Saturday, March 21, 2015

Vinales, Cuba


Too close for comfort....I don't even like being this close to cows!

Our hotel in Vinales was La Ermita. ......our room was on the ground floor....

This gets a lot of complaints on Trip Advisor, however we were quite happy with our choice. It is a state run hotel so one should not expect 5*service!
We had checked in briefly the day before and returned after dark so were overawed by the views the following morning........



....the view from our balcony...


We had a great breakfast view....


and the hotel  really has a spectacular position....

We went back to check out the viewpoint we had been to the prior evening in the rain......
quite a difference....





then on to another tobacco farm....

this time watching the tobacco farmer plough with his oxen... a tough life!






....his barn had more leaves drying than the last one visited... up to 12 rows high in the centre....




..and we were not put under pressure to be shown how to roll (and buy!) a cigar........
....then on to see their Mural de la Prehistoria.....which we felt should never have been allowed in an area of such natural beauty....


....traffic on the road was interesting....



Many of the Mogotes have large caves inside them.....I refused to have any interest in going into any of them!
However we did see the exit of one which had a river running through it. Judging by the screams before this boat emerged I don't think I would have been a happy camper!




We arranged to have lunch at another organic restaurant.... the Finca Agroecologica....

This one was not vegetarian.......however.......it again was not great. .... on TA it has great reviews and I can only assume it was for the sheer quantity of food given. It also caters to tour groups and we saw 3 busloads arrive while we were there.....fortunately we had arrived earlier than most!


We did however like the view from our table....


and their vegetable gardens.....




The village of Vinales was small and somewhat bustling.....



We needed an internet card which are sold at some hotels or at the state store ETECSA. As there was one near the central square our guide asked if we wished to buy one. 30 mins later after standing in a queue in the heat we did get 2 cards! We did not feel the need to then get into another long line to use one of their computers as we had noticed that we picked up a signal in our bedroom. The fact that one has a wifi signal in one's room in not mentioned by the hotel, who are plugging an old computer in the lobby! We used up one hours worth of computer use, inadvertently, when we returned to the hotel. Turning off the iPad , turning off the WiFi switch did not make any difference. Nobody told us until much later that one needs to log off by putting in 1.1.1.1. !! Definitely not intuitive!!
We decided to have a sunset drink at the bar area of the hotel.........


and did get to see a great sunset ......




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