After a few nights in Havana we made our way out to Viñales with our Havana host, Alberto and his cousin Amaury. They were nice enough to drive us and they had never been to Viñales. It was a two hour ride through the country.
On the way we stopped and Amaury called to a man on the side of the road. He was holding a board with cheese on top. The man came over and Amaury handed him some money in exchange for the cheese and something else that looked like a red brick. Then he handed the cheese to us. "It's a gift," he said. I get sick on every trip we take so I was a little hesitant about eating something that came off the side of the road but I didn't want to be rude. I looked at Stu and said, "I guess we're eating highway cheese today." We did and it was good. Stu was so happy - you would think he came to Cuba just for cheese. It turns out that the red brick was a guava jelly. It was delicious!
Viñales is a small town in the northwest part of the island. It's said to be Castro's favorite place. That's probably because it's filled with tobacco fields and limestone rock formations called mogotes that look like gumdrops. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Viñales National Park. The town is surrounded by farms and more tobacco fields. With the exception of the main streets, there are dirt roads in every direction.
We went horseback ridging through the Viñales National Park, we smoked cigars, watched live music, drank mojitos, danced, and watched the sun set over the valley. It was magic.
We loved our time here and our super awesome hosts, Johann and his family. They had a little piece of paradise with a lush garden full of mint, bananas, avocados, and other fruit. They even roasted their own coffee which they grew on the property! I was in heaven. We had great conversations with Johann about life and work and Cuban history. We've kept in touch and hopefully we'll visit again some day.
