THURSDAY 27TH

It feels very cold and although I thought the sun was shining when I first awoke the sky is very cloudy, but it is only 8am. Keith complains it is noisy and only 7am. After much discussion he finds his watch has changed to a different time zone and the summer button has somehow got turned off. There was no mention of the alarm going off! Still refusing to get out of bed whilst I took a cold shower (solar heating – no sun) and stating he hadn’t brought any warm clothing the air conditioning until sprang into life. Does it have a voice control and the word ‘warm’ begin the operation? Not so as it immediately shut down. It doesn’t matter – I do believe the sun is trying to make an appearance.

The topic of conversation over a good breakfast was Diane (Paisley lady) having a frog land on her face during the night. As she told Mary Jane about it Mary Jane’s concerned response was “Didn’t you kiss it?” I asked she was referring to a Frenchman, but Diane said “Do you think I would confess if it had been!” By the time we had eaten there was a little warmth in the sun but the strong wind kept the temperature down.

According to our itinerary this morning we visit a cave and take an underground boat trip. I fear there will be no early drinking today! Wrong and I missed out as I thought there was no alcohol in the sugar cane drink taken whilst watching a demonstration of extracting the juice. We were in a lovely setting close to ‘Indian Cave’ where I wandered over to a floral area close to the steps leading up to the cave. Half way up the steps a man serenaded us with his Opera style voice whilst strumming a guitar. Keith was busy filming him whilst holding on to his plastic beaker of alcohol, having let me have a taste, so we missed an opportunity to take a photo of a small iridescent green humming bird hovering over the ginger plants. Large turkey vultures also flew along the cliff face but once again too fast and blending in with the landscape to capture on film.

Climbing the steps the entertainer had his CD and tip saucer on display. Before entering the cave entrance Humberto once again told us to watch our step and our head. Some nice rock formations en route to the boat station and we did have to watch our head on the stalactites. Boarding the boat Keith and I sat in the front facing backwards which was awkward to look at some of the formations pointed out by the boatman. Humberto was right in that we should have vivid imaginations as the boatman pointed out the elephant, the snake, crocodile and the Pilgrim Fathers 3 boats.

Back to the coach and time for a Pina Colada stop at Cuba’s largest open air art gallery. According to Mary Jane this is the best Pina Colada place, so orders were taken before we disembarked. It was at this point that I realised that less hands were going up for non alcohol, although she had stated it was just as good without the rum! After we slurped a few inches we were allowed to add the rum which improved the drink no end, Humberto informing us that we only get to do this at Pina Colada bars. However if at any time we don’t think we have enough rum in our drink we only have to ask for more.

The art gallery turned out to be a blot on the landscape as far as I was concerned. In 1960 a large part of a cliff face had been stripped of vegetation and painted with a scene depicting prehistoric man and animals, but according to one travel book this was ‘the most beautiful piece of art in Cuba’. I think the author needs to get to Specsavers!

Back on the coach to Vinales so we can take a walk down the main street before returning to our hotel.

Rather than have a snack in our hotel we chose to sit at a bar above our hotel, painted in the same colour pink as the hotel, and the waiters wearing the same bright green waistcoats. This is a tourist viewpoint with souvenir stalls where the owners sat huddled in thick coats due to the cold wind that was still blowing up the valley. It was also an opportunity for an old man to make a fortune by charging people to sit on his bull to have a photo. It was a very busy area with more classic cars coming and going, and people walking along a track behind the wire fence. Again as we sat we had sparrows, chickens and dogs looking for scraps, the chickens appearing healthier than the dogs.

3pm some of us accompanied Mary Jane and Humberto for a walk in the valley. By now it was lovely and warm and we began our journey at the baseball ground. The small houses, (some with a deep blue ‘umbrella’ sign over their door indicating foreigners can stay in their house), with lovely gardens and nearly always a couple of rocking chairs on the porch were delightful. One was named after our current favourite drink ‘Mojito’ whilst most had the owners’ Christian names on the signs.

We walked along a wide track of deep red soil looking at the flowers and trying to see the birds singing in the hedges and trees. Our walk lead us to a small tobacco farm where harvesting of the leaves was just beginning. The leaves were being placed tightly in pairs over a thick pole which was then transferred into a large shed for several weeks to dry. These would then be graded and a price paid to the farmer by the Government. (There is also a lot of co-operative farming in Cuba and I wanted to know who got to drive the tractor if they had one.) We made our way to a cluster of buildings and were invited into the farmer’s house where his wife began to make coffee for us. Her husband arrived and sitting at the large table he produced some tobacco leaves and set about rolling a cigar whilst we enjoyed our expresso coffee. When the cigar was ready we were invited to take a puff of it. Keith took just the one, but it was Ellen (Dutch lady) who finished it – she’s becoming quite a character. Mary Jane sat in the rocking chair on the porch and showed me photos of her 6 week old granddaughter, Isabella, who weighed in at 9lbs 5ozs. When everyone was ready and Mary Jane had discretely handed over a bag of soaps and toiletries we had collected from the ‘Occidental’ we walked around some of the other buildings coming across a lovely pig with her piglets. Keith paid a visit to the farmer’s loo and rated it -25 (Mary Jane rates the loos for us before we alight at a convenience stop which usually has a bar too.) He said it was a wooden plank with a hole sawn in the centre placed over a large concrete tank over what he thought was a bottomless hole. The smell was terrible but it was the width of the plank which made it difficult to hit the hole. He said he started off okay but as his bladder emptied he couldn’t reach the hole. He was just thankful the wind was blowing so the wooden seat would soon dry!

We came across the dog guarding a large pile of palm leaves that will be used to rethatch a building, all homesteads having this lovely backdrop of limestone ‘mogotes’. (These formations reminded me of Halong Bay in Vietnam.) The countryside was such a colourful place with several fields or patches of blue Ageratums that the farmers class as a weed. We had to regularly step aside to allow horseman to pass.

5pm we were back in the town and now the empty baseball field was full of youngsters practising not only baseball but football too, whilst across the road men filled the bar spreading out into the late sunshine with very old fashioned bicycles parked close by. The evening life was beginning in the town with musicians taking up space on verandas of the more up market eating places. Keith and I would have loved to have stayed on but we had entertainment in the hotel tonight and it is also a long walk home.

After we had eaten and was partaking of the excellent mojitos in the upstairs bar Esme asked if we would join them downstairs as there was hardly any spectators in the bar area where the Fire Eaters would be performing. We had already told them that the last time we saw fire eaters in a hotel, they set fire to the curtains thus ending the show! The show had just begun with a colourful trio performing a tribal dance, whilst a blind man sitting in a chair was singing and playing the bongos. One of the men came amongst us and touched each one of our heads with a bunch of artificial greenery – god knows what for! Thankfully the show didn’t last long concluding with a fire eater who ran sticks of burning wood over his body and down his trousers illuminating the area of his private parts! We certainly needed another mojito after that performance. Whilst we finished our cocktail the entertainers came upstairs to be fed – the restaurant now being closed to guests. The ‘blind man’ hung around the entrance watching a programme on the flat screen TV. He looked so convincing downstairs!