The plan for our second day in Viñales, is to explore all those “must-visit” highlights located in the surroundings of the town. After a huge all-inclusive breakfast (coffee, tea, guayaba/pineapple juice, omelette, fruit and buttered bread), typical of the casas particulares (kind of B&Bs), we quickly set off for the city centre to see whether bus or taxi is more convenient. Luckily, there’s plenty of taxis, buses and horse-carts to choose from; we don’t even need to start asking that in a matter of seconds a couple of drivers are already on us wondering what we need. It’s raining but we don’t mind, starting fresh in the morning is always a good start.
There’s a bus that from leaves from the main square of the town (the only square with wi-fi) and pass through all Viñales highlights for the fair price of 5CUC each per person per day. About to hop on, the driver give us the bad news… this bus not only stops at 1.30pm (due to bad weather, usually works until 4pm) but it drives through all points just once every 90 minutes. We don’t have enough time to take the bus and visit everything but we wonder how other people would normally do it !!! Some stops require less than 10min to visit making the bus extremely time-wasting. Once again, luck is on our side; just as we hop off the bus another couple (later we discover they’re from Israel) talks with the driver and receives the same reply. Quick-thinking, immediately we ask them if they would fancy sharing a taxi to do the same route and for the same price: “Sure, we’d love to !”. And so off we go, with the taxi-driver that earlier proposed us the tour for 20CUC (now sharing 10 and 10), onto the next adventure of Viñales !
The first stop is Cueva del Indio (5CUC pp), an enormous cave that can be easily visited by anyone as the path inside it its considered low difficulty. After a short walk of 10min, we reach the top highlight of the cave: a boat ! In fact, the initial ticket not only include the entrance but also a boat ride (shared with 10 more people) on the river that long ago formed there. Tourist-tailored ? Sure, but it simply fascinating ! At the exit we find Michel welcoming us back with a smile, “I knew you would’ve liked it!”.
On the way to our second stop, Cueva de San Miguel and Palenque de los Cimarrones, we start having a chat with the other couple. The two are a funny Israeli couple that speak english well and are travelling around the country for 12 days. We talk out our way to the second stop but once there, due to heavy rain and wind, we decide not to leave the taxi; then, Michel starts explaining us that this place has been converted into a Salsa Club (the latest fashion apparently) and its mainly used at night for partying. It looks ok, just imagine a bar inside a little cave, definitely not something worth more than a 5min visit… Well, back on tracks.
After the last two, we’ve finished visiting what’s there to see on the Northern route of Viñales and it’s time to move on to the Western road: the Mural de la Prehistoria is the next stop ! As explained by the name, there you can see (after paying 3CUC each of entrance fee) a huge murales painted on the side of a mountain (see below). The colourful murales is divided into several sections each of which depicts what inhabited those lands in the past (fossils, dinosaurs, aborigines etc…); Michel also explains us that right now is going under restoration (re-painting) as the vivid colors only last a couple of years before starting to fade away. Thanks to a small rain-free break, we take the chance to take a few pics and in just 15 minutes & a piña colada after, we’re already on our way back to Viñales.
Our last stop before lunchtime is at the Mirador “Los Jazmines”. From up here, the view on the Valle of Viñales is simply outstanding; the beautiful landscape featuring the famous “Mogotes” (rocky formations that are scattered all around the valley) and a slightly cloudy sky looks like the perfect picture for a postcard ! For one way or the other, Michel also starts sharing his view on how badly Cubans got affected by the Trump presidency and guess what… just a few meters away a bus full of americans has just arrived. What are the chances ! Changing topic, he also starts telling us about who José Martí was and what he did for the country; unfortunately the story stops halfway through as we’ve now arrived to the cheap restaurant he recommended us.
Just 100m down the road to Viñales there’s the restaurant called “La Casa Verde” (green house), which is not only way cheaper than anything else around there but it also offers an amazing view (nearly as good as the Mirador one) over the valley. Since earlier the Israeli couple has proposed us to go with them (we said yes !) to go visit the Cueva de Santo Tomás, we decide to have a quick lunch there altogether. Despite Michel offering himself to drive us there for just 5CUC more (per person so 20CUC in total), once there we also have to pay a local guide 10CUC each to lead us through the labyrinth of the cave system. Yep, definitely not a cheap excursion to do. Unfortunately, although the guide is quite funny, both the fact of having to pass over a fence and the incredibly slippery path don’t get welcomed well by the Israeli couple. To be honest, even to us everything seems a bit too… edgy. “Don’t worry guys, you keep going and we’ll wait here until you come back”, says the man at the entrance of the cave. His wife doesn’t feel safe entering the cave, especially when the path is this slippery. On the other hand, despite telling the guide to speed up a bit to not make them wait a lot, we’re looking for adventure and nothing will stop us exploring that cave. Darkness, head-lamps, stalagmites and stalactites, sleeping bats, cave-crabs, rock formations of every shape, different colors, hidden short-cuts to other caves, lots of humidity… this is the incredible environment we witness ! What an experience !
Finally, at the end of the day, Michel suggest us a very small restaurant where only locals go to eat. “After such an expensive day, at least we gonna spend a little for the dinner!”, we tell ourselves. What a long day… but it was worth even if it rained a bit ! Now, time for chicken, rice and a good night sleep.
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