Vinales, January 2012

In an amazing country Vinales hits the top of the charts. It was so very different from the constant banter that we heard in Trinidad and Havana. I suppose it is best described as the locals describe it which is “tranquillo” and beautiful to boot. That pretty much encapsulates the whole valley, except for one element. The roosters!!! I woke up at 4am on the first morning feeling amazingly well rested but a tad confused about why John was talking about how he was going to order rooster for dinner. I just thought it was extreme forward planning which was a little strange considering we are both not particularly into planning anything on this trip. Then I realized that the very off-key rooster just outside our window and the cacophony of his buddies, in some strange rooster harmony across the whole valley, may have had something to do with John’s strange dinner planning. Needless to say there was much murderous intent gathered around the breakfast table each morning but John never did get his rooster soup.

The other pattern that ran through our stay in Vinales was getting hopelessly lost all the time. Quite a few times we headed into the valley (slightly illegally as we were told that we were supposed to take a guide…otherwise we would get lost) and despite having oodles of confidence in our sense of direction, we just could not seem to get it right. In our defense, to deter foreigners from going into the valley unguided, the Cubans do not produce any maps of the area. But getting lost was just as fun as knowing where we were going and there was always a friendly tobacco farmer to point us in the right direction (for a couple of minutes anyway) or a nice tractor driver to give us a lift on his trailer back to town.

Vinales is the tobacco growing capital of Cuba so we got to see firsthand where the famous Cuban cigars start their days. We were also lucky enough to visit a tobacco farm and the farmer´s house and have him demonstrate how he makes his cigars. Apparently some of the locals smoke about 15 cigars a day which is pretty full on considering those cigars take about 45 minutes to smoke. We were told that tobacco farming is a bit of a dying profession as the young people are just not interested in back breaking labour each day for very little compensation. Small wonder but still very sad to see the decline of an old way of life. John and I did go back in the afternoon to offer to help on the farm just because it seemed interesting and it was a good chance to practice some Spanish. Alas I think they took one look at the scrawny offerings of labour and refused politely but firmly.

Feeling super tranquillo from our stay of about 6 days in Vinales, we headed back to Havana for our last night in Cuba. While fretting about making sure we had enough money to make it to the airport without drawing any more money, I discovered the equivalent of a $100 bill that I had stashed away in my bag and forgotten about. Nice! So John and I happily headed off to pay one last visit to the vibey music street (Callejón de Hamel), happy in the knowledge that we could splurge on a couple of beers each. We had a fab last afternoon in Cuba, under the lovely Cuban sun, listening to the famous Cuban rhythm and being taught how to dance to the Cuban way by a couple of locals. Great send off!