Cuba - Lonely Planet [166]
CAR & MOPED
To reach Viñales from the south, you take the long and winding road from Pinar del Río; the roads from the north coast are not as sinuous, but are pretty drives. The wildly scenic mountain road from the Península de Guanahacabibes through Guane and Pons is one of Cuba’s most spectacular routes. Allow a lot of travel time.
Car hire can be arranged at Cubacar ( 79-60-90; Salvador Cisneros No 63C; 9am-7pm) in the Cubanacán office and Havanautos ( 76-63-30; Salvador Cisneros final) opposite the gas station.
Mopeds can be rented for CUC$24 a day at Restaurante La Casa de Don Tomás.
There’s a Servi-Cupet gas station at the northeast end of Viñales town.
TAXI
Cubataxi ( 79-31-95; Salvador Cisneros No 63A) shares an office with Víazul. Drivers hanging around outside will take you to Pinar del Río for approximately CUC$15, Palma Rubia (for the boat to Cayo Levisa) for CUC$28 or Gran Caverna de Santo Tomás for CUC$13.
VIñALES BUS TOUR
The Viñales Bus Tour is a hop-on/hop-off minibus that runs nine times a day between the valley’s spread-out sites. Starting and finishing in the village’s main park, the whole circuit takes an hour and five minutes with the first bus leaving at 9am and the last at 4:50pm (with a one-hour break for lunch). There are 18 stops along the route and all are clearly marked with route maps and timetables. All-day tickets cost CUC$5 and can be purchased on the bus.
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PARQUE NACIONAL VIÑALES
Parque Nacional Viñales’ extraordinary cultural landscape covers 150 sq km and supports a population of 25,000 people. A mosaic of communities grows coffee, tobacco, sugarcane, oranges, avocados and bananas on some of the oldest landscape in Cuba. The park is administered through the highly informative Parque Nacional Viñales visitors center (Carretera a Pinar del Río Km 2) on the hill just before you reach Hotel Los Jazmines. Inside, colorful displays (in Spanish and English) map out the park’s main features. Hiking, information and guides are also on hand.
Sights
Four kilometers west of Viñales village is the Mural de la Prehistoria (admission CUC$1). On a cliff at the foot of the 617m-high Sierra de Viñales, the highest portion of the Sierra de los Órganos, this 120m-long painting on the side of Mogote Dos Hermanas was designed in 1961 by Leovigildo González Morillo, a follower of Mexican artist Diego Rivera (the idea was hatched by Celia Sánchez, Alicia Alonso and Antonio Núñez Jiménez). It took 15 people five years to complete it. The huge snail, dinosaurs, sea monsters and humans on the cliff symbolize the theory of evolution and are either impressively psychedelic or monumentally horrific, depending on your point of view. You don’t really have to get up close to appreciate the mural, but the admission fee is waived if you take the delicious, if a little overpriced, CUC$15 lunch at the site restaurant (Click here). Horses are usually available here for a short ride around the park or a longer excursion through the valley.
A kilometer beyond the turn-off to Dos Hermanas, a dirt road leads toward the mountain community of Los Aquáticos. Los Aquáticos was founded in 1943 by followers of visionary Antoñica Izquierdo, who discovered the healing power of water when the campesinos of this area had no access to conventional medicine. They colonized the mountain slopes and several families still live there. Unfortunately, the last patriarch practicing the water cure died in 2002, taking the tradition with him, but you can still visit. Los Aquáticos is accessible only by horse or on foot. Ask at your casa for guide contacts; horses can be hired from farmers living near the trailhead (CUC$10 per person for a three-hour tour with a Spanish-speaking guide). From the main road it’s 1km inland to the trailhead (just across the stream)