Vinales

Stop 2 on the Cuba Rhythms tour....Vinales in the West of Cuba. 3 or 4 hrs on the bus with a stop in Las Terrazas, which is a protected UNESCO site. As communities live isolated in this site, they are self sufficient in every aspect of life but have now opened a hotel/specialist coffee cafe to bring tourism in to support them. Weirdly it was a bit like a rustic centre parcs!! But cute. A random stop. The bus journeys literally rock the entire group to sleep within 5min (Maj catches flies within seconds!) so it goes quick!
We hit vinales which was so lush and green, it has a #thelandbeforetime because it looks so stunning like the dinosaur film. 😂
Heading into the small town we stop at a cigar 'factory'....literally a couple of farmers who grow the leaves, carry out the process & roll'em. Sell them to the state & get to keep 10% (ish) to themselves to sell. I think we could have learnt more & had a hands on go but it was still good to learn, I reckon the farmer definately had more in his roll than just tobacco! 😋. Bought a couple to try later...
The weather is dodge but then it's the start of the rainy season so the planned beach day we're all a bit sceptical....yep it rained. The first 5min the island was stunning, then dull with mass mosi bites but we're not leaving til 5!! Oh well, better Cuba than an office!
Getting off the bus we got allocated to a local lady who runs a Casa, they share the tours around all those who run Casa's to keep it fair. (See pic). It's Cute. The lady doesn't speak any English so we do everything with animated actions! Get there in the end. She greets us with a fresh mango smoothie. So cute. So far all the Cuban people have been super friendly and helpful with no hidden agendas.
We head out for group dinner with an epic view then pay 1 CUC (pence) to watch some local salsa/singers near the town square. It's rustic but fun. They always have a good vibe going on.💃
Tomorrow.....Trinidad, that takes an epic bus journey in the day to get there 😭Read more