I left my Havana casa early, since I didn't have a bus ticket and I had heard they sell out so I figured it would be a day of winging it to get where I needed to go. I didn't see a taxi on Malecon, so started walking for what might be my last early morning in Old Havana. Why is it that whenever I want to be left alone, I am approached endlessly with "Hey lady, taxi?" But when I need a taxi, there are none to be found? Finally, an old blue Dodge pulls up and I haggle from 10 CUC down to 3 to get to the Viazul tourist bus terminal. Luckily, I get a ticket on the next bus to Vinales for 12 CUC and off I go in less than an hour wait. Unfortunately, some opinionated A-hole from Israel sits next to me and proceeds to get in an argument with the girl in front of me about Palestinians and then tries to ask me "so what do you think about Baltimore?" I tell him I have no interest in discussing anything with a complete stranger who obviously is only interested in his own views and hearing himself talk. And then I told him if he kept it up, I would likely throw him out the bus window within minutes. He left me alone the rest of the trip.
The bus went through Las Terrazas and then Pinar del Rio before finally arriving in Vinales. I had decided not to book a casa particular in advance. Vinales is a small farming town, and as soon as the bus pulls up, there are lots of people trying to get you to their casas. I sit it out and wait for the hard selling ones to get to most of the tourists. One woman continues to bug me, saying something I can't understand and then raising her voice and shouting it over and over to me. I walk away, and a man comes over and is nicer and not pushy. I tell him I will take a look at the casa he is offering. He gets his bicycle and we walk behind the town to a woman's spot. It is quiet and nice for the quoted 10 CUC. But it is only available for one night before she is booked for a reservation. I am hesitant, (it is a pain to repack my backpack). She is sweet and can tell I am tired from the bus, so brings me a coffee and fresh fruit plate (all grown locally and very delicious). After a few minutes of rest, she brings me to her friend's house and it is absolutely perfect! El Bohio de Gloria, a spacious thatched roof rustic cabana in the backyard garden of a family's house, has its own porch and super comfortable rocking chairs to look over the garden and the farm fields to the mountains.
The owner is a doctor of ecology and university professor with two sweet children. There is even a sweet cat with one green eye and one blue eye who instantly takes to my lap as I sit and enjoy the hummingbirds and view. Ranchers occasionally ride through, greeting me warmly. I book it for two nights and ask for chicken dinner, since they are running around the backyard and at only 10 CUC per night, I want to give the family more money.
I picked a random road out of town and set off on a walk. The road quickly leads out into the countryside. Little colorful farmhouse by the side of the road, fields of flowers, banana and mango trees, coffee, and tobacco are all growing. Kids play and farmers tend to the fields. The air is fresh and clean, and I just love it. The area is also surrounded by limestone hills or mogotes. I knew there must be something noteworthy down this road based on the passing tour buses. I just enjoy the walk and scenery while greeting people along the road or outside their houses. 
I start getting tired and meet a guy on a bicycle from Mexico City. He convinces me to join him for a drink in Palenque, a bar inside a cave and walk back to town together. We exchange information in hopes of meeting up when I spend the day in Mexico City on my return flight home.Back to my wonderful casa, the family prepared the dinner I ordered. It is huge, even with my appetite! Chicken with vegetables and lemon, rice, beans with bananas, fried potatoes, mixed vegetables with pickles, sliced cucumber, chips, mango, and a delicious local cheese with marmalade for dessert! I sat on the porch rocking chair, enjoying the full moon and fireflies (the owners son showed me his that he caught and put in a cup with some leaves). They are bigger and brighter than the ones I grew up with... almost cicada sized. I start having thoughts about giving up my live and living like this forever.
The owner turns down the bed, makes sure I have extra blankets in case I get cold, removes a spider, and hangs mosquito netting. At night, he brings me chamomile tea to sip on my garden balcony. I fell asleep and awoke to the noises of horses, chickens, and pigs. Headed to town and buy a ticket to Maria la Gorda for diving the next day and a direct bus through Cubanacar to Trinidad the next day. The town is pretty small with lots of casa particulares. Horses and livestock often are seen, some being used as dump trucks or construction trucks. Tried to use the internet, to no avail. Give up and set off for a walk down another a random road out of town. Along the way, a farmer invites me to follow him down a dirt path. 
Eventually, it leads to a tobacco farm. They show me how they dry the tobacco in palm frond triangular structures and roll cigars. They use all natural ingredients such as honey instead of glue, and each is hand rolled using no machinery. I sit and have a cigar with the owner's son and then head back to walk further down the road, enjoying the views and waving hello to all the farmers.
Eventually, an 80 year farmer driving a big old tractor down the road stops and waves me up to ride along. I climb up into the tractor and head for a ways until he drops me at a crossroad of some tourist thing he thought I might want to see. I follow a sign and head off to see some prehistoric mural. Walking a bit more, I stop to take a picture of a farmer and his horse cart as he heads toward the road. He stops the cart and motions for me to jump on, so I catch a ride the rest of the way with him. 
The mural is big and takes up an entire limestone magote, but kind of silly. The admission guy waves me through since I didn't want to pay the 3 CUC (probably figured anyone that arrived by horse cart and didn't get not by tour bus or taxi couldn't afford 3 CUC). Read the background about the artist and headed back out.Along the way I see a sign for Mirador. Earlier, another tourist said they thought it was just a restaurant, but I decided to walk and investigate. Up at the top of a hill, the views were fantastic! I wouldn't really call it a restaurant. It was more of a lookout at someone's place. Chatted with a German couple over my mango smoothie and a guide said for 8 CUC each, he would take us to a hidden cave with swimming inside. Why not?Off we went. The guide grabbed his horse and we walked behind him. About a half hour (and many cool lizard sightings) later, we got to the cave opening and headed down on a ladder with headlamps. We get to water in the cave, and the guide starts taking off his boots and clothes and motions us to follow. This wasn't in my plan for the day and I am not wearing a bathing suit, but hey, why not strip to your underwear for a secluded private cave swim?
The water starts shallow, but gets deep pretty fast. We head through tunnels on almost darkness. The guide assures me there are only fish in the water (at one point, I almost freaked out until I realized the log was, in fact, NOT an alligator). It was quiet cool and refreshing. Later, we all head back. The guide insists I ride his horse, even though I try to explain that I am terrified of horses. I did pretty well for my first time (much better than my first camel ride in Egypt) and only screech in terror a few times. 
We enjoyed an afternoon mojito back at Mirador made with fresh mint and honey instead of sugar. And the Germans drive me back to town in time to shower and enjoy the garden with the cat purring away in my lap before enjoying another amazing and filling dinner of fish and fried plantains with garlic tomato sauce, soup, bread, salad, and fried bananas made by my casa family. The neighbor who owned another casa that brought me here came by to check up on me and invite me to salsa dancing, but I declined to get sleep before my early departure for diving. Enjoyed the evening watching the fireflies over the field from my porch.
The next morning, I head to Maria la Gorda for a day of beach, diving, and relaxation. It takes 3 hours to get there on the shuttle bus. We travel through many small towns and many small school kids raising the Cuban flag for what appears to be their Pledge of Allegiance. We finally get to the beach. It is only a natural reserve with one resort and no where else to stay (which was why I only did a day trip). The beach is beautiful with some tourists, but not too many. 
I run into the nice Israeli couple that checked into my casa in Havana the night before I checked out. They were staying at the resort and said it was 60 CUC a night and there hadn't been running water for showers or anything since they got there. I checked out the dive gear and the gear and boat appeared to be in good shape, so I signed up to dive. It is supposedly the best diving in Cuba, with over 60 nearby sites. The site we went to had great coral formations, but not a lot of fish or animals. I did see a nice lion fish, but that was about it. 
I was kind of annoyed, as the coral was in great shaped, but they bring these groups of brand new divers out there (one guy in my group had a total of 10 dives, including the dives needed to get his license). Part of the dive was to swim through small coral tunnel formations, and some divers clearly didn't have good buoyancy control before that point, and were bumping into all the coral, knocking large fan corals down. Huge pet peeve of mine.Afterward, one of the dive guides wanted to walk around the beach with me, but it looked pretty secluded and I got a weird vibe, so I declined. There were even more divers for the afternoon dive, so I decided not to do an afternoon dive.
Instead, they let me just go out on the boat and swim and snorkel while everyone dove. It was nice and relaxing. At 5, I catch the shuttle bus back to Vinales. My casa family has a special dinner waiting for me. Lobster, soup, rice, fried plantains, salad, and more cheese and homemade marmalade (which is apparently made with a special tree fruit kind of like a crab apple but looks like a cherry tomato that is grown by the wife's father).The next morning, I say goodbye to my host family. I leave some extras from my pack (pens, pencils, tissues, etc.) and wish I had brought more. They give me a bag of the special marmalade fruit for the bus. I am late for the 6:50am bus, and the owner races ahead on his bike with my big backpack to hold the bus. Say my goodbyes to the wonderful owner and am sad to leave, but Trinidad adventures await. But if you ever visit Cuba, I would visit Vinales just to stay at this place... in all my years of travel, I can't think of accommodation more memorable both for location and relaxation than El Bohio de Gloria
Love,
Betsy
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