Day 2 in the Vinales Valley, Nov 5

After a night’s sleep, we’re up bright and early for another adventurous day!  Our Host has breakfast ready promptly at 7:00 AM as we requested.  The table is spread with omelets, fruit plates, meats, juice and rich Cuban coffee.  Our palates satiated, we get our gear ready for the day and Humberto is right on time at 7:30 AM with our taxi for the day.  Today our ride is a “Modern” taxi.  This just means it’s not a classic car.  It was some form of international Toyota product that was many years old, well worn, yet comfortable for our 1.5 hour ride.  So we chat and joke with Humberto and his driver, sometimes using our technology (We call it ‘Uncle Google’) for the more difficult words.  Humberto speaks pretty good English, however some colloquialisms and expressions need a bit of help.  After an educational and entertaining ride, we arrive at another tobacco farm where we’ll spend our day, “Living Like a Cuban”.

The farmer meets us outside and brings us in and introductions all around let us know his name is Omar and his wife is Mirella.  We get a tour of their Casa, simple yet quite functional.  Omar takes us outside and shows up one of his 6 tobacco barns.  A flock of turkeys greets us along with the family pig.  Omar shows us how he milks his goat while Mirella cleans and peels Yucca Roots for lunch.  We get a lesson in how to hang tobacco to dry from Omar.

Omar and I hit it off great and chat with each other like old friends!  Even though we don’t speak each others languages, that is what Humberto is for.  Omar and I chat with each other as Humberto stands to the side and translates.  It’s a great experience!  You’d never know there was a language barrier as Omar and I make eye contact with each other and converse.  We talk about what his life is like and how he manages all of the challenges of his day.  He takes us around the farm, across fields of newly planted tobacco, rice and other crops.  We watch workers as they plant the fields one plant at a time.  It is clearly a very difficult lifestyle.  He takes us to see a tree that they consider Holy.  We never understand the whole description, but we think this is a place they come for reverence.  Omar’s brother meets up with us.  He wears two hearing aids because he is almost completely deaf.  We relax in the shade of another tobacco barn for a brief respite from the extreme humidity.  I can’t imagine what it is like here in the hot months.  this is November!

Omar then takes us to see his water pump.  To us it is just a small diesel engine attached to a pipe.  Rustic at best.  But Omar is proud of it and I suddenly realize that this pump is a huge reason that Omar can run his farm and pump the water where he needs it and I understand!  We then walk across a couple more fields and we come across a very large stack of wood, stacked like a bonfire would be.  It is described to us as a ‘charcoal’ stack.  These stacks of wood, approximately 10-15 feet in diameter and 4-6 feet high are then covered with palm leaves a foot thick and 1-2 feet of mud on top of that.  Then, through a hole they make, the pile is ignited and it smolders for several days.  The resulting product is charcoal, a necessary item as we will soon discover.  Walking on, we come to small covered circle buildings and we are told they are for ‘cock fights’ but they are no longer used.  However, I can’t help but notice that they are in a well maintained condition.  It makes one wonder, but the farmer assures us that cock fights are a thing of the past.  Moving on, he takes us to watch his worker milk a cow.  Seems like a simple thing.  But they have to bring a calf the cow gave birth to yesterday close to the cow or the cow won’t give up it’s milk.  Interesting, I don’t know the science behind that!

Ok, we’ve been walking around in the heat and humidity all morning.  Omar tells us it is time for lunch and he departs from us to go help his wife.  We walk around for a few more minutes and take some more photos while our guide, Humberto, tells us more history of the farm.  We then arrive back at Omar’s Casa and we sit down to a lunch spread that would make a hungry army happy!  Here we see the need for charcoal as everything that is cooked is on a homemade charcoal stove.  There is no such thing as natural gas or propane here.  They do have electricity, but it is limited and is never used for stoves.  a couple light bulbs in the place is all.  I do notice they have a small deep freeze and I surmise that is their largest appliance and quite a valuable one at that!

The heat and humidity not only have worn us down, but Omar is also susceptible to the elements.  After lunch, Omar declares that it is too hot to return to work!  (I have to wonder what his workers are told!)  So he tells us it is time to play Dominos!  A custom Dominos Table (think of a Scrabble Table with built in trays to hold the pieces) is brought out and set up.  Cigars and Honey Cups are supplied and the Game is Afoot!  Omar and Humberto teach us the rules of this simple childhood game.  But Strategies and procedures are also taught to us and a fairly intense game takes off!  Teams consisting of my wife and I vs Omar and Humberto soon reveals this game is more than we thought!  Loss after loss brings me to challenge a team change.  So now it is Humberto and my wife vs Omar and I.  Ok, now the teams are more even!  Omar ‘High-Fives’ me on regular occasion as we become the dominant team and it is clear Omar is quite good at this!  It reminds me of ‘Card-Counting’ Poker Players in Las Vegas.  There are a certain quantity of each Domino Chip and that plays a big part in the game.  Also, Omar teaches us different Strategies for opening, playing and closing the game!  Did you know Dominos was that complex?  One more thing, did you know that an official Dominos Set has numbers up to 9 dots per chip?  And Double 9’s?  Wow, quite the afternoon of spirited play and a great time was had by all…..

Oh, did I mention that Omar had Cigars to sell also?  Oh but he did!  And I liked yesterday’s cigars better, but Omar’s were really smooth ang good also!  So I was presented with cigars from Omar and I bought another 2/3 of my allotment from Omar.  But not to worry, I will smoke the extra 1/3 while I’m in Cuba!  Ok, it’s time to depart!  It is with heavy heart that we get back in our taxi and say goodbye to Omar and Mirella!  They have poured out their hearts to us and made us feel welcome in their home!  But we get in the taxi with our memories and start heading back to our Casa in Vinales.  But wait!  Our day is not done yet!  There are still places to visit on our tour for the day!  We heard about a river cave that is an astounding find and our guide knows we want to see it!  So we arrive at the Cave and go in.  Wow.  Just Wow.  An Underground Cave with Boats to take us through!  Got to do this!

So that was fun!  But there is one more thing we want to see before we go back.  We heard about a painted cliff on a Mogote that is fun to see!  Our guide knows about it and takes us to a lookout point where we can see it.  Supposedly, an artist friend of Diego Rivera painted this in 1961 and the colors have survived the years!  Fun stuff!  Even more so because we have visited Diego Rivera’s house in Alcapulco, Mexico!

Ok,  hang out with a local farmer, check.  Tourist sights, check.  Cave, check.  Time to go back to town.  Humberto takes us back to our Casa and lightens our wallet a bit more.  But it is budgeted and we have had a good day!  We relax in our Casa for an hour or so and it’s time to go into town and find dinner.  We ate with our Casa Family last night.  We want to find a local restaurant tonight, aka a ‘Paladar’.  The Main street is lined with places to see and eat at.  But wait, it is sunset time and we aren’t hungry yet!  Let’s find a rooftop bar and have a drink!  Yeah, that’s the ticket!  Ok, here’s one!  So we go upstairs and sit and chill.  Specifically, a chill Cerveza and a Mojito!  But you forget, I’m a photographer.  And it’s sunset.  Got to take a few shots.  Fun stuff.

First day in the Valley, Sunday, Nov 4

Wow, our Casa Particular in Vinales is nicer than I thought it would be.  Our Host family seems nice and accommodating, even some English spoken!  We’ll leave our bags with them and we’re off with our Tour Guide, Humberto for a tour of Vinales.  Let’s go!

First stop, Lunch!  Humberto assigns us to a friend of his for the day as he has another tour to attend to. All is good.  We are taken to a local “Paladar”, a locally owned and operated restaurant.  Ladera del Valle is an open air building with no windows.  No Glass windows, that is.  We will soon learn that glass is an expensive commodity that is not afforded by many except the rich and the government.

But all is ok.  We’re here to live like locals today and tomorrow.  It is hot and humid, almost uncomfortably so.  The worker in the restaurant (I’d like to call her a waitress, but it appears that the 2 or 3 people that work here do everything necessary to run the place.) turns on a fan and points it in our direction and the breeze feels good.  We attempt to navigate the Spanish Only menu when a thought hits me.  I am not bothered by almost any food, so I ask our guide to order a Cuban meal for us.  He proceeds to order plates of pulled pork, fried plantains and Cuba’s famous Rice & Black Bean Soup.

The food is delicious!  The meat is cooked on outdoor BBQ’s, just like we’d do at home.  We chow down accompanied by a cold Cerveza and a Mojito for my wife.  The meal is more than satisfying.

Ok, full bellies and ready for an adventure!  We start hiking from the restaurant, down this dirt trail, somewhat muddy at times, but scenic.  The ground reminds me of Georgia clay, bright red.  My shoes will be permanently stained, a memento to take home!

Lush vegetation fills our vision dotted with occasional flowers that are unique to this area.  A roaming cow and horse from the farm we are approaching are grazing along the trail.  We get our first glimpse of the “Mogotes”, the hills in the valley that seem to rise straight up out of nowhere.  The reality is the valley was eroded away over time and left the Mogotes standing.  We approach the farm and are greeted by a friendly farmer, his wife, and his young daughter climbing a guava tree.  The farmhouse has windows, but no glass, like the restaurant we had lunch in.  We didn’t notice at the restaurant, but the farmhouse has wooden shutters to cover the windows at night and in storms.  It is obvious that they don’t actually seal the window, just sort of cover it for the most part.

We walk with the farmer where one worker is sharpening a machete (hopefully not because the tourists have arrived!) and watch as another changes a horseshoe that has worn out on one of the horses.  We go inside his tobacco barn and are shown how the tobacco is dried and taken care of.  Then he sits us down on a bench in the barn and hands me a cigar and I light up my first cigar in over 20 years.  I stopped smoking cigars a long time ago because I just didn’t like them.  They are just too harsh!  However, just before he offers me a light, he puts a small bowl of honey down and shows me how local Cubans dip the end in honey and then light it.

Wow!  That’s all I can say for a moment, Wow!  Along with the Honey Trick, the farmer also shows us how they strip the central vein out of the tobacco leaf where 98% of the nicotine is.  Then they proceed to crush and roll the cigar without the noxious nicotine that makes a cigar harsh.  But don’t worry, friends, if you even get a chance to buy Cuban cigars that are packaged and banded, you are getting 100% of that horrible nicotine experience!

This is because the tobacco farmers are forced to sell 90% (not a typo) of their tobacco to the government, which in turn crushes & rolls up 100% of the tobacco leaf and turns it into Cuban cigars for profit!  So, unless you get Cuban cigars straight off a farm in Cuba from the farmer, you are not getting what has to be the smoothest cigars anywhere!  For the record, I bought 2/3 of my allowable limit from this guy!

Then the Farmer gives a leaf to my wife and she strips the central vein out of it like a pro!  The leaf is passed to me and I get to roll this one into a finished cigar!  One leaf, one cigar.  I like the math!  Twist up the end into a ‘pigtail’ and voila, it’s a cigar!  Don’t try to smoke it for at least a month, I’m told.  Let it dry out.  But not too much.  That is what Humidors are for.  Might have to get me one of those!  In the meantime, ziplock bags (which I have been traveling with for many years because they just come in handy for packing and even those times when you have to move from one place to another with wet swim trunks?  But here I go digressing again!) will have to do along with a refrigerator when we can find it and then back at home.

So, if you want to smoke the best Cuban cigars in the world, you have two options.  1.) Go to Cuba and spend some time with the tobacco farmers.  2.)  Come visit me and sit a spell.  Perhaps I’ll pull out a couple of the good ones!

We proceed to go back to the farmers house where his wife treats us with real Cuban coffee, rich and full of flavor!  This day is only getting better by the minute!  The farmer presents me with a pack of cigars and I am given a price.  So, many dollars poorer, but many cigars richer, we sit and visit with the farmer and his wife!  Then we go outside where a farmhand is saddling up the horses, our transportation for the rest of the afternoon.

I climb onto my first horse in probably 15 plus years and I’m a bit nervous.  But not to worry, it just like riding a bicycle, right?  It turns out it is just like riding a horse!  But I have ridden horses many dozens of times in my life, so this turns out to be fun!  My horse, “Mojito”, aptly named, is lively yet clearly a trail horse.  He loves to lead the pack but is equally comfortable with following.  Getting him next to the lead horse is the most fun because he is competitive and starts to compete for the lead.  But hey, what is it with trail horses around the world?  If your horse is not leading, it follows with its nose stuck to the tail of the horse in front of it.  Don’t horses know it’s not nice to ‘tailgate’?

The trail through the valley was spectacular!  Dark red soil, lush vegetation, Mogotes on every horizon, quaint farmhouses and tobacco barns around every turn.  Horseback riding, as fun as it is, I couldn’t help but think to my dirt bike riding days.  A throttle would be nice on this thing!  I’d be like, “Come on Mojito, pick up this pace!”  And Mojito would be like, “Chill, Rider, I’ll get you there at MY pace!”  So we ride at Mojito’s pace and check out the scenery and the Mogotes!

So after a couple hours of riding, we arrive at a Sugar Cane Farm and dismount for a visit.  Oxen are commonly used here to work the fields and, of course, every farmer has a tobacco barn.

We first notice the working kitchen at the farm, consisting of a charcoal stove table where all the cooking is done.  Strolling outside, we see coffee beans ripening on the bushes, an old fashioned, yet working plow that is used to this day to till the fields.  We come across coffee beans drying in the sun and horses tied randomly to places where the workers intend to get back on them.  And, of course, the ‘Parking Lot’ where my ‘Mojito” is resting with the other steeds!

So after visiting with the local farmers and finding myself a few more dollars poorer after buying a water bottle filled with local coffee beans that I wonder if I can bring back home, I take some fun photos that the locals are thrilled for me to take.  They have shown us how they crush the sugar cane and extract the juice.  Then they made us rum drinks using the sugar cane (which I’m sure was designed to loosen our wallets so we would buy their wares!) and we sat and chatted with our guide over very sweet and cold drinks in the hot humid weather.  After a relaxing time at the sugar cane farm, we mount our trusty steeds once more and ride off in the sunset past more Mogotes and we finally dismount our horses on a lonely trail a mile or so from the farm we started at and Mojito and his pals trot happily off towards the farm they call home, all by themselves!  We find our next ride back to our Casa waiting for us (a welcome relief), a 1956 Chevy in pretty decent shape!

We ride back the few miles to our Casa and bid our guide goodbye.  Oh, right, pay him for the day too.  Now with my wallet getting lighter, but happily so because so far, we’re not overspending our budget, even with the couple of glitches we have experienced.  I did plan for a few spending errors.  And we are a bit hungry and a little sore from being on horseback all afternoon.  But we have enough energy to take a walk into town, a mere 3 blocks away.  I manage to find a place where I can buy some internet cards because our host has told us he has WiFi and I need to contact my Cuban “Hero” that helped me put my trip together and inform her of the no-show taxi this morning and try to make sure it doesn’t occur again.  Because two mornings from now we are scheduled to take a booked taxi on an all day trip (several hundred miles) to our next destination.  We then make it back to our Casa where our host has dinner ready.  What a marvelous spread her mom has made for us! 

Ok, things are improving as it concerns our well being and our travel plans.  We have had a wonderful day!  Top it off with a home cooked Cuban meal by the Grandmother of the Children of our Host, LOL.  But the meal was delicious! (I have to admit that I augmented it with a small bottle of hot sauce I brought from home, but only because I love spice!  Cuban food is basically bland, but that only refers to their spice levels, not their overall flavor!)

Ok, dinner has been consumed.  Time to relax and retire for the evening.  But wait, there is more to explore!  Our host asks if we want to enjoy the rooftop patio because he can leave the lights on.  I tell him ‘no, do not leave the lights on, we want to drink a cervesa and maybe enjoy a cigar and look at the stars!  Leave the lights off!  But I DO ask him for a small cup of honey and a lighter.  His wife obliges me and I climb to the roof (an easy set of stairs) with the obligatory camera gear, cervesa, and cigar and honey supplies and begin to kick back for some relaxation and camera fun.  My wife joins me but retires before I get really into my Astro Photography.  Perhaps this photo will be worth it?  Should I send it to my host?

Ok, get some sleep Don!  Tomorrow will come soon!  Oh wait, it’s here now?  It’s after midnight?  By how many hours?  Darn…  Better get to bed!  Humberto will be picking us up at 7:30 AM!  Good thing our host will have breakfast ready at 7 AM!  I like this “Breakfast at our Casa thing”!  What happened in Habana???  Ok, ok, haul the camera rig down the stairs and go to bed!  Goodnight all !!!

Why do I travel?  That is the question.  Why don’t I just sit at home and browse the internet?  Why get in that plane after spending outrageous amounts of money that could easily buy more real estate or even help make my kids richer upon my demise?  Why pull on a wetsuit and fall backwards out of that Panga (Zodiac) Boat, holding my snorkel mask to my face and holding my breath while feeling that exhilarating thrill that goes through you as you are underwater and telling yourself to get back to the surface and get your snorkel cleared?

Why force myself to wake up at ungodly hours and drag myself into the shower, exhausted from yesterdays activities?  Why did I arrange for the Safari vehicle to pick me up at 4:30 AM when there is perfectly good sleeping hours ahead?  And after riding in an uncomfortable vehicle for over an hour, what the hell is this???  An elephant, rearing up and looking like she is going to charge us???  Get me out of here!!!  Oh, wait, look, we’re moving away (wipes brow, now completely awake).  Her babies were on the other side of our Jeep.  We watch, enraptured, as Mom elephant and babies are reunited again.  Beautiful.  No, not beautiful, Phenomenal.  No, not Phenomenal.  Words can’t describe it.  Only being there to witness it in person can.  Those who will not, or cannot, will never know the beauty of this day!

(Scratches head and tries to figure out what brought on this memory of Africa)  Back to getting my snorkel cleared.  Not only did I willingly go under water where all kinds of creatures, both friendly looking and otherwise were all around me, the beauty takes over the mind and senses.  Wait, is that, wow, it is….  Should I be here?  I should swim away now.  But…  It’s beautiful…  Look at the white tips on its fins… Damn, Don, point the frickin’ camera, will you?  What are you waiting for?  You brought this complete underwater camera housing for a reason!  Now use it like you mean it!  Whoa, I can’t fill the frame.  I need to get closer.  This is soooo cool!  Yes, swim a bit closer.  Hold the camera still.  Damn it surf, slow down.  Hard to hold the camera still…Try harder.  Yes, that’s it, breathe slower, that’s better.  Got too excited is all.  Darn it, his head’s in the shadows.  Take photos anyway.  This is the coolest thing!  It’s a White Tipped Shark, sleeping on the bottom.  Yes, I said a SHARK, sleeping on the bottom.  BOOM!  I’m awake for sure now!

Okay, back to ‘Why do I travel?’  I guess I’m sort of an adrenaline junkie.  Not!  Ask my friends, I’m really a wimp at heart.  But that, that last thing, the thing with the shark.  Now that was cool.  That’s why I travel.  You can see that at home?  Of course you can!  But you can’t see it from your living room.  Not up close and personal at least!

And the Sea Turtles.  How do you describe a Sea Turtle?  Oh, I know, just Google it.  There.  You can see a photo of a Sea Turtle from the comfort of your living room.  In your pajamas.  Or maybe, okay, I won’t go there….  They are Pretty.  Exciting.  Amusing.  Graceful.  Oh wait, you only saw Pretty.  Because you cant SEE Exciting.  Or Amusing.  Or Graceful.  Not on the internet anyway.  To SEE those things, you have to be there.  Right there.  In the water with them.  There is nothing that can take that from you.  And nothing that you can understand without being there.

How about Sea Lions?  You can see them on the internet.  They are fun to watch!  But that is it, fun to watch.  Why do I say it like that?  Because I mean what I say.  You can watch all the videos you like of Sea Lions and they’re fun to watch.  But now put yourself in the water (with a good camera rig, I hope) and watch one swim up in the wild and play with you!  Yes, I mean “play with you”!  Swimming fast around you, nosing up to your camera (and I swear they can smile, or is that just my imagination?).  Then they are gone.  For a couple of seconds.  Then they are back in your face and smiling at you again.  And then you hear the revving of the Panga engines, signaling the end of the snorkel adventure and your mind fights it.  NOOOO, I’m having too much fun!!!!!  Okay, there will be more fun tomorrow (sad face hopefully doesn’t show).  So you climb back into the Panga and share your adventure with your travel friends as well as you can!

An old friend who I stay in contact with today, it seems this person is quite skittish of a lot of adventurous things.  I had a crush on this person once (but then, I had crushes on a lot of people, LOL, including others that I am friends with today) a long time ago and as much as I still love this person as a friend today, I’m glad I found my adventurous love of my life when I did.  The world is my oyster!  Did I say oyster?  I hate, no I abhor oysters!  I even swallowed one once and I thought I was going to die!

But I digress.  This is about why I travel.  With 40 plus Countries under my belt, 7 Continents, 45 States in the USA, there is so much more beauty in the world to see!  Even though I am new to Blogging, I hope to catch up all my fans on all my adventures.  Please stay tuned for articles with photos attached.  I am a photographer by trade, so my blog text may appear dry at times.  My photos, if you are ever interested, are available as wall art or any other purpose you may like.  Please get permission before reproducing any of them.