Sunday, 12 October 2014

Icing on the cake....!

In the valley of Vinales the landscape is predominantly limestone and our first port of call was the Cueva del Indio, one of the largest cave systems in the Americas. Obviously not being a mole the thought of another cave was not high on my list of priorities but the optimum word is "largest"! So I forced myself in and it was truly spectacular. About 400m into the cave you meet a river, and a willing boatman! The best way to exit a cave is definitely by boat!


After being inside it was definitely time for outside and a 3 hour amble along the valley through the farms. The valley is littered with mogotes, a new word for me, translated as "haystacks" but effectively surreal mountains jutting out of the landscape formed by erosion over millions of years. It was great to just be in the landscape for once, wander through crops of pineapples, maize, avocados, and rice (tobacco is planted in November). We stopped at a farmer who had lots of pineapples and he made us a virgin piña colada, fresh as it could be. It was heaven. Some added rum but at 10:30am even I thought it was too early!


Heading back to Vinales, it wax apparent that this fast growing town was trying to attract tourists. The houses are all freshly painted and ready to be rented. Each porch having the obligatory rocking chairs that they seemed obsessed by, and in fact we probably pay a fortune for to recreate what we feel is the New England style!

 
One last vantage point and it was back to Havana for one last night.


As soon as we hit Havana I headed straight to the nearby posh hotel to find wi fi and catch up after almost 2 weeks of radio silence. I am not proud of my addiction to technology, I should be able to cope better without it, but the fact is I like to be connected! 

We had arranged for a final dinner at the luxury Hotel National de Cuba, which has an illustrious history. The hotel has it's own museum detailing those who have visited, especially during its heyday in the 1940's.


Bizarrely they seem to think that a visit from a one, Mr Ken Livingston is a notable affair! 

The hotel is also renowned for hosting a summit in 1946 for The Mob, run by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lanski, who convinced Batista to actually give him part of the hotel so they could run it! It made more money in those days than Begas and obviously they were not best pleased when Castro eventually kicked them out!

Apparently I had been nominated to give the farewell speech. I agreed on the condition that no one else would do it.... No one else would! So either I am considered to be gobby or just too easy to persuade to step in. I am not sure which I think is the better option?! Luckily our focus was on other things, the icing on the cake, so no one minded a short and to the point speech! Because it had been noted that the hotel next to ours (my wi fi haven) was hosting the real Beuna Vista Social Club for concerts all that week. This group had been the height of Cuban fashion in the 1940's, and after 50 years were brought back together in the 1990's, most of them in their 80's, and to international acclaim were nominated and won various Grammy's etc. A few of us were eager to see them and blagged our way in. By the end of the evening we had danced the conga through the hotel and even been invited to dance on stage with them! Such fun, such music and so incredibly hot! What an end to a trip!


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