mySun: Apr 18, 2007

Vinales

In Vinales we hooked up again with our Spanish friends and went bike riding for the entire day. We met Pepo, a local who grew up in a nearby area so we rode out to his anut's house and had a nice visit and again fresh coffee. The day before that we watched Pepo roast his own coffee beans on a fire in his back yard - quite the skill. Then Pepo showed us about 4 or 5 caves in the area. Vinales is basically known for caves and the place where the grow the majority of tabacco in cuba. On our way home we stopped at a "fruit stand" and had fresh squessed grapefruit, pineapple and sugarcane juice. It was so refreshing and tasted better than any juice out of a container here in Canada.

Playa Ancon

and of course we did get quite a few days in at the beach. The water was really warm and the sun was hot. We even managed to come home with tanlines.

AMAZING views and architecture

Here is just a small selection of some of the amazing things we saw!

Trinidad - Alberto

This is our horseback riding guide Alberto who we fell in love with and chatted to almost everyday in our broken Spanish. He even came to wave goodbye to us on our bus to the next town.

Horseback riding with our Spanish friends

Our lovely friends Miguel and Maria set it up so we could all go horseback riding through a valley that was once all sugar cane fields. It was really beautiful and this was oene of our best days in Cuba. We rode horses up to a spring pool and then went for a swim. Oh on the way my horse slid on a rock and I slide of the horses back and even though it was REALLY scarey everyone was fine and we carried on our merry way. Then on the way back we stopped at the "ranch shack" and had our sugar cane/mango juice, our fresh coffee and also listened to Jose play the guitar. Our guide Alberto was so amazing and since maria could translate for us we learned abou the Valley history and many of the local plants. It was so cool seeing ripe mangoes just hanging off the trees.

Chris' big day - a haircut!

Chris decided he needed a haircut - he paid 3 pesos - about 5 dollars Canadian. The barber started by just hacking out the bulky hair with a really old pair of scissors. Then the fine tuning began and the barber styled it exactly like he did in 1952!!!!

Lotsa Drinks

This was my favorite drink - pineapple pop. AND of course I drank a few mojitos while Chris' fav time of the day was when we ate ice cream.

Cuba - food and drink

We loved the fresh fruit we had everyday - lots of bananas, pineapple, papaya, guava, and mango mango mango. When we ate in our casas we usually had the same thing for breakfast, egg omlette, bread, lots of fruit and some of the best coffee ever! This photo was when were in one of the local open markets
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For dinner in our casa we ate mostly rice, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread and sometimes we got a treat like french fries or fried plantains. The fresh juice was also wonderful - especially the sugarcane & mangoe juice we drank during our horseback ride just outside of Trinidad!!
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