Not long after we had finished uploading everything yesterday the rain suddenly started and it definitely meant it. The bad news about a hotel with trees growing through reception is that when it rains the whole place floods. The rain was torrential for about 3 hours which made us think about one of the plants we had seen yesterday, it had feather like leaves which when you touched them or even blew on them they completely closed over, in the rain we had the bush must have virtually disappeared! Then as quickly as it came the rain went and by the time we went to bed it had virtually stopped but the flood across reception looked like it would take some time to clear. Our drive today was only about an hour and a half but very different to the one from Havana, we drove past loads of bananas, a sugar processing plant, fish farms and lots of barns used for drying tobacco, when we were in the tobacco factory they had said that every afternoon since the factory opened in the 1880s they have an hour when either the national newspaper or a book is read to the employees. This is where a lot of the names of cigars came from, apparently they had been reading Shakespeare when the Romeo y Juliet line was introduced which is why some of the cigar’s were called Capulet and Montague. It is also where the Monticristo cigars come from as they were reading the Count of Monticristo. We arrived at the hotel about 11.00 and it is in a spectacular location although the fact it is bright pink was a little off putting. There is a lookout over the valley just next to our hotel which seems to be on the main tourist route, our room wasn’t ready and unfortunately the pool was ‘broken’ again although this time it seemed to be that it wasn’t filling as fast as they hoped so maybe when we get back tomorrow it will be ready as it has a fantastic view down the valley. We decided to sit in the bar and have some lunch. The only problem with a nice and relaxing location is that the Cubans don’t seem to come with volume control and we seem to attract them so we are always surrounded by families who don’t understand how mobile phones work and feel the need to phone everyone they know and shout down the phone that they are relaxing at the hotel! This area is another UNESCO site of geological interest where there are a number of limestone hills and caves as well as it being one of the primary areas for tobacco plantations. It was interesting on the way in the houses were of a similar design to the ones we had seen in the Deep South, pointed roofs with extended verandas but they had said in America that this had come from the Caribbean so that would probably make sense. We had some lunch then retired to our balcony which has a fantastic view down the valley and relaxed until it was time for dinner. We have booked a tour of the local area tomorrow so hopefully the sun will return for that.
