Viñales

With my old American family sled we were on the road for a good 2 hours. Just before reaching our destination, we made a stop at a tobacco farm. On the one hand, we wanted to do a tobacco tour anyway, but since it was 'mandatory', we didn't find it that cool. It reminded me of a coffee trip. Well, at least there were puppies.

In Viñales, the taxi driver dropped one after the other at the Casa Particulares. There were quite a lot of tourists in the city center. Then we arrived at our 'family'. The boss was already sitting on the typical terrace and waved at us. It felt like a good acquaintance greeting you after a long time. Very warm and caring. They showed us our room and we were thrilled. A cute room with two double beds, air conditioning, bathroom, and everything was really clean for 15 francs per person. It was around 2:00 p.m. and we were terribly hungry. I asked the host if they could cook something for us. He only said 'It's too late for lunch, you can only eat at 5:00 p.m.' But he made the bill without the boss. She came to us and told us what she can cook. Since she is a chef in a restaurant, we agreed. I made the mistake of saying that we were VERY hungry. Biggest mistake ever. I have never seen such a crowded table with food. And all that for 10 francs per person. Salad, vegetables, meat, rice, soup, etc.

They also had a board with activities. We didn't have much time left, but we still wanted to do something. The neighbor agreed to show us everything there is to see in the area with his car. So we set off and first looked at a cave. We even took a nice boat ride.

The next stop was a beautiful wall. We don't know the exact story. But it was beautiful.

After this rock wall, we arrived at a beautiful viewpoint where a very famous hotel is located.

In the evening, we went to the center of Viñales, a larger village. It had the typical Cuban feeling. A lot of bars and clubs. Salsa music was playing everywhere. We went in and enjoyed Cuba Libre and that special feeling.

The next day we headed to the first beautiful beach in Cuba. It was called Cayo Juitas. For this, we had to drive on the worst destroyed roads for 2 hours that I have ever experienced. They were paved but had over 10 million potholes, some so deep that you could see the Earth's core. The last 2 km were the worst. It took us a whopping 30 minutes to drive those 2 km, by CAR (of course without air conditioning..). But it was more than worth it. The beach overshadowed everything we had experienced so far.

The next day we moved on. The host family arranged everything for us.

Next Stop: Playa Larga