VIVA VINALES!!!

Vinales.

A town. A national park. A landscape of fantastic Migotes. Limestone mountains, with trees and bushes on top. Hidden valleys. Caves. Underground Rivers. The cliff faces were so sheer and beautiful. The whole place was a magical wonderland. It was really cool (and as I've talked to people it is one of the main places people go when in Cuba). Which doesn't make it any less awesome.

The only other places I've seen landscape like this were in Vang Vien, Laos and Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.  (Southern China has them as well, or so I hear).  I had no idea Cuba would have them until I got there, and they were awesome.  Awesome to ride horses around, to hike, to climb, to sit and stare at at sunset.

 

To Get to Vinales I went to the Viazul bus station in Havana to buy a ticket the day before I was planning on leaving. A thing about Cuba... you have to be thinking one or two steps ahead of where you are in order to keep any sort of momentum or flow to your trip. Because buses get full, cabs leave early, there may be only 1 scooter for rent in an entire town. And it isn't like you book it on the internet. You have to do it old school style by showing up!  It was kind of awesome :)

So I go to the Viazul bus station and.... its closed for remodeling. No sign. No other information. Just people inside working. Keep in mind this is the PRIMARY BUS LINE that runs around the country. And this is their MAIN OFFICE in the capital city. Ahhhh Cuba. 

There was a helpful Taxi Collectivo (group taxi) dude outside that said you could go to the main terminal somewhere 3 km away, or he would do a collective taxi and take me there for 23CUC, which is basically the same price as the bus. I said sure, signed up. (You don't pay until you are there, so no scam. This is the way it is done). 

Since I was across from the zoo, I went to the zoo. Saw some animals. Spoke with a cool Cuban who used to work on a fishing boat all over the world. He had some amazing stories of searching for Diamonds in Africa and learning fishing in Northern Russia. Now he works with the animals including a 53 year old Chimpanzee who has 50 kids. 

The next day we head out, the Taxi shows up mostly on time. And inside is a dude that looks Jason Statham (I mean, EXACTLY like Jason Statham!) and some other folks. The Cuban music was BUMPING in the cab and we were off. This cab was a classic American car. So cool.

Just travelin with Jason Statham... no big deal.

We stopped at a (The afore mentioned) Cigar plantation on the way and learned how that all worked. Got to try one. It is one of those things you expect in countries like Cuba, that on the travels you end up being taken to additional coffee or tobacco plantations. They want you to buy something. Jason Statham bought 20 cigars.

In Vinales, the main town has tons of places to eat and drink. It is very tourist friendly. Which some may view as good and some as bad. I'm curious what it looked like 5 years ago. Or 10. Definitely 15. Because Cuban's used to not be able to advertise the rooms in their houses. They could rent out up to 2, but no ads. No Signs. Now pretty much everyone rents a room or two or 5. (The 2 room limit has changed).

I managed to book a sunset horseback ride. It was sort of weird, the guide basically didn't want to give me the full time, it was so strange. I paid for 3 hours, he wanted to end in two. ANd most of the time was spent at a... you guessed it,... coffee plantation!  Ugh. Here was a situation I wanted to just enjoy the ride, the valley and sunset. It was weird, he literally would not ride any further. Even though horse riders were coming from futher in the valley, he said he couldn't go further. I have no idea why. He spoke some English. My Spanish sucks (as will be mentioned repeatedly) and so....

I decided to enjoy it. I bought a Mojito sin Azucar. And sat and waited for the sunset. There were puppies and kittens (Heather  you would have loved it!). And a nice French gal and her guide who rode up. So we hung out. Took pictures. As you do.

 

After eating I headed to the live music bar on the square. There's only one. It's easy to find. It's 1CUC to enter. I enjoyed the music. Was grabbed by a Cuban man who used me as a wing man to dance with some tourist gals. Then a Cuban woman who looked to be around 55 or 60 grabbed me and started Dancing. Some Salsa, but really she was drunk as a skunk and was bootie dancing on me. She'd bend over and rub her butt all over me as her Daughters and sisters laughed and shot video. (she introduced me while bumping on me, just so it wasn't TOO weird. lol).  After the song (and in Cuba the songs are like 20 minutes long when they're live), she drug me to the bar, asked if I liked Cerveza. I said sure. She ordered two, and when I reached for one... she took them both! And told me to order myself one. I did. And of course paid for all 3.  $5CUC total!

The next day I woke up early and went to go rent a scooter. I was given advice in Havana, from some folks who were on their LAST day of the trip, that I should get there by 7:30, even though they don't open till 8:30.  I got there at 7:15. I was the only one who got a scooter and not until 10:45am. But I was chillin and just going with the flow, cause that is what you have to do in Cuba!

 

It was AWESOME! I rode out to a cave. the 2nd largest cave in the Americas. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the only bigger one I think. I almost had a solo tour, but a Cuban couple showed up last minute. And if you can believe it, the guy tried to break off formations THE ENTIRE TIME.  The guide did nothing. Literally nothing. Didn't even say anything.  And my lack of Spanish made it hard for me to do anything about it. (And to be honest, I was so shocked the guide didn't do anything that I just shook my head which did nothing useful). In the end he succeeded in breaking off a 6 inch piece of a curtain like thing.

Ride on.

To the gas station.

Strange thing about Cuba. Gas stations... few and far between. And the one in Vinales... had no gas today. Guess that happens. There's talk of building a bigger one. Maybe it'll happen someday. Maybe it won't.

So 25 km away I found a gas station.

How did I find it you ask?

I had been told before I left to get Maps.Me.  In fact every single traveler I met had maps.me.  It's an offline Google maps. And with GPS you can see right where you are at. It even has hiking trails on it. That's awesome!

I tried to get it... but since Apple is an American company, the app store does not work in Cuba.

Doh!

So I had a terrible tourist map, and had been given vague directions on which way to go and where it would be (and told that I had 1 liter of Gas, with which I could go... 20km? 30km?  The guy didn't really know. )

I found it. I put in 6 liters. Filled it up!

And RIDE!

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to rent a scooter and go. You meet cool people. See things off the tourist track. It's a great way to explore an area.

On the way back I stopped at the LOS AQUATICOS Trail head. These are a few families that learned the healing power of water from a shamen hundreds of years ago or something like that. It sounds fascinating, but I didn't make it all the way there. 

The trail, which was paved with stones and hand carved steps, went up and down over the Mogote's. Gorgeous views of the valley abounded. The hike was mostly shaded since it was late afternoon. So I sat and enjoyed the breeze. Then I came to a junction... the sign to Los Aquaticos lay on the ground. Did it point along the ridge or down?

Looked like down. So I chose down.

(HE CHOSE DOWN!!! (To almost quote Labyrinth!)

Well down dropped me to the valley floor pretty quickly.

It was getting late ish so I figured I'd just walk along the valley floor till sunset.

Then I saw goats.

And then I saw a cliff face... with a cave entrance in it!!!

SWEET!!!

Waterproof headlamp on (yes, of course I have one in my backpack. As you should too :)

And I plunge into the slot in the rock.

It led back, split left and right...

left a dead end. Right leads deeper.

Maybe 2 feet wide.

Slippery mud.

It splits again, with only the left going anywhere....

50 meters back, I found a pool!!! With a wooden structure above it.

It wasn't huge, but it was awesome!!!

And the end of the cave. Or as far as I was going to dare go as I'd have to submerge myself to explore further and as much as I love to explore the unknown, I'm not that crazy.

So I head out and ... hear voices off to the right.

So I head back the way I came and out of sight.... and then I hear they are AMERICAN voices.

So I turn around and walk back and surprise a family, their Cuban guide family (who all spoke English) and the owner of the property.

I made friends and they told me about a BIGGER cave around the corner.

I asked if it was okay to explore (since it was on his property).

He smiled and off I went.

 

The cave was like a tunnel all the way through the Mogote. Maybe 30-50 feet tall, and pitch black until you came around a corner to see out the other side... and a BIGGER POOL!

So I did what everyone would do, right? I got down to my underwear and went into the pool. It was waist deep. I half swam around in it and eventually went back to the side I started on.

What lay beyond....?

I'll have to come back to find out.

On my way out of the cave, I enjoyed a song written by my friend and former Feet Firster, Brandon Miquelon called ROOTLESS TREE.  It's a song he wrote after a multiple month trip through Europe he went on a few years ago. In truth, this was one of the main songs of this entire trip. I love it. He captured the feeling of the traveler so well. So thank you Brandon for the song, if you are cool with it I'll share it with people on the email thread.

I headed out of the cave, up to the farmer's house. Where they offered me coffee and I sat and enjoyed the coming sunset with people who mostly spoke a different language, but it didn't matter. We shared a nice time, looking out at the valley, as the guide drove off in his 1952 Pristine condition car...

 

I've still got a smile on my face as I write this.

Awesome.

CraigO