Cuba (2): Havana to Viñales

A Bus to Vinales and an Introduction to Basita

Leaving Havana

Cuba

We could have profitably spent another day in Havana, but that was not the itinerary we had agreed, so we rose early and by 8 o’clock had trundled our cases down the street to the large hotel by the ferry port. This was the pick-up point for the ‘tourist bus', one of several shuttling around Cuba’s more attractive locations.

The bus arrived on time, but the same could not said for all of the passengers. Half an hour passed before they decided to write off the last as a no-show and get on the road.

Viñales is 30km north of Pinar del Río, the eponymous capital of Cuba's westernmost province

But we had boarded an empty bus and before we could start the 180km journey to Viñales we had to tour the hotels of Havana picking up the rest of the passengers. That took an hour, and our drive along the main thoroughfares gave plenty of opportunity to peer into side-streets as we passed.

Havana side-street

Cuba is not wealthy, but as it ranked 78th out of 190 (World Bank, 2018) there are many far poorer countries. Some side-streets made that hard to believe.

One of Havana's more grim looking side-streets

Autopista Este-Ouste

We hit the A4, the Autopista Este-Ouste running from Havana to Pinar del Río around 9.30. The tree lined road ran through endless flat farmland – with occasionally a few hills in the hazy distance – and we passed through no towns or villages.

Not much to see on the A4 west of Havana

With little to see a service station break was welcome but we were disappointed with the overpriced lukewarm coffee. The well maintained, though not exactly youthful Chevrolet hire car in the car park was worth a second glance…

Aged Chevrolet hire car in a service station car park, west of Havana

…as were the unusually shaped palms nearby. They are, I think, Cuban Belly Palms (Acrocomia crispa) which are endemic to Cuba.

Cuban Belly Palms by the A4 service station west of Havana

The next half hour was much the same.

Cuban-American Relations (1)

One of the joys of a command economy is that roadsides are not disfigured with billboards exhorting you to visit attractions that do not attract you or to buy goods you neither need nor want.

The downside is that occasionally the fields grow a crop of political slogans. They flourished in North Korea, though nobody would translate them for us. They sprout in Cuban soil too, though Cuba is no North Korea, and here they are easier to understand. The target of the posters along the A4 was the Helms-Burton Act, which became US law in 1996.

'There is no fear here, not of Burton, nor of Bolton' (John Bolton, Trumps' National Security Advisor in 2019)
I was on the wrong side of the bus to photograph any posters, and there seem to be no Helms-Burton billboards on the internet
This is borrowed from Bohemia, a Havana based news magazine

Officially called the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, it sets out to tell Cubans how to run their country and enforce sanctions on any company trading with Cuba – effectively forcing non-US companies to choose between operating in the little Cuban or vast American market

The Helms–Burton Act was condemned in 1996 by the European Union, Canada, Mexico and other U.S. allies. The British reaction included criminal sanctions in the UK for complying with the act's extraterritorial provisions. All subsequent US presidents have signed waivers to the extra-territorial sections of the law, though in 2019 Donald Trump allowed Title III* to come into operation prompting the new wave of posters.

Cuban -American Relations Part 2 appears in Viñales to Trinidad de Cuba, Part 3 in Trinidad (1) The Town, Part 4 in Jibacoa

Pinar del Rio to Viñales

I prefer positive messages, and arriving in Pinar del Río we were greeted with the sign below. Presumably it is a farewell to the former president who died in 2016, but whether official or spontaneous, I have no idea.

Street corner, Pinar del Río

The provincial capital of Pinar del Río marks the end of the Autopista Este-Ouste. We did not see much of the city as our driver cut round to the north and onto Highway 241 which would take us the remaining 30km to Viñales.

Looking out of the bus window became more interesting, the land was immediately less flat…

North of Pinar del Río. I think these are Royal Palms, Cuba's national tree, but please do not confuse me with a palm expert

…and eventually the first mogotes came into view. Mogotes, a less dramatic version of Karst topography, are a feature of the Viñales valley, though they also occur elsewhere in Cuba.

Nearing Viñales

Arriving in Viñales

Viñales is a small town and we quickly reached the drop off point at the square half way along the main street. It is a pleasant little square with the road on one side, a cultural central opposite ….

Cultural centre, Viñales town square

….and a church on the north side.

The church getting a new coat of paint, town square, Viñales

These pictures were taken later, it was not so calm when we arrived. Small as it might be Viñales is a major tourist centre with many home stays - B&Bs really – and more than several had sent representatives to lure the new arrivals. Out home stay was already booked, as was a taxi to take us there – the driver locating us among the throng with practised ease.

Casa Basita

At the end of the main street the highway swung left, but we carried straight on, down a barely surfaced road lined with mainly single storey dwellings…

Going straight on at the end of the main street, Viñales

…among them Casa Basita.

Casa Basita, Viñales

It may have been the shortest taxi ride we have ever taken, but it would have been a long trundle with our cases.

We were welcomed by Basita herself. Inside there was a formal front room with two guest rooms off it. Our room was a good size and comfortable, the bathroom functional and soap was provided - and only in Cuba is that small fact worthy of a mention.

Lynne and Basita, Casa Basita

As soon as we had settled in, Basita offered us coffee in the room at the back of the house, a dining room with a partial ceiling - an atrium of sorts. From the large adjacent kitchen, she produced coffee, ham and cheese sandwiches and fruit, in other words lunch, which was not part of our deal but for which she never asked payment.

Lunch at Basita's, Viñales

Back into Town

After lunch we walked back into town. We checked out the bars and cafés, of which there were an abundance, inspected the tourist market and made a purchase or two to take home.

Tourist Market, Viñales

We continued to the square, the scrum had gone so we had a look round that and then we found a bar/restaurant with comfortable seating in a small garden with free wifi. What could be better?

Cocktails in General, Mojitos in Particular

We are not of the cocktail generation.

The first recorded use of ‘cocktail’ to mean mixed alcoholic drink was in New York in 1806 and the first bartender’s guide with specific recipes was published there in 1862. Cocktails became fashionable well before prohibition (1920-33) when the poor quality of illegal spirits further encouraged mixing.

In the UK cocktails were briefly fashionable, but I am unsure when. By the time my drinking career began in the late sixties they were long gone – provided you do not consider G&T a cocktail, and no-one on our side of the Atlantic would.

Cocktails re-emerged in the final years of the century among the young, designed, I suspect, to make alcohol palatable to inexperienced drinkers with immature palates. My generation eschewed them.

We have drunk the very occasional cocktail on our travels and they have usually been expensive, but the first page of every Cuban menu is dedicated to them and they are cheaper than beer, so resistance is futile. We had our first ever daiquiris in Havana yesterday; now seemed the moment to try mojitos.

Mojitos in Viñales

Cuba is awash with rum and Florida is not very far away, so during prohibition Cuba became a refuge for the sort of people who now call themselves mixologists - and those seeking a relaxed and legal drink. Most rum-based cocktails are Cuban in origin, though many have had American input. By and large Cuba has not benefitted from its proximity to America, but on this occasion….

That said, I found my mojito too wet, too thin and too sweet. The daiquiri I had enjoyed; mojitos seemed a drink for somebody else.

Warnings of a Distant Covid-19

Using the bar's wifi we learned about supermarkets at home being cleaned out by panic buying and talk of an imminent lockdown. An email from our daughter wondering how we would get home as flights were being cancelled, sounded a little panicky.

Lynne’s phone lacked our travel agent’s address, so we returned to Basita’s for my tablet, then back into town to the nearest bar with wifi – they were easier to find than in Havana – where we dispatched a message to our agents. We knew that ultimately we would go home when we had to, and there might be little choice, but we had hardly arrived in Cuba and felt no urge to leave yet.

Dinner at Basita’s

Returning to Basita’s we spent a little down time sitting on the roof reading.

Reading on Basita's roof, Viñales

The roof also gave us a vantage point for looking out over the street.

Looking up the street from Basita's roof, Viñales

Dinner on our first night in Viñales was to be provided by Basita, and she did us proud. The spread she laid on was the very best of home cooking; skilful in execution, varied in content and lavish in quantity. In Cuban style, rice and beans were the centrepiece, but there were roast chicken drumsticks with a tomato-based sauce, boiled potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumber, shredded cabbage and fried plantain all served with the little touches that said she cared. And she gave us a beer each, too (and I mean ‘gave’, in the same circumstances others charged).

Dinner at Basita's, Viñales

Her dessert was an excellent home-produced crème caramel (pudim flan, as they say in Portugal) but not solely a crème caramel, with it came halves of soft orange peel in an orange flavoured syrup that magically turned the humble and oft discarded peel onto the best bit of an orange!

After dinner we strolled back into town, taking pleasure in the warm evening and walking off at least part of our sizeable meal.

On our return the boy from next door emerged, a huge scabbard dangling from his belt. He withdrew a much smaller, though still substantial knife and tried to look as fierce as a seven-year-old can. Lynne feigned horror and he put it straight back in its scabbard, looking guilty and a little frightened by what he had done. He was a nice little lad (we met him again later) his look made us laugh and he certainly meant no harm, but I am not sure a boy that age should be playing with knives - of any size.

*Title III of Helms-Burton authorizes U.S. nationals with claims to confiscated property in Cuba to file suit in U.S. courts against persons that may be "trafficking" in that property.

Carnival Cruise was promptly sued by the dispossessed leaseholders of the dock in Havana used by their cruise ships. The case was thrown out when it was shown that, under any circumstances, the lease would have expired in 2004.

Cuba

Part 1: Havana
Part 2: Havana to Viñales
Part 3: Walking the Viñales Valley
Part 4: Viñales to Trinidad de Cuba
Part 5: Trinidad (1) The Town
Part 6: Trinidad (2) Valle de Los Ingenios
Part 7: Santa Clara and Che Guevara
Part 8: Jibacoa and a Strange Trip Home