Wednesday, January 7, 2015

To Viñales

The day after Christmas, Brian and I headed to the bus terminal. We weren't going to catch a bus - we knew it was already full - but to take a taxi to Viñales. It still seems crazy to take a 100 mile taxi ride, but in Cuba it's easily done. It wasn't like a yellow cab with a ticking meter. Our taxi was a 10 year old Datsun with a cracked windshield, a wooden doorknob for a gear shift handle, and no seatbelts in the back. A pair of fuzzy dice would have made it just perfect.

The casa particular we had in Viñales was like the boutique hotel of casas. It was a new house with a big balcony, rooftop deck and gourmet meals.



Viñales is a little tourist town in a valley in the westernmost province of Cuba, Pinar del Rio. This area produces more tobacco than any other single region in the world, and the best of it, at least according to people who live there, is grown in Viñales. There are no big hotels here, but every other house rents out rooms to visitors who come to enjoy the outdoors. Tourists and locals don't really interact in Viñales, but seem to happily coexist. 



We thought we'd enjoy a quiet stop after Havana, but the street was full of horse carts, classic cars, farmers towing vegetables on their bikes, huge tour buses and women walking under umbrellas to stay out of the sun. And there were taxis, too, in various states of repair. Maybe some had fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.

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About Me

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Thanks for coming to my blog. It started as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, and now has become an ongoing project. I'm an American living in Germany and trying to travel whenever I can. I write about my experiences as an expatriate (the interesting ones and the embarrassing ones), and about my travels. There are some recurring characters in this blog, particularly my husband Brian and several of our friends. The title comes from the idea that living in a foreign country means making a lot of mistakes. So the things you used to do easily you now have to try over and over again. Hopefully, like me, you can laugh at how idiotic it feels. If you have happened upon my blog, then welcome. Knowing that people are reading what I write makes me keep going. Feel free to write comments or suggestions for future posts.