Martin um die Welt: 9) Playa Maria la Gorda and Vinales

Freitag, 2. Mai 2014

9) Playa Maria la Gorda and Vinales

The next day (30.04) we drove to Playa Maria la Gorda. On the way our car made more and more strange noises. We simply hoped it would last until we are back in Havanna a few days later. Before coming to Maria la Gorda, we stopped at the National Park office near La Bajada. There we booked a guided tour through parts of the park for this day. When we arrived at Playa Maria la Gorda, we recognized that all the place was about one hotel: Hotel Maria la Gorda. We decided to stay only for one night. The beach looked great but the sand was rather stoney and entering the water was not too easy. But we had some nice swims and walk along the coast. I booked a dive for the next morning and then we went to for our tour through the National Park. Our guide was very knowledgable and told us a lot about the nature there but also about his life in Cuba. Ofcourse telling us all the time that he earns so few money and needs more from tourists^^ We saw some nice birds, small leguans, crabs hiding from the sun and a hole at the coast that had an underwater connection to the sea and so was filled with many small fish and some corals.
Before going for the dive the next morning (01.05.), I met an elder lady during breakfast buffet who joined my table while Franzi was out for a run. After some chatting I offered her that we could give her a ride to Vinales later the day. Franzi came and took over while I went for the dive. The worst dive "center" I've ever seen. Most of the materials were worn down, the staff was hardly friendly and not communicative at all. But some other guests made the trip very enjoyable... and the dive itself was nice too... some great divethroughs and the famous Cuban black corals, although the latter are not very spectacular. Franzi went snorkeling in the meantime. Some more sunbathing before we left with the lady for Vinales. In addition to the elder lady we also gave a ride to our guide from the day before - funny coincidence. The lady spoke excellent spanish which was handy and told us a lot of interesting stories about her travels in Latin America. We stopped to buy Cuban local cigars for 10cent a piece (the Cohiba sold to tourist costs ~8€ a piece). After the guide exited we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended in a village. But before turning around we stopped and enjoyed coffee at a newly opened cafe (Cubans are more freely allowed to open new business since a few months thanks to Raul Castro's reforms). Even here it didn't take long for a young guy to approach us trying to sell information and an accomodation for Vinales. We friendly ignored him while the lady who owned the store told us about her family and her new cafe. We then continued to Vinales.

Playa Maria la Gorda

beach is always fun :)

nice birds in the National Park

Crab hiding from the sun in the National Park

Our guide and Franzi approach this hole in the coast

the hole had an underwater connection to the sea and was filled with small fish

one of the cutest cafes ever :)

Before entering Vinales we stopped at the Tourist Information 100m next to Hotel Los Jaminez. There we saw walking routes explained... but best was the view from there... all that is free compared to enjoying this view from the Hotel (as recommended by the poor Cuba LonelyPlanet). As it started raining we drove the elder lady to the Casa where she wanted to stay. As we considered the place too far off, we drove back in town and found plenty particulares close to the main street. We decided to dedicate the whole next day to trekking around Vinales and thus stayed for two nights. The next morning (02.05.) we went for a big walk starting at Hotel La Ermita going west around Vinales finally coming into Vinales again from north. Vinales is like a big farm around the village... cows, horses, chicken families, farmers, tractors and much more. The soaring sun and heat required us to make plenty stops for refreshments. A really relaxing day all in all :) The next day (03.05.) we visited the huge painting of Vinales which is supposed to look like from the stoneage... however, it rather looks like a massively overscaled child-painting. We enjoyed another view from the tourist information over Vinales before we drove back towards Havanna.