Mogote

A walking tour of the Valle de Vinales in the morning with a very good guide that our host at the casa organised for us (I’m afraid I promptly forgot his name about two minutes after he’d carefully taught us how to pronounce it!) We trekked through farmland to the mogotes, stopping at a plantation en route for a talk and a demonstration of cigar rolling – though we turned down the chance to smoke one like the lightweights that we are… Then it was a scramble up the side of the mogote and through a tunnel to the other side – a natural passage but apparently widened after the fall of the Soviet Union to provide a shelter for Cubans who were in fear of attack. Later on we had a wander into town, bought water from the dollar shop and had a slightly unnervingly Lynchian experience at the Jardin Botanico (the family that tend it, presumably – two youngish men and a very old woman – were sat on the verandah; the spokesman for the group, who had a slightly odd high-pitched lisp of a voice, was apparently offended that we opted to look round without guidance and the vibe was weird. Having made our “contribution”, and leaving through the house, bedecked in somewhat garish catholic religious memorabilia, I mistakenly glanced through an open door where a very corpulent, semi-naked man was sprawled and snoring. We exited as quickly as possible without actually breaking into a run…!)