The Hostel is a house at the front with the accommodation out back and on the 2nd story.  We go in and greeted by the concierge who introduces himself as LeNoel? LeNoel is 25yrs and works for the owners as he speaks a few languages and the owners only speak Spanish.  

We get a few local pointers from LeNoel and then we are shown up to the room and it is far better than expected.  The room is fairly new and has a bar fridge, air conditioner and is modern by any standard. We even have a balcony view;  

It was well after lunch time and I was starving hungry.  I studied the map in our Lonely Planet guide and after about 25 mins worked out the location of our nearest Restaurant.  We take off and discover that the restaurant was only around the corner from where we are staying and would be lucky to have been 50 mtrs walk!  I think I need to get ‘modernized’ as I have seen a lot of backpackers using their phones with google maps off line. 

I go into the restaurant and ask if they are open as there is no other patrons in there.  I get a positive response and we get ushered to a table. Its already early afternoon and I am conscious that I don’t want to have much given we will be heading out to dinner in a few hours.  I ask for a menu and they tell me that they don’t usually do lunch but can make me anything we want.

I ask how much for soft drink and the price is fine so I order 2 x sprite.  I then order 2 x chicken sandwiches (the go to in Cuba) but make the mistake of not checking the price.  The drinks come out and then the sandwich. The drink was cold and fine but the sandwich was absolute rubbish.  Never mind I thought as I was the one starving and they were kind enough to make something for us.

I ask for the bill and nearly fell of my chair when I read it.  The drinks were ok but the sandwich was priced as if Gordon Ramsey had flown to Cuba especially to make it.

Now before I tell you what happened next I just want to point out that I am more than happy to pay a tourist rate for something that helps the locals survive but I own up to going nuts when I think I am getting my pants pulled down and shafted.

With bill in hand I go and find the waiter who is hiding in the kitchen.  I think it best if I just say we came to the same conclusion a mistake had been made and came to an agreement of what a fair payment was.  I just hate it when you get treated like a tourist clown.

We leave the restaurant (Helen is just shaking her head) and make our way up to the gas station.  LeNoel told us that we might be able to get some basic things there. When I got here I found it quite sad that the locals were lining up outside the chicken shop trying to buy chicken portions when tourists could walk in any of the multitude of local restaurants and order it off the menu;

No luck in finding what we wanted so off we went down to the main street.  We stopped at the tourist information centre and found that out of the same office was a lady for booking activities/tours and another guy who was the Government tourist rep (same as Lucy back in Havana).  We speak to the lady and book a cave tour for the next morning. I then move over to talk to the guy and find that he drunk and/or stoned (off his face). I ask him a few questions and he shows basically no interest but I was able to confirm that a shared taxi to Trinidad was 40 CUC.

Only a couple of door up from the centre we find a well stocked supermarket (drinks/toiletries) and get our supplies.  Back to the Hostel to unpack and get sorted.

Later that evening when its cooled down we walk back down to the main strip and find a great little restaurant and have dinner;

The had an interesting way of giving your change back;

The next morning we are up early and walk down to main square to have breakfast at the Hotel Vinales.  I take the opportunity to take a few photos of the square;

The Hotel definitely has the most swanky restaurant we have eaten at on the trip so far;

Breakfast is finished off by having a coffee on the porch and watching the world go by;

We walk to our arranged pick up point which was outside the local baseball park;

Right on time our taxi turns up and its a 1956 Chevy (with some unusual wooden paneling);

The drive to St Thomas Caves takes 20 mins.  The caves are Cuba’s largest and is an underground system of 46 klms.  Tourists (like us) do a total of about 2 klms which is a 1 klm route in and then backtrack the same way out.  To do the complete system you have to be an experienced cave explorer with all of the equipment – the entire system would take you 2 weeks and is done in complete darkness.  I was more than happy with our little experience as it had me huffing and puffing as it was;

(Fashion outlaw above)

A cave guide takes over and he can speak multiple languages which is excellent given our little group is made up from people all over the planet.  It a very steep climb up a mountain goat track to get to the cave entrance;

The cave tour is completed and we make our way down the mountain and get picked up again by our driver who drops us off back in the town square.  To kill a bit of time before lunch we browse through a few shops and find a nice gift for Oscar (Grandson). Then its back to the Hostel and freshen up.

For lunch we walked back down to the main street and found a restaurant a lot closer to us and an added bonus was that it offered free internet.  Lunch is ordered and I set about logging on and trying to get a few things sorted. Unfortunately not much worked (dropping in and out) and I gave up after about an hour.  I did manage to book our next Airbnb in Trinidad for 4 nights which was a relief.

Back at the Hostel we managed to book a horseback tobacco plantation tour through the owner.  LeNoel was on a day off and I resorted to interpretive dance to get my message across. Later I was able to sort a couple of my computer issues out and get into my blog whilst Helen went down to El Bilby and got take away for us.  Restaurants over here do takeaway but I have seen a great variation in how its actually packaged.

Next morning we went down and had breakfast prepared by the owner.  The going rate seems to be 5 CUC for a full continental breakfast – coffee, toast (varies greatly), eggs, fruit, jam, juice.  Our guide arrives on his pushbike;

The guide leads the way and we follow him across town until were we are met by another guide who has our horses at the ready;

The cowboys are known as Guajiros and our bloke is named Banjo.  Helen’s horse is Ninio and mine Moro. I can’t remember when I last rode a horse but have a feeling it was when I was 15 or 16 nearly 40 yrs ago.  It’s funny to think that the last thing I rode was an elephant! Anyway we set off and have a magnificent ride through the National Park to get to the tobacco plantation;

At the plantation we get handed over to another guide who is in the family who run the business.  He tells us about coffee/tobacco/rum production on their farm. Interestingly because it is in the National Park they are not allowed to use any pesticides.  Consistent with what we were told at the other plantation 90% of production goes to the Government. I also find that Government inspectors come to the farm on a weekly basis to keep a check on things so there is no way you can try and short change them.  The Government does supply them with 35 bottles a month so they can bottle their rum and sell it privately as a form of compensation.

At the plantation is a basic shelter that acts as a outdoor restaurant.  We sit down and meet a couple of different back packing couples that are all from the US.  They were all good company. The guide then gave us a cigar rolling demonstration (the women in reality do the rolling as they are more patient and have smaller hands).

The guide gives us a locally made cigar and we also get to try a taste of his rum – I remind myself the time is 10:30 am but it certainly beats being at work!

Mounted on the horses we head back along the track a staging area where there are about a dozen horses that have all finished their tours.  Our tour cost 25 CUC each and lasted 4 hrs but could have been longer or shorter as it really depends on how much time you want to spend at the plantation/restaurant.  Total riding time would have been 1.5 hrs at walking pace (I found this more than enough to get a sore backside). One of the guys we met at the restaurant booked his through Airbnb experiences and paid by the hour.

Later that day we tried out a different restaurant that was off the main street and had an excellent meal.  On the way back to the Hostel we ran into LeNoel who had finished for the day and on his way home. LeNoel confirmed that he had booked the shared taxi – air-conditioned car and direct route to Trinidad that would take 6 hours.  He waived us goodbye and told us that he would see us before we left in the morning. For some reason I thought he was putting something over me but told myself to ease up.

Up at 6:00 am the next morning to pack up and have breakfast before our taxi arrived.  I was fixing the bill up when I was told our taxi was waiting out the front. I go out and see that its a 1952 Chevy but in pretty ordinary condition;

I look through the window and see that its got a large aftermarket air conditioner fitted under the dash so I am not too bothered about the car overall.   I pay the driver the agreed fare of 40 CUC each. The driver motions for us to sit in the back but I tell him that we would sit in the front – the reason I always sit in the front is that I can keep an eye on the driver to make sure he is concentrating and not falling asleep (especially on long trips).  Its also handy to be in the front to take photos/videos.

We get in and that’s when I see what is hanging from his rear vision mirror – some weird arse voodoo witch doll.  I am now starting to get a bit of a bad feeling in my guts;

The driver goes to the next Hostel and we have to wait about 15 mins for a backpacker to get herself sorted before we then go to the next Hostel.  2 more backpackers jump in and we finally leave for Vinales – all windows wound down and Spanish music blaring. I did note that the driver had to use an Allen key to get the windows to wind down as the handles were missing.  I did wonder at this point how the air-con would work with the windows down but given it was still fairly comfortable I didn’t worry.

The first 40 minutes of the trip was on winding roads and the road itself was in very poor shape until we got off onto a much better freeway.  After a while we stopped at a roadside vendor who offered cold drinks and home made hamburgers. I passed on the food but gave the bottled drinks a go and was pleasantly surprised they were cold and tasted like orange soft drink;

Back in the car its starting to heat up and I ask the driver to turn on the air-con.  He motions with his hand across his throat and tells me its broken. Yep just what I thought!

About the same time Helen sees a sign and tells me that we are on the road to Havana and not Trinidad.  At this stage I am still holding out some faint hope that all is well and I tell myself that it makes sense that the driver would go via Havana.

After a total of 3 hours the driver pulls up at a roadside bus stop and tells us that we are transferring to the bus.  I look around and realise that everyone is in the same boat as cars are continually pulling up and dropping passengers off;

I tried to see the funny side of things as now it was everyone else that was in arguments with their drivers all over the place.  I had a bit of a crack at our driver what I knew it was a waste of time. Talking to the other passengers I found we were all misled.  I get directed to our bus which I dubbed the ‘Prison Bus’ – bit of a concern when you also see 2 blokes working on it;

Its nearly a 45 minute wait in the heat (no toilets or somewhere to buy water) which tests the patience.  They eventually decide they have enough passengers and we get underway and we are told that the trip will take 4 hrs.  The bus has all of its windows down and you guessed it – no air-con.

Helen doesn’t get angry that often but boy she was pissed!  It made me laugh though as it is usually me that does that and its her telling me to calm down.  I told her that I was having fun as the smell of diesel made me think of the farm – funnily enough it didn’t help.

The bus even has a screen and later one of the crew puts on a Spanish music dvd and plays it full volume.  The ride just keeps getting better!

In between dozing I manage to take a few pictures out of the window;

The Prison Bus makes numerous stops in various towns along the way to drop off each passenger.  It seems like we have been travelling forever since we left Vinales (9 hrs total) before we eventually arrived in Trinidad.  The bus can’t get to our Hostel due to the cobble stoned lane ways so we do the last bit on foot;

We knock on the door and get greeted by our Host Hilceilia who is great.  We share our ordeal and she tells us that it is a problem as all of her guests that come up from Vinales complain about it.

To wrap it up I would say that the only thing I was disappointed in was being deceived about the detail which makes you feel like you have been taken advantage of.  If we had been told the truth we would still have booked the ride but would have been far better prepared for what was in store. As for LeNoel I can only hope our paths cross again…….