaurant for coffee because we a big night of dancing planned and needed a boost. Vinales is known for a nightly salsa party in the town square, but it didn’t start until 9 or 10 so we had lots of time to kill.
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| I have permission to post this |
When posted up at a bar on the town square and patiently
waited until we saw people start filing into an open-air dance floor surrounded by colonnades with a bar and tables. It’s a few cents for
locals and a few bucks for tourists, so there was a nice mix of people. We
started by watching people who can actually salsa, and after a beer had the
nerve to try it ourselves. We ran into Yovani and his friend Octavio and invited
them to our table for bottles of rum and coke. It didn’t take me long to pretend
it was a giant birthday party for me, and Michele got in on the game. Poor
Andrew had the job of herding us back through the streets at the end of
the night and making sure we got to our casa, but he couldn’t stop me from
befriending a street dog who followed us home.
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Salsa before the crowds hit
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We only had one day and night in Vinales, but it was definitely my favorite stop on the trip. If you visit Cuba, I can't recommend Vinales enough. The setting, the horseback tour, and the dancing combined to make it the highlight, and one of my favorite birthdays too!
