"a bike ride in the Morgotes." Top 5 Page for this destination Viñales Travelogue by Alain_Smeets

Vinãles: selling sugar water

After an extended breakfast with egg-cake, lot's of fruit and to finish a small cup of coffee, a real treat, we are waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. We gather again at our casa "Dulce Maria" and we see the rest riding their bikes. These bikes are on loan from the neighbours and rented out to us. We ride the same bikes that the modal Cuban uses to travel over the roads. You see them mostly walking next to their bike when it goes uphill. So this is something to look forward to in the hilly countryside of Vinãles. These are all Chinese bikes, as Frank from Pinar told me later. The saddle of my bike rocks constantly and only the brake on the front is working. It's a strange bung, when you see us riding. Only one bike has shift-gear and the others have a fixed gear. John's bike looks the prettiest, but it's a driving disaster, a danger on the road. His breaks are not working and this brings him in some comical but also dangerous situations. So we drive to a workshop were they try to fix the brakes, but they can't fix it here. If you look at such a bike, then you see that it's a strange collection of parts that don't belong together. Take the brakes for example, they don't belong to this bike and that makes the break blocks hanging to low. So they are fitting only half on the wheel and therefore they don't function properly. John has also a broken brake cable and this can't be fixed here.

Vinãles: the morgotes

Here we experience ourselves one of the biggest problems in Cuba: no spare parts. But they are very resourceful on this area, just walk through the streets and every where you see, you will see people hanging under the motor hood of the car, sometimes load discussing with each other how to fix things. But mostly they work in silence out of respect for their old timers and partly because they have no other solution. It looks like all the cars are coming out of a movie about the fifties or sixties. Now and then you see a modern car. Next to these old timers you see also a lot of Lada's and Moskovisch on the roads.

Vinãles: the morgotes

But back to story of the bike-reparation. This happens in a small workshop, were everybody comes to repair their bike or the fix the hole in a tire from a tractor to a bike. You see people here working on their tractors. John and Marinette decide to ride back to the casa to change bikes. The rest of the group starts its drive towards the Cueva del Indio or the cave of the Indian through a glowing landscape surrounded by the Morgotes.

It's a landscape that radiates a certain atmosphere and you see lots of things happening. Over these roads, there are horse cars, tractors, cars and trucks driving. Everybody is honking their horns from far to announce their coming, so that you don't through yourself in front of them during a manoeuvre. That is one of the things that you will experience in Cuba, the honking of the cars and trucks. Next to the road, we see some people cutting sugarcane; this brings us to a water and photo stop. Driving these bikes is not so easy, the fixed gear is just to big to go easily uphill and the size of the bike is not suited for our bodies, or to big or to small. But the marvellous surrounding and the groups-atmosphere make more then up for this.

The road stays hilly and the 2 German ladies that we met yesterday pass us. They are here on a bike holiday and have their own bikes with them. If it goes downhill, I have to be extra careful because only my front brake is working and this is not pleasant if you have to make an emergency stop. When we reach the Cueva del Indio, we wait on John and Marinette. The rest is very pleasant in this early hour and we found at last a spot in the shade, were the burning sun can't reach us.

Vinãles: the morgotes

Karl stayed at the casa, were he is resting from the heavy "exercises" he had to make the past evenings with his Cuban girlfriend. It was always late before he entered his bed. First we were thinking that he was love sick, but the future will prove us wrong. As John and Marinette arrive, we are going to visit the cave. We pay the entrance fee and walk then to the entrance of the cave, a 5 metres above the ground. Here we walk in the lightened hallways until we arrive at an underground lake of river were we have to wait. Behind us, 3 more people arrive. At the cave wall hangs a phone and Nele is wondering if we should call anyone. So she takes the horn and what she hears on the other side of the line, she doesn't tell us. After a while we here a roaring coming from the dark, a boat is coming toward us followed by a petrol smell. After a short, a really short ride in the boat, I guess 10 minutes, we are back outside. First the boat turned to the right hand side, but after a short while it turns around and we pass the starting point again and soon we see the daylight coming toward us. We are in a small pound and we have to get out of the boat. A Belgian tourist who was here before called this already a tourist trap on his website and we walked into it with both feet. Yes, we were taking for a boat ride, as a figure of speech's.

Vinãles: the morgotes

After this musical lunch we ride back to Vinãles were we having a short terrace brake at our casa, Dulce Maria. First we fix the saddle of Marijke's bike that always points to the sky and that makes her slipping of the saddle. We are sitting cosy together and we notice that we are next to 2 busy roads to Cuban standards. We see regular trucks, ox-cars and bikes stop at the intersection. This could be a great picture, but our camera's are not in our direct proximity. Will we are relaxing, Karl shows up. He slept until 13h00 and has just finished his breakfast. He practiced his Spanish with the landlord. We are again riding our bikes, but now to the other side of town, again Karl isn't joining us. Apparently it's too hot for him. The landscape is totally different from the other side, were we saw before the lunch a lot of fields and sugarcane, we see at this side the red soils that is used to grow tobacco. Everything looks poorer at this side: the houses are small and erected out of lime and wood. The landscape stays overwhelming; imagine you this picture when you ride over the glowing roads, under a baking sun, the sweet on our face and arms, with the Morgotes on the background. There is no comparison for this, the word assume or overwhelming isn't big enough to catch this moment. We are going to the Mural, but before we get there we see a farmer working the fields with a few oxen. He's using a simple device to flatten the surface, a wooden plate with a heavy barrel on to of it. I was just to late to make the picture, because he's leaving his oxen to work on the field. I hope to see him again on the way back to our casa. From a distance the Mural looks beautiful: a recent rock-painting that represents the prehistory. To bad that the sun is hiding behind the clouds at the moment. Nele is the only one who wants to visit the Mural from up close. She says that they used a special technique to paint the Mural, it's painted in stripes, one stripe black, one stripe green or the colour that one wants to have, but always that stripe of black in between. We are wondering why. We are riding back while Marinette waits for Nele, so that we can make some pictures. First we stop at the farmer but he's not to be seen, we decide to wait here for Nele and Marinette. We see at the house some children playing and they see us also and they are running towards us. When we see them it's like a shock, with there worn off clothes. But they have also those smiling and happy faces that show an unknown joy for life. They ask for a candy and luckily John has some with them. We are making some pictures and Marijke decides to go back to the case to get the second hand clothes that she has with her. It's better to give these to the people on the countryside then to the people in the town. Because here the people need them much more then the people in the town. The children are already very playful around us. They ask John if he can make a picture of their little brother and when John rides out with them, I and Marijke are riding back to get the clothes.

Vinãles: the morgotes (photo: Jean Coolen)

After this musical lunch we ride back to Vinãles were we having a short terrace brake at our casa, Dulce Maria. First we fix the saddle of Marijke's bike that always points to the sky and that makes her slipping of the saddle. We are sitting cosy together and we notice that we are next to 2 busy roads to Cuban standards. We see regular trucks, ox-cars and bikes stop at the intersection. This could be a great picture, but our camera's are not in our direct proximity. Will we are relaxing, Karl shows up. He slept until 13h00 and has just finished his breakfast. He practiced his Spanish with the landlord. We are again riding our bikes, but now to the other side of town, again Karl isn't joining us. Apparently it's too hot for him. The landscape is totally different from the other side, were we saw before the lunch a lot of fields and sugarcane, we see at this side the red soils that is used to grow tobacco. Everything looks poorer at this side: the houses are small and erected out of lime and wood. The landscape stays overwhelming; imagine you this picture when you ride over the glowing roads, under a baking sun, the sweet on our face and arms, with the Morgotes on the background. There is no comparison for this, the word assume or overwhelming isn't big enough to catch this moment. We are going to the Mural, but before we get there we see a farmer working the fields with a few oxen. He's using a simple device to flatten the surface, a wooden plate with a heavy barrel on to of it. I was just to late to make the picture, because he's leaving his oxen to work on the field. I hope to see him again on the way back to our casa. From a distance the Mural looks beautiful: a recent rock-painting that represents the prehistory. To bad that the sun is hiding behind the clouds at the moment. Nele is the only one who wants to visit the Mural from up close. She says that they used a special technique to paint the Mural, it's painted in stripes, one stripe black, one stripe green or the colour that one wants to have, but always that stripe of black in between. We are wondering why. We are riding back while Marinette waits for Nele, so that we can make some pictures. First we stop at the farmer but he's not to be seen, we decide to wait here for Nele and Marinette. We see at the house some children playing and they see us also and they are running towards us. When we see them it's like a shock, with there worn off clothes. But they have also those smiling and happy faces that show an unknown joy for life. They ask for a candy and luckily John has some with them. We are making some pictures and Marijke decides to go back to the case to get the second hand clothes that she has with her. It's better to give these to the people on the countryside then to the people in the town. Because here the people need them much more then the people in the town. The children are already very playful around us. They ask John if he can make a picture of their little brother and when John rides out with them, I and Marijke are riding back to get the clothes.

Vinãles: oxen

Doing this means that we will not be in time to see the sunset at Los Jaminez, but nobody minds. We again ride our bikes across the glowing hills and are making good time. The rest is surprised when we get back, something gave us wings to ride hard. Marijke can bring the clothes to the home together with the rest of the children. After a while they are calling us or better said, we hear John's whistle. We have to go to the house. The oldest child is already coming towards us to get us. We get just like Marijke and John some sugar and water. They give what they can spare to show their gratitude. The family has 7 children and the oldest daughter, 16 years old, has also 1 or 2 children. It's a very simple clean house, not to the needs of a European. This is the first time in Cuba that we see the poverty close by. These are then the Cubans who can't get their hands on dollars. The father has it difficult; he's fighting against the tears. They invite us to have dinner here tomorrow to show their gratitude, but we say that we have to go to Pinar del Rio tomorrow. I think nobody wanted to eat there, but the taught that prevails in my mind is that they will save food out of their mouth to offer us a meal. They offer us a roof over our heads if we ones decide to come back to Cuba. Their house will always be open for us. Meanwhile has the little rascal, the youngest son, us involved in a game we don't understand. He moves, me, Nele and Wim from one place to another en then you plays a game that you have to put your hand around a stick and the one that holds it as last, wins. I made the mistake to win one time and he was not happy with that. So we were careful to loose all the time. The winner, he, throws the stick on the ground en he draws several figures on the ground and keeps us moving from one place to the other. We have no clue what game he's playing, but he's having fun.

When we ride back, we are talking about the things that happened today and I make then the reflection that our lives in Belgium are very good, unfortunately, not all people are considering that. The people who dare to complain in an Western society should be send to a place like this in Cuba, see if they still will complain. We also praise the diplomacy of Marijke, she didn't go there as a wealthy tourist who offered her second hand clothes to this family. No she entrusted her clothes to this family to share them with the rest of the community. Back at our Casa particular Dulce Maria, we enjoy the moments and impressions that we just experienced.