Hello and Merry Christmas
Weve just got back from 2 wks in Cuba, traveling around the north south and west of half of the country, if that makes sense, and heres what I thought. Well pictures and thoughts of one of the places we visited, the rest will follow later today. Hopefully off to see some Manatees am so excited, I love them!!
Vinales
What a wonderful delight of a place, and a much needed tonic on our 2 week trip touring around Cuba. Vinales is set in a lush valley in the north west of Cuba, surrounded by the most incredible mountain range, home to lots of organic fruit farms, tobacco and coffee plantations and genuinly lovley people, barely a jintero or scamster in sight, quite refreshing.
Only having 2 nights and 1 full day here, we decided to explore on foot and see as much as we could. This is where our adventure and possibly the most lovely day in cuba started. Age and I set out on foot, with a little guidence and direction to help us get started on the right path from a couple of locals. With a mass of bananas, (i know, I cant believe after 29yrs I have actually trained myself to like them!) water, and a smatering of fried plantain chips left over from last nights feast, we set off in search of Rauls organic farm and then hopefully on to La Cueva las Palmerito (a natural swimming pool in a cave). Off we trecked, its funny to see Age and myself in our walking shoes and ruck sacks, looking all sensible and ready for a hike he he!
We had the most wonderful day, trecking through lush fields, watching farmers plough their farms with the help of strudy buffalo, climbing through bat caves and down steep cliff faces, watching fellow tourists, lazy ones on horse back chug along, swimming in natural pools in caves filled with staligtights and staligmites, eating juicy pinaples fresh out of the ground and chatting in our broken Spanish with the old man farmer who grew them. Buying his fresh coffee beans and tasty sweet honey, and sniffing his hand rolled cigars pretending we know how to tell a good one before we buy these too.
Weve just got back from 2 wks in Cuba, traveling around the north south and west of half of the country, if that makes sense, and heres what I thought. Well pictures and thoughts of one of the places we visited, the rest will follow later today. Hopefully off to see some Manatees am so excited, I love them!!
Vinales
What a wonderful delight of a place, and a much needed tonic on our 2 week trip touring around Cuba. Vinales is set in a lush valley in the north west of Cuba, surrounded by the most incredible mountain range, home to lots of organic fruit farms, tobacco and coffee plantations and genuinly lovley people, barely a jintero or scamster in sight, quite refreshing.
Only having 2 nights and 1 full day here, we decided to explore on foot and see as much as we could. This is where our adventure and possibly the most lovely day in cuba started. Age and I set out on foot, with a little guidence and direction to help us get started on the right path from a couple of locals. With a mass of bananas, (i know, I cant believe after 29yrs I have actually trained myself to like them!) water, and a smatering of fried plantain chips left over from last nights feast, we set off in search of Rauls organic farm and then hopefully on to La Cueva las Palmerito (a natural swimming pool in a cave). Off we trecked, its funny to see Age and myself in our walking shoes and ruck sacks, looking all sensible and ready for a hike he he!
We had the most wonderful day, trecking through lush fields, watching farmers plough their farms with the help of strudy buffalo, climbing through bat caves and down steep cliff faces, watching fellow tourists, lazy ones on horse back chug along, swimming in natural pools in caves filled with staligtights and staligmites, eating juicy pinaples fresh out of the ground and chatting in our broken Spanish with the old man farmer who grew them. Buying his fresh coffee beans and tasty sweet honey, and sniffing his hand rolled cigars pretending we know how to tell a good one before we buy these too.
Our treck lasted about 6 hours and we did it all by ourselves, which we were very proud off, accept the part in the cave, which was pitch black and absolutly couldnt be done without a guide. His name was Jose and met us atthe entrance to the cave, a really friendly local farmer who led us by torch light slowly through the cave, I only fell over once! It took about 15min to reach the natural cave pools where Jose lit 3 tiny flames and we stripped off (much to Jose´s delight! urgh!) and enjoyed a lovely refreshing swim in the cool waters, really amazing, but I did think that suddenly a horrible crazy creature from the depths of the cave was going to pull me under and Id never be seen again, so I stuck colosely to Age, so that If I got eaten then so did he and at least we could go together! Im suh a scardy cat!
On the way home, we passed the local park. There was all ages making use of this area, young men playing a game of football after work, a mix of teenagers and younger playing a great animated game of base ball, middle age mums running laps trying to get fit again, and parents watching from the stands, cheering their kids on and just chating amongst themselves, winding down after the day. It was so lovey to see, the sun was setting, casting a beautiful orange glow all over the field, and there was a real sense of community, general mood was jovial and light hearted. Age and I just sat there, watching and cheering for the base ball players and admiring the people running laps, one old man inparticular who was like forrest gump, he just did lap after lap after lap, his t-shirt growing wetter and wetter by the minute, but the determination on his face was realy refreshing to see and we gave him a big cheer when he finally called it a day and staggered on his way home.
The day was coming to an end, it had been fantastic and all there was left to do was mozey home, kick off our smelly clothes and relax with a rum and pinapple and a tasty peso pizza aahhhh.
Its officail, we love Vinales xxx
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