Horse tour in Viñales

Our bus to Viñales was scheduled to depart quite early. We had bought the Cubanacán tickets a couple of days in advance at one of their hotels, for 14$ each. When the day arrived and we showed up at the scheduled time, we were told that the bus may appear on time, or 30 minutes later, or one hour later, but it turned out to be very punctual, comfortable, and convenient. We had read the AC would be freezing, but it wasn't anything that a sweatshirt wouldn't solve.

The bus... leader? Coordinator? Guide? Anyway, the guy who wasn't the driver and made sure all the passengers were there was very fun and friendly, and spent all the trip making jokes. We later would learn that his name was Luis and had a sister and Boston who he hadn't seen in a while, and we agreed to bring her back a gift from him.

We arrived in Viñales and went to our house, simple but clean and comfortable, which was a little bit out of the main street, on a dirt road. The area is beautiful and a main tourist destination with activities, and we had planned to take a horse tour to the farms, which I guess is one of the most popular ones. We went to have dinner at a restaurant called El Campesino, which wasn't particularly special but it was very close.

I never ever go horseback riding unless I'm traveling, but I have to admit I really enjoy it. This particular tour took us to the tobacco, rum, and honey farms. It was interesting but a bit of a tourist trap, where we were expected to tip a bunch of people along the way besides the 20$ we paid for it. Still, it was fun, and Dean got to buy cigars. I learned how cigars are made, which was actually fascinating, and we ended up swimming at a lake nearby before heading back to the house, where we had dinner and went to bed early.Read more