Now for the rest of Cuba. As mentioned before, we took a bus out to viñales on Wednesday and arrived just before sundown. On getting there it was a great feeling. You know when you arrive somewhere and you instantly know you are going to enjoy it. It was like that. Viñales is a cute little farming town in wetsren Cuba. It only has about 4000 people and tourism is a big part of the local economy. It is nestled to the sides of a small mountain range which has spectacularly shaped hill forming the backdrop to this serene place. We managed to get into a Casa Particulares run by this really friendly family and they cooked our meals as well so we got a chance to try some traditional home cooked Cuban food. For the whole time the food was great, I've definitely got a taste for the spandard rice and freijoles (beans) here in Central America, took a while but now I'm hooked.

The foolowing day we lined up some horseriding through the valleys surrounding the town. As I said before, the mountain scenery is stunning, It's not so much their size but shape that makes them appealing. They look like a series of elongated christmas puddings. Apparently it's very tough to get to the top of them because the sides are so steep. But we meandered through the tracks passing the farms. The farms here grow sugar cane, rice, corn, vegetables, amongst other things. But the main crop is tobacco, and it was planting season as we made our way through. Between the paddocks are tobacco drying houses and the odd farmhouse but most people live in the town. Luckily I had a placid horse so it was one of the least eventful rides I've been on and we set a leisurely pace for pretty much the whole day. We made our way out to a cave with a pool about 200m into it but neither of us felt like a swim in the dark. We then headed to a small building where we they squeezed out some sugar cane juice for us and sholled us how to roll a cigar. I had a crack at smoking the thing but to me it still tastes like chewing on a coffee bean. It was a pleasant day. All houses in these parts have a small porch with a few rocking chairs in them so we kicked back and made the most of them for the rest of the afternoon.

Next day we ventured out to a small island off the north coast of Cuba for a day trip, called Cayo Levisa. It was a beautiful tropical island with a long stretch of beaches and a few cabanas and a restaurant. It was a lazy day spent mostly lying in a banana lounge and doing very little else. The dip in the water here and there but little to report. The island was beautiful though. Half of it covered by mangrove swamps in the protected area facing the mainland. They water was a beautiful colour and there were little signs of life everywhere. There were lots of hermit crabs on the beach and I even found a large dead turtle washed up on the shores. It was a relaxing day. I'm trying to get a bit of a tan before I hit the northern winter so I spent a bit of time on that.

Thursday was the last full day in Cuba and we just chilled around Viñales. As I said before we both loved the place and it is just a nice place to kick back. Had the odd stroll around the town and the outskirts but nothing too exciting. We had decided long before that we needed to have a rumn and cigar night on the rocking chairs and this was our last chance so we ventured down to the ration stores and pick up a couple of stogies. Using the local currency and including the matches our two cigars came to the whopping total of 12 cents. Buying quality that's for sure, but if it's good enough for the locals, it's good enough for us. We also ran into a friend of Rachels who I also met in Buenos Aires when I met Rachel the first time who just randomly happened to be staying 3 doors down. That was good news because we had someone else to help with the cigars. So we settled in. Me with my mojito and the other two with Chichincharas (a drink of rum, honey and lemonade that tastes infinitely better than a mojito). And I'd be lying if I said it was a classy evening. There was a lot of screwing of faces, spitting into the garden. I can't say I enjoyed the cigar or the drink. Neither of thecigars got half finished before we called it quits for the night. But it was a bit of fun to finish off the stay in Cuba.

The next morning I took a taxi to the airport (it was ridiculous that it only cost me $5 more to get a taxi from 3 hours away to the airport than it did for the 20mins into Havana, and that was taking the scenic route across the coast rather than the highway). Jumped on an equally dicey Yak-42 and ventured back to Mexico.