Viñales: Swap Cuba’s beaches for a dramatic mountain landscape

Even the drive west on the six-lane motorway from Havana to the quiet province of Viñales is an adventure: cars, tractors and bikes make their way over potholes and crumbling asphalt. Cows, too – several times you have to slow down because of curious cattle along the route. Farms and fields with tobacco and maize, bananas, palm trees and bushes line the last kilometres on bumpy country roads. Miguel has groomed and saddled his massive humpback cattle. “I hope there will soon be as many tourists as before,” says the old man with bright eyes and laugh lines. Here on the hill, the view of the lus…

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