Havana to Vinales

Our taxi turned up on time yet again and our driver, Hernando asked if we minded his 5 year old daughter coming with us. Fernanda was a delight and Chris taught her a few words of English during the journey of about 3h. The roads are very good with little traffic on them so only hold ups when behind slow vehicles once we were off the motorway. We arrived at our home stay right on time at noon expecting to find a guide there for a three hour trip through the Vinales valley, a region dominated by megales, limestone outcrops similar to the caste scenery in Halong Bay. He didn't show up and after several phone calls Hernando found his house and it was finally agreed that H. would take us to the main sites that afternoon and the guide would pick us up in the morning for the rest of the trip.
We then had a problem with entry as we had vouchers but only electronic and they needed hard copy! More phone calls and H. was told to pay (remember we had very few Pesos left!) and claim back the money later. Finally we waved goodbye to H. and F. having given him a tip in dollars, not a popular currency in Cuba.
We found a cheap meal in the town that night (again we couldn't use our meal voucher without a printout) and were drawn to the main square by the sound of music. It was a bit loud for us so we wandered a bit further down the road and I noticed a light up a narrow alley inset into a wall. It was a very well hidden ATM! It worked, we were back in funds so celebrated with Mojitos in a bar near the square.Read more