CUBA: Vinales and last days in Habana!

So I believe I had spent two full days in Havana and was basically done with it. On the third day I got up early and headed to the bus stop. But still not early enough. Even at 7am or whatever all of the tickets were sold out to Vinales.

Vinales is a little country town and supposedly in this valley that is the "Yosemite" of Cuba. But the buses being sold out was not a big deal- just tell the cabbies- or rather- stand there for two seconds and they will immediately accost you and try to sell you a seat in a collective. They always try to sell you a seat for like 3x the price right off the bat- which you should refuse and laugh at- "No, no, no I do this before." Then offer something at least 30-50% lower. The further away you move from the tourists the better your price will be. I think I paid 15CUC for my seat in a 7 person collective. Three french people had negotiated a 13CUC rate (each), two Germans had paid 15, and a Korean woman had been robbed blind at 20. When our driver (who looked EXACTLY like President Obama and we all discussed at length at how much he looked like Obama and all wished we were brave enough to take a photo with him) stepped out of the cab we all kept talking about it and tried to get photos. It was kind of crazy. Especially since Obama was about to come visit the next week! I got a really awful blurry photo from a distance, but really, just look at a photo of Obama.

That was a our driver. It took at least an hour or more for my collective to be put together and some of the people in the cab had pre-scheduled our ride. I got in the cab and then we got hauled all over town picking up people. I sort of low key wondered if I was getting kidnapped- it was close to an hour of pick ups before we finally got on the highway, but we finally got going.

About halfway there on the freeway, Cabbie Obama started having some trouble with the stick shift. (All cars in Cuba are manual.) He couldn't shift. And then suddenly the car got stuck in 1st gear. No joke. He couldn't get it out of first. We were miles and miles from Vinales. Another cabbie Obama knew saw us in trouble and said he would circle back and get us- since we were going like 20 miles an hour or something stupid. We were ALL DYING.

Finally at a certain point one of the Germans in the front seat said she had to pee and was going to pee on the seat if he didn't pull over and we ended up having like an hour long lunch break at a random rest stop. I had a nice grilled ham and cheese sandwich with everyone and we all chatted. It was exhausting to travel like that- but really memorable and pretty authentic! LOL Finally we got back on the road and made it into Vinales!

Our sweet driver, who spoke no English understood most of us had no casa reservations and knocked on some doors until he found some houses with openings. Literally every house in Vinales is a casa particulare- a bed and breakfast. The German couple and I decided to share a flat to save some money. They took a bedroom for 25CUC and I think I paid 20. Something like that. I had been paying 7CUC in Havana but for a tiny town like this I knew that was a fair deal.

 The German Couple and I shared the flat on the second floor. They had the front bedroom and I had the back. It had a shower too, but no soap that I can remember... I think I forgot mine in Havana! I had left all of my bags in the hostel back there, as I had paid up for my whole trip just in case. So I double booked, essentially. There wasn't any way to book ahead of time for Vinales so that was the best option at the time, and it all worked out fine!

 Our flat!

Also amazing was a woman across the street who spoke fluent English. Lisa (one of the Germans, who had done a large part of her undergrad at the University of Chicago and had a midwestern accent even!) and I wanted to go horseback riding, and the nice woman across the street had another cabbie pick us up in 30 minutes and take us to a local plantation. We got a cigar tour, a coffee plantation tour, and a 3 hour horseback ride. It was AWESOME. I think we paid 15CUC ($15) for everything. I ended up buying coffee for 6CUC which they sold me in a used water bottle, and some cigars. We literally watched them roll them. They were super high quality and the guy there was great. His family owned the place and everything you see in the photos was on family property. Nothing is commercial. Everything we bought went straight to the families. Average income in Cuba is around $20/month so doing these kinds of things plugs money straight into the local economy.

Rolling cigars.

Trying to smoke cigars without laughing. They dipped one end in honey and it was so interesting! Kind of pleasant. I am glad I tried it!

The coffee planation... Roasting beans was AWFUL! The smoke was so choking and triggered both mine and Lisa's asthma right away! It was terrible. I was glad I bought the coffee beans. You can see the water bottles they came in in the picture above on the counter. I dumped them into a plastic bag I just so happened to have for the flight home because I figured the bottle would be too suspicious. I haven't brewed them yet- I don't have a grinder! But I will! The bean roasting I will never forget though. What a terrible job. They had a teenage girl doing it and it was just awful work.

My horse went rogue for a minute and cut too close to some plants- and cut the crap out of my leg! I was much more assertive riding her after that!

Cacao beans! They don't use them for chocolate though- too hard to process. They said they use them for shoe products.

Hummingbird eggs!

We got back at dusk and got ready and then Lisa and her boyfriend invited me out to dinner! We all got cleaned up and ready for dinner and I took some pictures on the back porch while Lisa showered.

Pictures really don't do it justice!

So I had my "nice dinner" (a tradition on every trip I take) with them. I actually forget what I had though! But I took pictures of it! Lisa and her boyfriend were walking hand in hand down the street and I was walking behind them and some young Cuban guy ran up and walked along side of me and grabbed my hand so I wouldn't be alone. Oh my gosh I died. I just said, "No, no, no gracias." And laughed though, and he left. Lisa said she would not have been able to play it that cool, but at that point I was used to it. She said she hadn't really had any sexual harassment, but when we were out alone together the cigar guy kept bugging her to dance. Her traveling with her boyfriend had really made a huge difference in how much she was bothered- as in, not really at all!

Sort of what I am remembering is I had some kind of fried pork, a fried coquette thing, and a mojito. Mojitos in Cuba are interesting. Sugar is really expensive, but rum is cheap. So the drinks are pretty cheap and very alcoholic- but not very well mixed. The mint is always very fresh and lovely but they are so strong you want to water them down. But that's hard because the water isn't exactly safe to drink.

The next morning I had to go catch my bus back to Havana. Just a quick overnighter but I crammed lots into my one day in Vinales! Including a nice wake up call!

On the way back I managed to catch a bus, which was perfectly comfortable, but I sat next to a french woman who claimed she was in Boston during the bombings, in France during the terror attacks and in NYC during 9/11. I call BS. It was just weird.

 That whole minimal make up/no doing the hair thing really does notwork for me.

 There were  A LOT of wild dogs at the bus stop. And they all loved me.

The infrastructure in Cuba just sucks. Everything is on Cuba time. What should have been a 90 minute drive was a 4 hour bus ride because we stopped for an hour lunch break. These were our snack options.

I negotiated a cab from the bus stop, which is out in timbuktu, back to the Capitol. I said he could just dump me anywhere, which really confused the cabbie. I finally showed him on a map and he was like, are you sure, and I was like, si, si. And he was like, You travel here a lot?! And I was like, Ehhhh. Si. So he did it. I think I got him to drive me for 8-10CUC. I forget. I got a much better deal going back than getting out there. He said, if I give it to you for that rate I'm going to have to pick other people up. I said, no problem. So he said okay! And then he left me on the back side of the capitol. That wasn't my first choice but whatever. It was cheaper. Then I just beelined back to the markets to go shopping. I think this was Sunday afternoon and I wanted to get all of my shopping done as I flew back to the states (and through Mexico) the next day.

 This corn was actually more expensive than a homemade tamale. The corn is for tourists. The tamales are for locales. I think I paid $1 for the corn and 40 cents for the tamale!

Random parade I found.

At this point I ran back  to the hostel, showered, cleaned up, rested a bit and headed back out again. It was funny how different I got treated. I wasn't harassed at all when I looked like a dirty back packer but when I came  back out again freshly showered and in clean clothes I got yelled at every block. So much so I almost went back and changed into dirty clothes. But I wanted to be clean so I could pop into Floridtas and some nice places. So I stayed out and just suffered through it. Ugh.

 I found a different view of the waterfront, and where the cruise ships dock!

Florditas's bar, which was awful. I walked in, looked at the terrible menu and the awful prices and walked out. Not worth it at bit!

As I recall, I wandered around the whole rest of the day and tried to hit up everything I could have possibly missed.

I had dinner at a nice hotel and was really exhausted. I got a table alone and these ladies were super annoying and tried to move tables and sit with me- and I really needed to be alone. Plus they had been sitting alone. I didn't want to make conversation with someone in another language and I just wanted to eat my dinner in peace. I asked them several times to please go back to their table and finally burst into tears. I think I was just WAY overtired and over hungry. I had been up since 5am and it was now past 10pm and I hadn't eaten since early in the afternoon. They suddenly jumped to some crazy conclusion that my husband had cheated on me and left me in Cuba and I was getting a divorce and they swiftly switched table sand then I was very embarrassed. I had wanted to have a nice dinner but because I had sat on the patio, they would only serve me super simple sandwiches and they were out of half their menu already, which was frustrating. Then the men on the street started heckling me and I got really pissed. It was a really awful meal and I just can't say how EXHAUSTED I was. When the ladies went to leave they came over to talk to me and they cradled and hugged me about my "poor cheating husband"and I just burst into tears again. IT WAS SO EMBARRASSING.  I was so happy when they left and I finished my sandwich and could go back to the hostel and go to bed. OMG.

The lovely staff at the hostel made all of the arrangements for me to get back to the airport. They got a cab for me at like 3am and I gave the night guard and the day manager all of my remaining CUP since I didn't think I couldn't get it changed back to US dollars. They were great and I super recommend all of the vendors I used. I believe i stayed at the Paradise Backpackers Hostel.


My room!

And I made it back to the airport, all packed and in one piece!!

I was super worried about getting back into the US because the Cuban's had stamped my passport (they weren't supposed to- they just started doing that about a week before I came) but I stuck the pages together and bent open the Mexico pages really hard when I flew through John Wayne and nobody noticed or cared. It was great! I had a wonderful time and I am so glad I went and especially glad I went before it opened and everything changed. Travel ethically. Travel in a way that helps the local people!

 

I did also see the Venezuelan Olympian team!!!