En route to finding the path across the valley to the town I had come across two small restaurants, in one they told me that they had very good food for vegetarians and served rice and vegetables and wine. I tried to walk there at night, down a path by the hotel but after five minutes in pitch darkness with neither light nor light pollution the silence of the woods suddenly began to spook me. They had asked me if I was definitely coming and I told them I didnt know, in the darkness on the deserted path I realised I probably would have been there only guest as the night time seemed a time to dine in the hotel after all.
Back at reception after my short walk into the woods I felt sorry for two German backpackers arriving on foot after the darkness had descended and to be told that the hotel was full, as were all the others in the area. I hoped they had a torch and that they managed to catch someone with a casa to rent before everyone went to sleep.
In the evenings the other guests, Germans and Canadians and a smattering of English all suddenly appeared, milling around back from their excursions and most disappeared quite early, not lingering too long in the bar either. After dinner I sat around the pool with my wine and read by lamplight and listened to the insects and got bitten.
On my last two days in Vinales I stared to slow down and make the time go more slowly, not doing so much and not reading so much but simply sitting, or lounging by the pool and watching the beautiful valley. This watching and deliberate slowing down of time was helped by the black birds of prey circling high above the lines of tiny horses wending their way through the valley and farmers, driving their oxen minutely below.
The beauty of the lush emerald valley and the strange mountains rising up from it sometimes became a backdrop to the characters passing through it. I had positioned my lounger in the shade at the edge of the pool and at the edge of the hill top by a spot where I knew inevitably coach trippers would periodically come to take pictures and smoke and shriek.
One of them, a young flaxen haired woman appeared in front of me. She was tall and strong and tanned, statuesque and strident in an ecru sundress. She strode to the step overlooking the valley with a mojito in her hand. Next came a young man with brown haired grown a half inch out of its crew cut. He sat down closely beside her on the step where she had sat and he promptly knocked over her mojito. It crashed and splintered on the concrete and she jumped up. She was facing me now with her back to the view cursing in her lilting hurdy gurdy tones all the beauty behind her forgotten.
After taking a few sips of her cocktail the woman looked back over at him and presently got up and lead him back to the step to sit down next to her, her tones now soothing. Soon she was standing and he was taking photos of her with the valley behind her and the drink in her hand. The colour of the liquid matched the colour of her dress and her hair shone in the sunlight. After the photographs were taken she walked inside and he twas left sipping the last of the mixture around the ice cubes. There only ever had been a drink for her.
I later saw the princess at the ballet in Havana reminding me of a phenomena I had observed where people who have made some sort of impression although often not actually met make one more appearance in another place, in London even when encountered four thousand miles away, before disappearing again for ever.
What an intriguing little scene, so dramatic it must have seemed more like watching a movie. You had such an interesting time in Vinales. What made you choose to go there? Havana was such a complete contrast. People’s different reactions to the stray dogs were interesting. I kept running out of biscuits just as another one appeared 🙂
It was a fascinating scene, their roles in the relationship were sharply defined!
When I was booking the flight to Havana most of the flights were full and I had trouble booking online. I called a Cuban agency and the guy there starting asking me what I was going to get up to in Cuba. I told him about the course but that I would be spending extra time there before it and he recommended Vinales. He tried to get me into another hotel that their agency sold but it was full. Once I had decided to go there I thought I would be disappointed and not get a room but I ended up booking the Hotel Los Jazmines elsewhere and I was very pleased with my choice. None of the other hotels had such a spectacular view. The hotel staff’s attitude towards the cats and dogs was very friendly and that was a pleasant surprise. It was wonderful to sandwich a place of such peace and quiet in between London and Havana.