Viñales is a town in western Cuba and we made the two hour journey there as part of an organized bus tour. Its main street is lined with colorful colonial-era wooden houses and it serves as a gateway to the Sierra de los Organos mountains and the Viñales Valley pictured above (please click on the image and then click on it again; it is the only way to appreciate the full splendor of the valley). The tall, steep-sided limestone hills, known as mogotes, are extremely photogenic and some contain caves and underground rivers. We stopped at one such cave where we explored the subterranean waterway by small boat.

Our agenda also included stops at a tobacco plantation and drying house, a rum factory, and, in the valley of Dos Hermanas, the Mural de la Prehistoria, an enormous (120 x 160 meters) al fresco painting on the side of a mogote. Created by Leovigildo González Morillo, it depicts the evolution of life in Cuba and was painted by brush over a period of five years.

Rated as one of the top restaurants in Havana, we dined at the Sociedad Asturiana Castropol after returning from Viñales. It is located right on the Malecon and as was to be expected, we enjoyed great live music.  The food was very good, but nothing to write home about.  A bargain by US standards, our meal cost what a policeman in Cuba makes in 2 months, just to put things in perspective. There are many compelling reasons to travel to Cuba but I would not place the culinary experience near the top of that list.

Given our time on the tour bus we got much less exercise today than the last two. Still we slept very well having walked to Old Havana well before dawn and finished the day with a late night stroll along the Malecon.