Havana to Vinales

Firstly, the humidity, it is 24/7 and whilst never completely energy sapping makes you slow down enough to enjoy the moment.

Well, after three days in Havana it is time to get the hire car and head west to Pinar Del Rio. Eventually left at 10:30 with a little saloon car that has done 75000 KM and has a very lived in look. There were so many marks on the hire car paperwork it looked like someone had scribbled on it. Anyway, the 6 hour journey along the coast road was great. Hardly anyone else on the road, hence the profusion of people hitching lifts, so I happily obliged. For a start; they know where they are going so can give you directions as there are few road signs giving any assistance; they know when the road gets really bumpy (they are normally rough anyway) so you can slow down in time and they know the best places to take photographs. The latter included a field of tobacco and the associated drying house. To be honest I had no idea what a tobacco plant/tree looked like. The small villages you pass through on the way are far removed from the frenetic pace of Havana. A slow rural pace, with bicycles, horse and cart, and my favourite, indestructible Russian built lorries. People just getting on with their life, selling their produce, or just traveling and shopping.

The landscape transformed from the urban landscape to a tropical (we are in Cancer after all) wonder. Palms, pines, bananas, open grassland, rice fields and the further I got to Vinales, even more palms, denser vegetation and a gently undulating terrain that got harsher as we got nearer the Mogote hills, huge limestone hills rising steeply from the valley floor, with palm trees clinging to the rock face. The latter being a very odd concept for me to see. In addition the earth has changed colour from dark brown through purple to the familiar rich red.

My accommodation in Vinales, that was arranged by the very helpful Luis at Casa 1932 (Havana B&B) is just magic, a self contained bungalow as all the houses are in Vinales, very tasty food in huge quantities, more than enough for 3, let alone 1. But, hey… . someone’s has cooked me food, so it would be rude ot to. And for all you foodies and “knit your own, organic free range sandals” brigade, all of the food is local including the meat (as everyone seems to own chickens), the climate is suitable to grow anything (and they do) so it normally comes from their garden or someone else’s, the chances of them using pesticide are very remote indeed, so my breakfast, of banana, guava, pineapple, and mango and fried eggs and tomato was very very local and very organic.