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Plan for the day changed. Due to the impending exhaustion of D's migraine medicine supply, and Aeromexico's one flight (Thursday) a week to Cancun, we had to go back to Havana to change our flight, and leave for Cancun immediately. Sooooooooo...
We arranged for a taxi to the Havana airport on Thursday (tomorrow as I'm writing), and for a tour of the valley by taxi on Wednesday (today as I'm writing).
First stop on the tour was La Queva Los Indios, which had some ok formations...
and a little boat trip.
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Our next visit, to a tobacco plantation, sold to us as different from the one we'd done yesterday (supposed to be a lot of folks rolling cigars) was a fiasco. Our driver took a wrong road to get there, and when we did finally arrive, it was to be exactly what we'd seen, so we skipped it. I did get a shot of a guy riding the skids they use with the oxen, smoothing the soil for planting, I believe. Some of the oxen teams have a rough beauty, si no?
We next went to a government organic farm, with a nice view of the valley...
where we shared a stress-reducing drink.
Based on our misunderstanding, we next went to what we thought was primitive cave painting, but which turned out to be a gigantic defacement of a cliff by a student of Diego Rivera, charitably referred to as a "mural". D made me take a picture of it, and it is offered here for comment.
My own comment,"What in God's name were they thinking!?"
There followed a lengthy episode with the police at a road checkpoint, apparently something not being right about our driver's papers.
The next stop in the itinerary again tested our driver. It was Los Aquaticos, a group of folks in the hills who treat illnesses etc. with no medicines other than pure water from a spring on their land. Wouldn't it be loverly if that worked on migraines. The driver obviously had no clue how to get us there, though he was not afraid to ask directions, 7 - 8 times, one of them from this guy hauling tobacco to a curing shed.
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We wound up at a little finca, from where we were going to have to find our own way on foot. Let's just say that didn't work out too well, until we saw some tourists heading down another path in the distance, asked directions from some campesinos, and were graciously led by one of them across a bridge to a path that got us there (after a little more help from other campesinos). Nice folks out in the country, and actually more stylish in an odd way.
We chatted with an Aquatico kid of 16, who told us the story of the families, now two (used to be five or six) who live there.
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He and his dad (who both had great skin - just sayin') squeezed a glass of sugar cane juice for me that was quite nice.
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As the video showed, they have a great view of the valley.
We had better luck finding our way back, following a well-used route...
and there were some nice views along the way, together with some trogon calls, one of which you may hear on the video (sort of a lower piping sound).
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When we reached the rice fields in the valley (the Aquatico place was on the highest little clearing in the hills, directly up from between the two oxen)
we knew how to get out the rest of the way.
We then went for views from two up-scale hotels at different ends of the valley.
South end first...
middle view, showing the town of Vinales...
and north end.
Last stop was a bit of an afterthought, La Caverna de San Tomas, which our driver again had to search for. It's reputed to be the second largest cave in the Americas, but it was poorly signed, and the "recepcion" looked abandoned. One of the guys in the parking lot said he was a guide, and so we went with him toward the cave.
After a very steep climb up really sharp rocks we reached the "entrance", which was invisible to someone who did not know where it was. He pulled some headlamps out of his pocket and we started down into it.
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The way through was extremely difficult, and dangerous, in many places, I thought, but the formations were quite varied and often dramatic, even in the limited light from the head lamps.
The cave would undoubtedly be a National Park in the US, with super safe paths and great lighting.
At one point, it had very musical stalactites...
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that doubled as hand holds along the edge of a little precipice (we cringed when we realized that, but used them anyway - no choice), and at another point, musical columns with deeper tones.
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On the way back to Vinales, our crack driver tried to coerce D into paying extra for the trip to the cave, but backed off after I erupted and suggested we have the police resolve the matter - the latter likely more persuasive than the former.
We ended the day with a nice sunset...
and an excellent lobster meal on our roof. Turns out our main CP host is a cook at a local restaurant.
Location:Venales
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