Havana to Viñales
We were collected from our apartment at 12pm, only about 30 minutes late for our shared taxi to Viñales. It was an old "classic" car, with bench seats. There were already three Austrians in the back, so we had to squeeze into the front seat with the driver. The driver was a big guy though, meaning we were really crunched in, with K needing to put her shoulder under M's to get some comfort.
We arrived in Viñales around 3pm and checked in for our first stay at a Casa Particulare. These are the most common accommodation in Cuba, at home we'd probably call them B&Bs, they're basically spare rooms in people's homes with an ensuite and air-conditioning, with breakfast and dinner available but at an additional cost.
We walked the couple of blocks into town and were just in time for the last trip for the day of the local hop-on/hop-off bus tour. The highlights were the Los Jazmines hotel, near the edge of an escarpment with some great views of the valley and mountains around town, and the Mural de la Prehistoria, a huge and quite hideous painting on a rock wall, with badly drawn dinosaurs alongside primitive looking human beings, in blue, green, red and yellow paint. Not sure whose idea it was to deface the rock wall like this, but from our perspective they should have kept the paint to brighten up their house exteriors....
The home cooked dinner at our casa was roast chicken with rice and beans, acceptable but uninspiring. It was also much more expensive at 10CUC per person than the restaurant dinners we'd had in Havana - tomorrow we'll eat out! (We have since heard you can negotiate with your casa over the price of dinner, if only we'd known).
We were collected from our apartment at 12pm, only about 30 minutes late for our shared taxi to Viñales. It was an old "classic" car, with bench seats. There were already three Austrians in the back, so we had to squeeze into the front seat with the driver. The driver was a big guy though, meaning we were really crunched in, with K needing to put her shoulder under M's to get some comfort.
We arrived in Viñales around 3pm and checked in for our first stay at a Casa Particulare. These are the most common accommodation in Cuba, at home we'd probably call them B&Bs, they're basically spare rooms in people's homes with an ensuite and air-conditioning, with breakfast and dinner available but at an additional cost.
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| Home sweet home |
The host and her English speaking daughter were very quick to ask if we wanted breakfast and
dinner, and we sort of felt obligated and also wanted to try out some Cuban home cooking so we agreed. They also gave us an overview of the sightseeing options that were available, so we decided to do a walking tour the next day to some nearby tobacco and coffee plantations. We had been told that the casas will also arrange ongoing transportation, so we requested that of the host as well.
We walked the couple of blocks into town and were just in time for the last trip for the day of the local hop-on/hop-off bus tour. The highlights were the Los Jazmines hotel, near the edge of an escarpment with some great views of the valley and mountains around town, and the Mural de la Prehistoria, a huge and quite hideous painting on a rock wall, with badly drawn dinosaurs alongside primitive looking human beings, in blue, green, red and yellow paint. Not sure whose idea it was to deface the rock wall like this, but from our perspective they should have kept the paint to brighten up their house exteriors....
The home cooked dinner at our casa was roast chicken with rice and beans, acceptable but uninspiring. It was also much more expensive at 10CUC per person than the restaurant dinners we'd had in Havana - tomorrow we'll eat out! (We have since heard you can negotiate with your casa over the price of dinner, if only we'd known).
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