The lush Viñales National Park has become one of the nation’s top tourism hotspots and a worthy

UNESCO World Heritage Site. It sustains mainly tobacco but also bananas, oranges, limes, and pineapples.

"As the first 18 miles of my route as far as Viñales was mainly uphill I thought I would take an 8:30am bus, but on arriving at the bus station I found it had been cancelled. Not wishing to be messed about waiting for another bus that may or may not run, I decided to set off on the bike and maybe pick up a ride en route. Once clear of the city the road became almost empty and a good tail wind not only made the steady uphill gradient easy, but also helped keep me cool, adding this to the pleasant scenery combined to make a most enjoyable ride. No later bus passed me while en route and I reached Viñales at 11:30. My original plan had been to continue on to La Palma the next town, but seeing what a beautiful area this was I decided to see if I could find somewhere to stay here first. 

Before I had even started to look for accommodation I found myself being asked by a lady if I needed a pension. Within just a few minutes I was fixed up with a comfortable room in a house on Viñales main street. It gave me the opportunity to spend the whole afternoon to explore some of this beautiful area and paint two pictures." - MH