vinales to maria la gorda

25 october 2012

we were just at the bar at the hotel in maria la gorda smoking cigars with women from france, new zeland and lithuania and a man from uk, and one woman said that she likes to think about her top 10 moments of each day while traveling.  she asked what our favorite moment of today was and here are mine.  i have 2.

smoking my first cuban cigar on a tobacco farm in vinales.  that was so awesome.

my second moment was during the drive from vinales to maria la gorda.  i'm driving the rental car on a 2 lane road.  there's an old soviet era truck in front of me belching stinky black smoke and i want to pass him.  there's a giant tractor pulling a trailer in front of him.  coming from the other direction is a team of oxen pulling a cart and a man on a horse.   bicycles and hitchhikers are on both sides of the road.  i can't think of a time when i've been in a traffic jam with that many different modes of transportation.  

last nite we went to the only nite club in vinales, an outdoor bar with a stage and cuban band.  the music was great and everyone was salsa dancing like professionals, it was very intimidating.  after turning down a few guys one in particular wouldn't take no for an answer, ivan, a giant black man with short dreads, so i danced with him.  he was very patient with me and went through the basic steps and it was a lot of fun.  the daiquiris helped too, they aren't like the ones at home but rum and sugar and that seemed to be about all.  

there was also a man in some sort of tribal wear that danced a bit during the band's intermission, then he walked around with fire sticks.  some he'd put out in his mouth, some in his hands, and others he'd put down the front of his pants and wave them around until the fire burnt out.  seriously weird.

today was great.  julianna and i got up and had another interesting cuban breakfast at our casa particular (mercy's house), then were off to our bike tour.  we got squeaky old mountain bikes and waited for the rain to pass.  the weather and terrain seemed very much like kauai in vinales, palms, bananas, coffee, guava, mangos, red dirt, mountains, beautiful.  our group consisted of our cuban bike guide who looked like he'd never been on a bike in his life and 2 women from holland.  our first stop was at the tobacco farm, the farmer came out, said a few words, we went to the barn but it wasn't the season for harvesting or drying so we only really saw where they do these things.  then we sat down at a picnic table and watched the farmer hand roll a cigar, then he passed out one for each of us to smoke and his wife brought us coffee.  we sat at his house and smoked for about half an hour.  

the farmer didn't have electricity or running water but it seemed like a very pleasant place to live.

it had been raining on and off, thanks to hurricane sandy, so by the time we got back on our bikes everything was red mud and we were a mess.  i found it pretty amusing but i'm pretty sure i was the only one.  one of the women broke a slipper in the mud.  our next stop was a cave but we weren't really allowed to go in.  it started raining really hard so we hung out in the cave while our guide took our bikes into a giant puddle to get some of the mud off.  

next stop, a 'prehistoric' painting on the side of a mountain.  that's what they told us.  that's what the road sign says.  but really its a giant painting on the side of a mountain, sorta looks like it was done by a 3 year old with watercolors, of a couple dinosaurs and a person.  they repaint it every year.  

final stop was somewhat of a mystery, at a house with a chair full of bananas on the front porch, we stood there while our guide and another woman washed the mud off our bikes.  he told us to eat bananas, then after we ate them he told us what they cost.  we were there for about half an hour since there's no where to wash the bikes in town and he'd get in trouble if he brought back dirty bikes.

interesting, odd tour, lasted about 3 and a half hours.

after peeling layers of mud off of ourselves julianna and i got in the car and headed towards maria la gorda.  this is the place i picked for scuba diving, all the way on the south west point of the island.  the drive was incredibly beautiful, we drove through tiny towns that could have been out of the 50's, some places we were the only car among bikes and horses and oxen, some places had loads of old american cars, all places had hitchhikers.  its a very accepted form of travel here and everyone does it.  people stand on the side of the road everywhere and wave at you, and seem to get mad when we passed by.  our house mothers both told us not to stop for anyone but i really want to, i think it would make for a more interesting trip.  we don't need to stop for the guys with machetes but ladies and kids and old people, why not?

several times today i actually started laughing out loud and had to say out loud, holy shit i'm driving a car across cuba.  

we got turned around a few times but pulling over and yelling a town name at someone standing on the side of the road was usually enough to get us back on track.  nothing really eventful happened, lots of roaming cows and horses and pigs and oxen and again, breathtakingly beautiful scenery.  and lots of billboards with socialist propaganda.

we didn't have a reservation for anywhere to stay tonite, we were told that there was a casa owned by señor tomas and cookie (?) but they didn't have a phone.  or there was one hotel.  after 3 hours driving we came to the water, pure caribbean blue gloriousness.  not a single hotel or bar or anything on the beach for miles and miles.  we pulled over to take some pictures and an old woman and a little boy walked over to sell us dinner, turns out that she was friends with cookie.  she stands at that junction, you can turn right and go into a tiny pueblo that looks kinda sketch (where she lives), or you can turn left and after 9 miles of driving along the deserted beach you come to the only hotel on this part of the island.  she stops cars and looks for renters or just people to come have dinner.  we decided to check out the hotel first since it has the scuba shop and i wanted to sign up.

all of the hotels in cuba are national, meaning that all of the money goes directly to the government and they pay the workers a teensy little bit.  actually, that's how every occupation is here, farmers, landlords, gas station attendants, everyone.  the fact that there was one hotel here was a big deal since there aren't that many anywhere, with the exception of the major cities.  for $42 we got a room on the beach, and the hotel is the only building in sight.  its incredible.  anywhere else you can hardly see the water with all of the hotels, bars, boats, houses, whatever, but sitting on our porch there is nothing to see except water and sand.  dozens of miles of absolutely nothing else anywhere.  

i went to the scuba shop and was told that maybe we'd dive tomorrow, maybe not.  the hurricane brought some decent wind and they will decide in the morning, show up at 8:30 and see.  i washed my filthy bike clothes in the sink then we headed to dinner.  the hotel has a buffet and it was a pretty disappointing affair, so i'm thinking that we'll take a couple car loads of people we met and go to cookie's house for home cooked cuban goodness tomorrow.  we got a phone number from her for a woman who lives a few houses down, just call in advance and have her send one of her kids to cookie's house to get the phone.  brilliant.