10/04/2019 – Havana to Vinales travel day, Cuba

We got up and packed our things. I managed to pack all my stuff into my own bag, so I was pleased with myself! The packing cubes we have definitely makes things easier and the little nooks and crannies and clips and buckles of my rucksack are starting to make a little bit more sense now. I think I’m starting to enjoy the geek-out of practical stuff! We said our goodbyes and walked to the bus stop, again hopping on the P12 bus with the locals. It’s overcast and there are huge puddles on the road, but it is still hot. We walked down to the bus station and found the waiting area. It is a separate bus service and waiting area for non-Cubans. I leave Josh with our bags and manage to find some bottles of water – the street our casa was on was totally out of water this morning so we couldn’t fill up there. I also try and find coffee but there’s no such thing as a takeaway cup here. Environmentally, there appears to be very little conscious concern – I haven’t seen any recycling at all and there are very few public bins so any rubbish is just thrown about with little consideration. Having said that, so little goes to waste here. Fruit and vegetables come without packaging, rice, pasta, coffee is bought by the kg and people bring their own sacks with them. They also reuse things like plastic bags and water bottles and there seems to be very little in the way of disposable cutlery, cups etc.

We get ushered to a luggage area and our bags get whisked out our hands (we get asked for money of course for this) and a ticket with a number planted into the palm of my hand. We get pointed round the corner and wonder around until we eventually find a door leading to a different waiting room with some familiar faces from the luggage area (hopefully headed to the same destination as us, as we have no idea what is going on!). Josh has been quiet for the last hour and it takes a while to realise he is HUNGRY or HANGRY. He takes the purse and heads into the crowds to try and find coffee and some sort of snack. He returns empty handed. Apparently he had his eye on some cheese toasties, and as he was approached to be served, someone pushed in front and bought the last one. Josh wasn’t the happiest! I shove a stale roll from yesterday in his hand and I think it takes the edge off. Then Josh notices a sign that says tickets will be null and void 30 minutes before departure unless they have been stamped (it is now 10 minutes before departure), so he goes to the kiosk and they do us a favour and sort our tickets out for us anyway. Eventually our bus gets called and we follow the people that look like tourists probably going to the same place as us and hop on. As we try and find our seat numbers some American guys turn and tell us seat numbers aren’t a thing here, so we find the closest seats and sit down. We hit the road, and both fall asleep for a couple of hours. The a.c. is really strong so I put my fleece and flight socks on and Josh tucks his arms inside his vest. When we wake up we are pulling into a tourist service station, rest rooms, a bar and snack area and tourist information. By 14:00 we at last get a coffee and that cheese toastie Josh had been longing for. The coffee came with a side of sugar cane! Then we hop back on and hit the road again. Every so often the bus driver stops and hops off the bus to chat with some Cubans. A couple of times we pick up and drop someone off on route. Outside looks very green with fields of crops and horses, cows and bulls grazing. There are no fences on the land; the animals are tied with some rope to the odd peg in the ground or a tree. The bus pulls into the side of the road and the driver shouts Vinales so we get off and swap our numbered ticked for our suitcases. When we get off the bus we are swamped with people trying to get us to come and stay in their casa. We bat them off as best we can and head in the direction of our casa. We find it and get shown to our room. There are pink frilly sheets on our beds for display purposes only, as we get shown around the lady whisks them off again and scurries them away. We have our own bathroom and a mini fridge and there is some a.c. and a fan built in. The lady talks at us in Spanish for a bit, and I maybe get the gist of it (maybe not!) either way, everyone’s happy! She takes our passport and visa numbers, as Susannah also had to do on our arrival and gives us a glass of fresh juice. We freshen up and then head into the village to check it out.

Our new Casa for the next comming days.

We walk up and down the main street then decide on a small bar for some food. We have rice, eggs and banana – sounds weird, was actually so delicious! And a side of cucumber and melted cheese - really good!

Then we head to the mercado and find some snacks for the first time! Some moody oreo biscuits. We grab those and head to the telecommunication office to buy some Wi-Fi cards. Then we sit in the town square and use the Internet for an hour, sending some photos over, messaging our next casa with arrival details. By the time our hour is up the sun has set and the temperature has dropped a bit, we are in a valley. We go past the local market to our casa, do a little wrecky, and head home. We pass a man on a horse who tried to get us to book a ride during our stay, we declined. The horses are so skinny here, I think they work pretty hard, but it is just the way of life here. In the garden of our casa there are 3 little children playing so we sit on the porch and say hey to them and meet some more of the family. We go to our room, do our exercises, shower and then it’s bedtime!