Cuban Cigar & Scavenger Hunt - Travel Report
Sep 9th, 2017, 10:38 PM
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Cuban Cigar & Scavenger Hunt - Travel Report
Cuba has changed so much since last time went. Right after I landed Havana, I heard the announcement of Obama taking a momentous step of restoring full relations of the U.S. with Cuba. This erased the last trace of “cold war” hostility and the communist country since then, would never be the same.
I still remember only chartered flights were available between the U.S. and Cuba. Most travelers could fly to Havana from Toronto (only 3 hours away!), or Mexico. Now, 20 direct flights (some are even daily) are opened from cities like Miami and Los Angeles to Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. Though available, advertisements were rare, and mobile phones were not popular (yeah, no phubbers), and even common U.S. franchise, like Walmart, Starbucks, and Mcdonalds, wouldn’t be seen in Havana. I was to be charged for a few bucks an hour to use Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby. So, I thought, “what the heck”, and I had a few days in my recent life that I am off completely off the phone, and it felt… weird.
For more photos, and other experiences in Cuba, you are welcome to visit my blog @
https://knycxjourneying.com/2017/08/...cavenger-hunt/
I stayed at the Mercure Sevilla La Habana and it was a historic European-style hotel with refined and spacious rooms, rooftop restaurant, a terrace bar (that had a great view of the city including the Parliament), and an outdoor pool. It is only located in few blocks away from everything – the Parliament, Old Havana, or Melacon. Every morning I turned on CNN, opened the giant window and enjoyed the glorious view of the Parliament, countless old buildings and vintage cars that I almost thought I traveled back to 1953. These hotels were certainly not listed on hotel.com or booking.com. I had to search for hotel booking websites in Cuba, and those websites usually had about 10-20 hotels in Havana listed. Today, they could be found in booking.com and the price is already doubled.
The flea market in Old Havana’s Plaza de Armas is simply terrific. The plaza is surrounded by restaurants, shops, and live music. The market is the end result of a scavenger hunt, and it’s full of treasures. It opens in the morning and closes at around 4 pm. Old books, records, paintings, jewelry… what amazed me was that I saw a lot of vintage watches or old cameras, which might take a trillion years to find, or even be non-existent in my hometown, were just sitting there in the stalls, and were sold at wonderful prices. If you are ready to haggle, it would be your shopping paradise. I got a Raketa spring watch, which was made in the 50s in U.S.S.R. for about 20 bucks, fake or authentic, I thought it was awesome and I am still wearing it every day.
Another famous product that comes from Cuba – let’s live dangerously – are Cuban cigars. The Viñales Valley is about 2 hours away from the city of Havana and it’s a famous tobacco farm. Greeted by the tour guide and the driver (yet again I thought it was a group tour, but turned out it was only me), I hopped on a vintage Chevrolet, and we headed straight to the suburbs.
At first, I thought the Viñales Valley is filled with notorious drug lords and cigar making huts, it was actually not as “dangerous” as it sounded. Apart from the tobacco farms, it is a natural wonder with lots of interesting things to see and do.
Walk through the town where there are some nice local cafes, and some house with massive porches and vibrant paintings would turn into lively restaurants after dark. There, you could buy the luxurious COHIBA cigars at low prices.
Don’t forget to go to the top of the craggy low mountains and admire the unique landscapes of the valley from a viewpoint. These mountains are rich in limestone, covered in lush rainforest with a sheer rock surface. Farms and single story dwellings are scattered in between in the flat lands that make a picturesque impression to the viewers.
There were mountains, and there were caves. Go underground and see the impressive underground cave systems of the valley. These Indian Caves are located on the outskirts of town and it would be a leisure to walk through these caves and see the rocks and streams.
Lastly, the Mural de la Prehistoria is an icon of the valley. It is a giant, colorful mural painting on an exposed cliff about 4 kilometers west of the Viñales Village. The painting was designed by a Mexican artist Leovigildo Gonzalez Morillo in 1961. Viewers do not really have to get up close to the paintings is 120 meters long. The huge snail, dinosaurs, sea monsters and humans in the painting symbolize the theory of evolution and it’s the best way to end your visit to the valley before heading back to Havana.
For more photos, and other experiences in Cuba, you are welcome to visit my blog @
https://knycxjourneying.com/2017/08/...cavenger-hunt/
I still remember only chartered flights were available between the U.S. and Cuba. Most travelers could fly to Havana from Toronto (only 3 hours away!), or Mexico. Now, 20 direct flights (some are even daily) are opened from cities like Miami and Los Angeles to Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. Though available, advertisements were rare, and mobile phones were not popular (yeah, no phubbers), and even common U.S. franchise, like Walmart, Starbucks, and Mcdonalds, wouldn’t be seen in Havana. I was to be charged for a few bucks an hour to use Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby. So, I thought, “what the heck”, and I had a few days in my recent life that I am off completely off the phone, and it felt… weird.
For more photos, and other experiences in Cuba, you are welcome to visit my blog @
https://knycxjourneying.com/2017/08/...cavenger-hunt/
I stayed at the Mercure Sevilla La Habana and it was a historic European-style hotel with refined and spacious rooms, rooftop restaurant, a terrace bar (that had a great view of the city including the Parliament), and an outdoor pool. It is only located in few blocks away from everything – the Parliament, Old Havana, or Melacon. Every morning I turned on CNN, opened the giant window and enjoyed the glorious view of the Parliament, countless old buildings and vintage cars that I almost thought I traveled back to 1953. These hotels were certainly not listed on hotel.com or booking.com. I had to search for hotel booking websites in Cuba, and those websites usually had about 10-20 hotels in Havana listed. Today, they could be found in booking.com and the price is already doubled.
The flea market in Old Havana’s Plaza de Armas is simply terrific. The plaza is surrounded by restaurants, shops, and live music. The market is the end result of a scavenger hunt, and it’s full of treasures. It opens in the morning and closes at around 4 pm. Old books, records, paintings, jewelry… what amazed me was that I saw a lot of vintage watches or old cameras, which might take a trillion years to find, or even be non-existent in my hometown, were just sitting there in the stalls, and were sold at wonderful prices. If you are ready to haggle, it would be your shopping paradise. I got a Raketa spring watch, which was made in the 50s in U.S.S.R. for about 20 bucks, fake or authentic, I thought it was awesome and I am still wearing it every day.
Another famous product that comes from Cuba – let’s live dangerously – are Cuban cigars. The Viñales Valley is about 2 hours away from the city of Havana and it’s a famous tobacco farm. Greeted by the tour guide and the driver (yet again I thought it was a group tour, but turned out it was only me), I hopped on a vintage Chevrolet, and we headed straight to the suburbs.
At first, I thought the Viñales Valley is filled with notorious drug lords and cigar making huts, it was actually not as “dangerous” as it sounded. Apart from the tobacco farms, it is a natural wonder with lots of interesting things to see and do.
Walk through the town where there are some nice local cafes, and some house with massive porches and vibrant paintings would turn into lively restaurants after dark. There, you could buy the luxurious COHIBA cigars at low prices.
Don’t forget to go to the top of the craggy low mountains and admire the unique landscapes of the valley from a viewpoint. These mountains are rich in limestone, covered in lush rainforest with a sheer rock surface. Farms and single story dwellings are scattered in between in the flat lands that make a picturesque impression to the viewers.
There were mountains, and there were caves. Go underground and see the impressive underground cave systems of the valley. These Indian Caves are located on the outskirts of town and it would be a leisure to walk through these caves and see the rocks and streams.
Lastly, the Mural de la Prehistoria is an icon of the valley. It is a giant, colorful mural painting on an exposed cliff about 4 kilometers west of the Viñales Village. The painting was designed by a Mexican artist Leovigildo Gonzalez Morillo in 1961. Viewers do not really have to get up close to the paintings is 120 meters long. The huge snail, dinosaurs, sea monsters and humans in the painting symbolize the theory of evolution and it’s the best way to end your visit to the valley before heading back to Havana.
For more photos, and other experiences in Cuba, you are welcome to visit my blog @
https://knycxjourneying.com/2017/08/...cavenger-hunt/
Sep 10th, 2017, 06:30 AM
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SO this trip you're reporting on was well over a year ago when things first started to open up?????? Or is this about two trips? The English-as-a-foreign-language writing renders it fairly unclear.
Or are you just posting to publicize your blog?
btw, IMO, that mural in Vinales, a brightly painted, crude drawing ruining an entire cliffside, is one of the tackiest tourist traps I've ever seen. It's an ugly blight on the whole area, not worth wasting time on.
"Notorious drug lords"? You must have been smoking more than tobacco.
Or are you just posting to publicize your blog?
btw, IMO, that mural in Vinales, a brightly painted, crude drawing ruining an entire cliffside, is one of the tackiest tourist traps I've ever seen. It's an ugly blight on the whole area, not worth wasting time on.
"Notorious drug lords"? You must have been smoking more than tobacco.
Sep 21st, 2017, 12:22 PM
#4
sf - if you get on the HOHO bus at Viñales it's one of the places en route, though we didn't get off there so we only saw it from a distance.
>
I never found Viñales the least bit dangerous, apart from the path up to the first casa that we stayed at which we vacated after the first night, and the strength of the pina coladas served nightly from the mobile truck near the main square. Also it is not a good idea to buy cigars outside official shops and the farms themselves as they may be poor quality.
>
I never found Viñales the least bit dangerous, apart from the path up to the first casa that we stayed at which we vacated after the first night, and the strength of the pina coladas served nightly from the mobile truck near the main square. Also it is not a good idea to buy cigars outside official shops and the farms themselves as they may be poor quality.
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