Horizontes La Ermita Vinales

... room so we shouldnīt feel obliged to do anything we didnīt want to! They always try and make you feel guilty, or stupid, for not eating their food. Anyway, the father was great, huge bairy belly out on display. He was helping Rach smoke her cigar. He also gave us some mint liquer after he saw us drinking the rum fruit boxes. They were only 15% alcohol, he scoffed at that, "weak!", and brought us out a glass of the "real stuff". Put us to bed alright!

... in Viņales abwechselnd mal den Meistern im ARTex beim Salsa zuzuschauen und es selbst ein wenig zu lernen. Dazu bringt uns Raider, unser Tanzlehrer, auch mal spontan zu sich nach Hause zum tanzen, wo seine Mutti in Nachthemd und Lockenwicklern es ganz normal zu finden scheint, das hier so ziemlich jeder ein und aus geht und wir mal eben das Wohnzimmer belegen. Raider hat natuerlich selbst auch viele Amigos, und so haben wir bald auch reichlich Salsamusik zum Ueben ...

... mamals to homo sapiens on the far end. Relaxing on our backs on the grass admiring the surroundings, I attempted to steer clear from the bar and restaurant next to me, which housed 6 or 7 dozen of unapreciative tourists that flock like sheep in their air conditioned busses. Les than a handful of them actually removed themselves from the food and wine to admire what they were actually here to see. For myself, being stuck somewhere inbetween the ...

... formations, similar to what I had seen in northen Vietnam and Laos, with a ot of vegetation and holes and caves and galleries everywhere on the cliff faces. I reached the cave in which we had been partying the night before, still smelly and sticky from the beer an rhum that had been spiled on the ground. I was dessicated and thirsty, and had the worst lemonade of my trip: zillions of mosquioes where lurking in the cave shade, and I was their only fresh, foreign, juicy tasty food ...

... the paperwork had previously informed us we would: A not-so-sleek 1990’s Hyundai Accent. But to the locals we may not have looked quite as sensible and domestic in our car as we thought. The previous night Eddie had seemed very impressed when we told him what we were getting, telling us Accents were generally the cars of choice for higher ranking government officials.

As it was my credit card on file I was slightly concerned about the ...

... chance of any of these. Whatever it is, our stress levels edge up as she goes through little crying sessions. Jonathan gets fussy over dinner time, while Lucy barely eats anything. In the next few hours Lucy produces more poo than I thought was possible -- and then she ***** some more. It's really very impressive. We think it's over, then suddenly she jumps up, "Poo!" and out comes another load. We start laughing, we can't help it. We've celebrated the best-case scenario for ...

... I set out in the dark to capture sunrise at Jazmines Hotel on its cliff about 6km out of town (an odd and other worldy experience, full of smells and pregnant sounds), only to have the day break flat and cloudy. Not a problem today. We ogle the grey-blue fields and mist-enveloped valleys, attempting to fit the best pieces in our camera viewers. Except for odd artsy still life's, it's the only time this trip I haven ...

... wet and underwhelmed by the scenery into the arms of the accommodation Mafia. In the two days we were in Viņales it stopped raining and we experienced six power cuts and three water cuts (half the time we were there we had no power, a quarter of the time we had no water and about half of the time those two lacks overlapped - this was due, apparently, to the stress on systems caused by the kiss of Katrina (don't even ask about storm water drains). We stood agog at the Mural de la ...

... br>
I woke up to another hungover, but scored a mountain bike so I could go cycling through the northern part of the valley. After picking up a bus ticket for the ride back to Havana, I rode on to the Caveo del Indio. My guidebook was right about this place; overpriced, swarming with tourists, and not really all that special. I wasn't out of the cave for 2 minutes before the heavens opened up again, and I was witness to another ...