Day 7 - Monday, December 9th, 2013 - Havana to Vinales

 Woke up, had breakfast at the hotel. Standard, eggs and bacon with bread and butter. We walked around Havana for a bit, exchanged some currency at the International Bank, after the regular bank apologized and said they couldn't take the new U.S. $100 bills. Again, everywhere is very business uniforms & all ladies in skirts. We are approached again several times for money, etc. and decide we're good on Havana for the time being and find a travel info kiosk, who guides us on the best way to get to Vinales.

The waiter from breakfast takes us to the bus station and we get in line for a ticket. The lady behind the desk with a full-on mustache tells us to sit and wait when we tell her where we're going. We wait about ½ hour while she helps countless other people and finally get back in line and she sells us tickets then. Guess you gotta go through twice. HAHA!

We get tickets and walked around the area for a minute before grabbing a ham sandwich at the station. The bus arrives pretty much right when we get done and we get on it. It is nice, with reclinable seats, a company called Viazul. It is a 3 hour + ride with one stop for snacks. Rachel got a pina colada which was excellent, with real blended bits of coconut & pineapple, and I had a mango juice which was good as well. Not bad for a roadside stand!

We stop and drop some people off, and evidently the bus picks us hitchhikers along the way as well. I think they can ride as far as they want too. Weird. We had read that Cuba encourages and tries to assist hitchhiking, but seeing it in action was unique. We drive through a National Park with beautiful bluff-like mountains, palm trees and farmland.

We arrive in Vinales and are immediately bombarded by locals wanting us to stay with them. Rachel gets approached by an adamant woman named Tamara and we agree to pay $15 a night for a room with her, including breakfast and dinner. The house is painted blue with 4 rocking chairs on the front porch. Well kept lawn with beautiful landscaping.

Inside, it is a common room with a bedroom on either side for guests, a dining room toward the back, and a kitchen in the back. Our room is all blue with blue curtains and shiny blue bedding. We fill out the paperwork and also pay her to go horseback riding and hiking with a guide tomorrow.

Rachel and I walk down into town to watch sunset. We try a couple areas and found both to be gorgeous. The 1^st was down a dirt road, a farm with horses, pigs, goats, chickens in trees!, dogs, etc. but we felt like we'd be trespassing to see a good sunset, so we tried another area as well. This one had a barn made of thatched palm leaves and had a dirt road leading between houses down to a farm field area.

A nice man sitting on the porch said it was ok to go down, so we stood next to a lake and a cow and watched a gorgeous sunset go down behind the mountains and palm trees.

Went back and got dinner. Wow! Best meal yet! Fresh fish, don't remember what she called it, but it was a moist, tender whitefish with a reddish skin cooked perfectly. Homemade rice, black beans, plantain chips, and fresh pineapple & cantaloupe. Never had a better cantaloupe and the plantain chips were amazing! Everything was great, but I couldn't stop devouring the fish, it was perfect.

 After dinner, we had a beer, smoked a cigar and walked into a bar area to seek out live music. We found a great place where a Cuban band played Cuban songs and a couple of people were salsa dancing. Rachel and I both agreed that this was exactly what we wanted and needed and were so glad we made the choice to seek this place out. Walked back home after a couple of beers and several songs and went to bed. Long day ahead.

For photos from this trip click here.