December 04 – Drive to Viñales

We were off bright an early for a drive to western Cuba, destination – Viñales.  

There were a lot of horse drawn wagons along the way...

and cows holding up traffic.

And little pyramids of drying onions for sale.

We passed a couple of large reservoirs.

Our first stop was at Las Terrazas, an ecotourism center and biosphere reserve in the Sierra del Rosario Mountains.  It became a UNESCO site in 1984.

We saw a few of the 177 bird species found there, including the West Indian Woodpecker,

a red-legged thrush,

and a Greater Antillean Grackle (looks like a plain black bird).

We had a walking tour of the grounds (lovely)

and then stopped at the Lester Campo Studio.  Some very interesting art.

The artist was there and posed with one of his large pieces.

Next stop was Soroa Orchid Garden.  The grounds were lovely...

but there were only a few plants in bloom.

Leo made some more friends.

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More Soroa Orchid Gardens
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Unfortunately, on the way back to the bus Flo slipped and had a very bad fall.  Our luggage had gone on ahead so they called the lodgings and arranged a car to come from Vinales with Flo, Caroline and Albert’s luggage and they met us to pick them up to take them back to Havana (turns out she had broken her upper arm).

We arrived in Viñales in the late afternoon.  Very simple lodgings here, although the bathroom was large.  

And they served us dinner in their large dining area.