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To my amazement none of us had hangover this morning. I still had the dam cold and tears coming from my eyes thanks to the air con on the flight. Jenny and Miguel organised the trip to Viñales , North of Havana, a 4 hour trip in a original 1954 Chevrolet. The driver's name was Carlo - a friend of Jenny's, by the end of the day he was ours as well. Carlo knew little English but it was enough. Even though I speak Sinhalese it still embarrasses me that I can't speak another language like Spanish. While Tanguy on the other hand seems to know what to say in Spanish, French and English.
We went to meet Sheena and Peter at their hotel, the main worry was that Sheena will be on 'Sheena time' and not real time and may not be ready and have to wait. To our surprise Peter was ready having breakfast and Sheena was walking down the stairs from her room to the restaurant. They had an idea of getting some bread, Ham and cheese for us as we didn't have time to eat - this turned out to be a great idea as all of us were hungry.
As we got further away from Havana, there poverty of Cuba started to show. People were standing on either side of the road waiting for a lift or a bus. The country buses were very unusual, they are basically trunks that had their trailer converted to take passengers and squares cut on either side of the trailers for windows and ventilation. In the hot summer days these vehicles must be unbearable for people to use.
As we continued on the highway towards Viñales the thought accord to me that there wasn't much forest, most of it must have been cut down to grow crops or tobacco. It was just plain bushes with random areas of one or two trees. The roads were in good condition which I was pleasantly surprised about. Horses and carts are also in use, sometimes a rider on a horse will pop out of a field looking like a cowboy from a western film.
As we continued one by one we all fell asleep except for Carlo. As, I was in the front I found it hard to sleep so I had a conversation with Carlo about the car. It was handed down to him by his father and that the nearly 60 year old car was his livelihood. He was trying to learn English so that he can work with tourist.
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