11/04/2019 – Bike ride in Vinales, Cuba

We woke up to cockerels and cockerels and cockerels cock-a-doodle-do ing all morning from about 0500, its proper countryside here!

We had breakfast in the casa a la Griselda, which was very similar to the breakfasts we had in Havana. Omelette, bread and butter, fresh mango pineapple and a weird red melon thing that I don’t think I have tried before, with coffee and mango cordial. Then Griselda made a phone call and got two bikes delivered to us to hire for the day. We pack our bag and head out of town on our bikes towards the prehistoric mural. It is just below 35*C and the sun beats down on us as we cycle through the green UNESCO valley. We have to cycle on the right hand side of the road, which takes some getting used to at first! The cars, lorrys and tractors also have little mercy so at one point I cycle through such deep mud that I come to a standstill and have to put my feet down. The landscape is so so breathtakingly beautiful. There are real cowboys riding bareback on their horses and and buffalo and traditional farmers working out in the heat gathering crops, drying tobacco leaves in huge thatched huts.

Tobacco leaf drying huts.

The cycle takes us about 40 minutes. We get as near as we can without paying for entry and take some photos – it’s a huge colourful mural painting of evolution on the side of a rock face. When we realise we are being bitten to smithereens by mosquitos we hop back on the bikes and head back into town.

Painting of Evolution

On the way we stop off at a café filled with locals and grab some lunch and coffee. We pop in to the casa, and get asked to move rooms as they want to paint the room we stayed in last night, so we move our stuff across. We then cycle in the other direction for a good hour and a half, towards cuevos Indios. Once we arrive we are so hot and sweaty we sit in the car park bar and have a cold drink. A man next to us is drinking a beer with a live plucked chicken under his arm. We go into the vast limestone cave with a tour guide, and go on a little boat ride inside the cave too. It was discovered in the 1920s by some local farmers.

We cycle back and go into the casa for a shower, then, after spraying a load of deet, walk into the village to find some dinner.

The bike ride back to the Casa.

We have a big bowl of pasta each and some crepes, then sit in the main plaza while the sun goes down. We walk back to the casa. Josh is planning on taking us out on the bikes to take some photos of the night sky tonight, but we have sat down in the air conditioning now so we will see!

This is my favourite day so far; the Vinales valley really is so picturesque!

(Written in retrospect)

… We didn’t venture out, Josh said the moon was too high and bright for him to do the star photos he was planning. Instead we did some much needed self care – an epilation station! I did my legs and then Josh asked me to do his back and shoulders. I meaaannnn it demonstrated to me that the rumours are true, women have a higher pain threshold than men! He was flapping around like a freshly caught fish, hahaha!! But he did persevere as he wants to make sure his tan(!) is even… very important stuff!