Vinales

First came the tornedo that ripped through Havana barely five days after we left.  Now I read that a meteor fell from the sky on to the tranquil little town of Vinales, Cuba, two weeks to the day after we were there.  I remember that Friday from the moment we boarded the bus out of Havana until the hour we stood in the rain, two days later, waiting for the Viazul line to take us back.  I will never forget Vinales. One lovely moment flowed effortlessly to the next moment of everything we did there.

If drama can be quiet then this is what Vinales is.  There is no wonder that it was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 1999. The flat verdant valley with deep coral dirt is perfect for growing tobacco. And this town is where it’s at: the best tobacco in the world is grown right here in Vinales. Looking over the landscape you will see cows at their ease and the slow movement of locals on horseback. Throughout are traditional peasant farms that still use traditional farming methods. .  The flat valley is filled with knolls, or hills, with rounded tops and deep slopes. It seems as if they were pushed straight up out of the ground below. They remind me of the mesas that grace our landscape in New Mexico. But, unlike our mesas, they are covered in trees and green vegetation on their rounded tops and deep slopes. This is Cuba’s best rural landscape.

The little town of Vinales rises to the occasion and paints their traditional architecture in varying bright and pretty colors. Every other home has a shingle hanging outside beckoning you to come in and stay the night.

The room where we stayed our first night in Vinales was set apart from the house. It was at the very end of the road that did twists and turns until you got to very end. The last group of homes looked out over the fields and on to the hills. I sat in the morning looking out over those fields. I was enjoying one of those most wonderful Cuban breakfasts with the freshest of tropical fruit. Breakfast there was a pause in time. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, pretty much the whole time I was there. No one seemed in a hurry. Neither the cows in the fields nor the birds overhead. I was caught up in it and was definitely in no hurry myself.

Our first night in Vinales our hostess called a taxi to pick us up and take us to Restaurant El Paraiso. We road in many old cars while in Cuba, but this may have been the oldest for us. It was a 1948 Ford and I couldn’t help but take a picture. It’s not unusual to see lids opened on the side of the road and heads bent solving mechanical problems. “Do you like my car”, the driver asked as I hopped in. I told him I liked it a lot. “I’ll sell it to you” he said.

Just before leaving home, I had come across some information about the restaurant/farm, El Paraiso, on the internet. It is an organic farm and all the food in the restaurant is farm to table. This is our view from the restaurant our first evening there. I’ll write more about it in a later post about organic farming in Cuba.

I asked our hostess when we arrived at our rental if there was someone who could be our guide for a hike. The next morning Juan, her son, was there at 8:00 am. He turned out to be the perfect guide. He was a university student, home for the weekend and our guide for the next two and a half hours. We met several locals along the way, including his god father. The last stop on the hike was a tobacco farm. They rolled the tobacco and gave each of us a cigar to smoke.

Before leaving New Mexico,  I rented an AirBnB room in Vinales. It was only available for one night.  My hope was that we would arrive in Vinales early and leave late the next day.  But the only buses returning to Havana left very early in the morning. Even the taxi that our Havana host could arrange for us left early in the morning.  I knew that we would have too little time to do all the things we wanted to do. Staying two night was the only option. I was super lucky to find two seats on the return bus that would leave the day after we planned..  So I took my chances, reserved the seats. We checked out of our Airbnb after our hike and walked the long, picturesque unpaved road back toward the center of town. We were in search of a room for that night.

I stopped at a home with sign for a room for rent. They showed me a spotless room, set apart from the house, with white beds and a remodeled bathroom. I loved it.  We made the deal and for fifteen dollars we had our home for the night and more time to enjoy Vinales, (Take note: make your reservations with Viazul several days in advance. Seats fill up fast).

That afternoon we toured the streets of Vinales, sipped mojitos and later went for the view at Hotel Jasmine on the road out of Vinales.

In the evening we watched them bring chairs from the restaurants out on to the main street. There was a live band setting up at each end of this main strip. We listened to music, took our time and finally settled on the porch of an outdoor restaurant that was full of people dancing in the street, and having their dinner outside.

Everything in Vinales seemed, pretty much the whole time I was there, to be in slow motion. No one seemed in a hurry. Neither the cows in the fields nor the birds overhead. I was caught up, too, in moving in happy ease from one moment to the next. Around four in the morning of our last night the downpour of rain began, as it will in the tropics. I knew that at seven we would have to walk out our door into the rain to catch the bus. Still, I laid there in the dark, engulfed in peace. I will never go back to Cuba. But I will always know and will sometimes remember. On the island of Cuba is a green valley called Vinales where for two full days I was at perfect peace, totally content.