She was very friendly and helpful and insisted I spoke Spanish - which was a challenge for me, and almost impossible for Skye who's had no experience. When I didn't know the word, I'd say the French one and add an o or cion to the end and hoped it worked. This was our last day with our temporary host and we packed our backs to move them next door and said our farewells.
We knew that horse riding in the back valley was an option - but we were hoping to do that tomorrow. There are plenty of guides that offer tours of the hiking trails - but we figured we'd fill up our backpack with snacks and head out in the farms to see if we could find our own way. Talking to a few locals along the way - they gave us some directions and we made our way through some foot trails in between farms. Each turn revealed more beautiful scenery.
We were told that we could reach a limestone mountain seen in the distance. There was apparently a hole throughout the rocks that made a path completely to the other side of the mountain. To get there, we had to pass through some farmers field. He didn't mind apparently - so long as you talk to him and perhaps buy some of his oferta. He had a pet goat that was staked next to the shack, and it was friendly and loved the attention.
We purchased a glass of juice for 1 CUC, a ridiculous tourist price - but again, I considered it a payment for letting us walk across his land. We went on our way and meandered around his ponds and animals and began to climb up the mountain and crossed through the cave. Coming out the other side revealed an amazing peace of paradise. It was quiet and beautiful. Skye and I both stopped as we saw it, and just stared in amazement. A small shack for the farmers to rest was on the side of the trail made of wood and a roof made from dried leaves of the royal palm. A cow was tied to it - but was too busy grazing to pay any attention to us.
We walked through foot path along gauchos (Cuban cowboys) riding down the trails. We finally reached this amazing tree (a Ceiba) that seemed almost out of place. It was huge and way bigger than anything else around it. We stood a few minutes in it's shade before deciding to turn around.
We ventured back up the mountain and through the cave on the other side. We meandered around the trails and stumbled upon an older man walking around his tobacco field. He asked if we wanted to look around at the drying shack and to see him roll a cigar from one of his leaves. We enthusiastically agreed - as this is where most Cuban cigars get their tobacco. We went to his house and he took out a piece of wood to cut the leave on. He cut the leave and showed us how to roll one. He had some that he'd had previously rolled to sell in a bundle - so we purchased some.
We walked back to our new casa and settled in to get ready for dinner. We sat on the rooftop patio and read some of the history of Cuba in our Lonely Planet while we waited for dinner. Our host would bring us up Mojitos (which were amazing) and went back down to prepare dinner.
She came up and chatted with us a bit - and explained to us the way things work in Cuba. She states that she has lots of ideas and thoughts about Cuba's current political situation - but that she can't speak freely to other Cubans in fear of persecution. So she happily let us in on her theory. First, and this is something I freely interpreted from most Cubans, is that they though that Fidel Castro had died a while ago. His brother Raoul is still running the show - but nobody has seen or heard from Fidel in years. She thinks they're keeping it a secret in hopes there isn't a political upheaval. Though she admits she doesn't think anything would happen. "Cubans are very lazy people" she went on saying. She talked about the neglect of people in smaller towns and farming communities and how nobody does anything about it.
The most surprising thing she told me was that she thought that the revolution happened in vain as she believes that Fidel is / was in Batista's pocket. There were two key players in the revolution - Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara. Fidel simply hopped on board. When they marched down the streets of Habana everybody was happy that the revolucion had won. Suddenly, Cienfuegos takes a flight and disappears to never be heard from again. In the same time frame, once Che left Cuba, his camp was ambushed and he got killed. There was only Fidel left. She claims that there is a connection there as Fidel not only married a girl from Batista's village, but Batista gave them both a large wedding present. A perfect plan she believes, now all they have to do is put Che's picture on any message they want to push - and the people will be on board. Revolution won, but Batista still calling the shots. Interesting theory... Especially considering everywhere in Cuba were pictures of Che with freedom and revolution sayings plastered all over them.
We then went down for dinner - an amazing meal as always in most Casas across Cuba. We asked her about possibly getting a horse to do the Valley of Viñales. She said she's go ask a friend in the morning and we could look into it. We sat outside for a while at night and just enjoyed the quiet serenity that Viñales had to offer. It was a very large contrast to Habana, but we loved every minute of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment