A day of many frustrations and long drive to Vinales (Vinales has an accent on the n but can't find it!)

Many frustrations and a few more photos from yesterday

Captain Flippie Vermuelen joins us in Andros 

If yesterday was heaven, today turned out to be a bit of hell!

It already started with a few problems: Phil and I were supposed to be at a local school to greet the children at the 8 o’clock opening ceremony. But the van picked us up much too late by which time the children had retreated back to the classroom due to a rain shower and in the end we spent an hour driving around the outskirts of Varadero to pick up various friends from yesterday only to return back to the casa where John and Flippie waited for us at breakfast.

A pre-landing circuit around Varadero airfield

Runway and the aeroclub of Varadero

By 9.30am we were finally ready for departure and headed along the northern shores of Cuba towards Havana. Knowledgeable balloon enthusiast Daniel kept us busy with many informative stories about the countryside and lifestyle. Nothing much has changed since we last drove in a hire car through the entire country. That was in 2007 and Phil and I spent 2 weeks crossing the whole of Cuba from Vinales to Santiago, 1500 kilometers and challenging roads. Many times we got hopelessly lost as there were no signposts , no maps and no internet.

there are still plenty of classic cars on the roads

But even now in 2018 transportation is rather basic:  horse carts, peddle trishaws and plenty of the good old famous American Chevrolets in all colours. Internet is also still hard to come by but tourists can purchase scrap cards and use hourly wifi at certain pubs. Banks have long queues where visitors can change money into the local currency, the ‘cuc’. 

After two hours on the road we stopped for petrol somewhere downtown Havana and Jorge and another friend boarded the now slightly crowded and hot bus (no back windows and temps of 28 degrees outside).

A long drive down the empty motorway followed to Pinar del Rio. Here we collected the local province chief and checked with the gas company that would supply us with refuelling bottles for our cylinders.

Streets in Pinar del Rio

 Finally at 3pm we made it to the world heritage site and tourist hub, Vinales. This was the area that we had thought would most suitable for ballooning and our local friends had done their absolute best to get us permissions for a free flight in this beautiful area.

Flippie and John enjoying their lunch

Vinales is famous for its ancient lime stone hills, deep caves and exotic wild-life. Having had to stay at one of the then only 3 designated tourist hotels, the Eremita Hotel, there are now over 1300 little private guesthouses where travellers can lodge for very little money. 

amazing views from the patio

a gorgeous sunset over the Magotes

This certainly is a massive change from 10 years ago and brings money to the thriving local community. We were even more lucky as Jorge and Iseult offered us a night at their most stunning house built on top of a hill overlooking this breath-taking scenery.

A big home-cooked late lunch followed with black beans, rice and deliciously tender meat. All fine for now, but then luck rapidly went down the drains:

the region is famous for their tabacco

First, our aviation friends were suddenly told that there was a military airspace ban covering three provinces of Cuba including this one and the entire area would be a no-fly zone for the next 4 days – no matter what…

Second, winds were still howling and not looking promising for the next 2-3 days! And that’s after our local paraglider friend told us that he couldn’t fly for the previous 4 days due to the lack of wind!! (sadly our names are not Paul or Chris who always seem to have more luck than us with the weather!)

And last and most awful, poor Iseult who was still at work in Havana and who had offered to drive her car with the balloon trailer out to join us here, got involved in a road accident! A huge shock to all of us.

central church in Vinales

Jorge jumped in a hire taxi and drove 2 hours back towards Havana to be with her. For now there was nothing we could do, but to wait and hope for news from Jorge and the civil aviation department (and the weather). 

Daniel showing Phil his compilation of balloon documents and stories

News came by 9pm: both car passengers were fine, but one vehicle suffered substantial damage and it took a long time to sort everything with the police. Jorge and Iseult arrived back at base way after midnight.All plans for flying in the morning were abandoned.