Dec 8 - Drive to Vinales

An early start
Ruth got up at 6:30 to take some pictures of the sun raise. Very beautiful and romantic even when you are walking up Malecon by yourself. Havana is very peaceful in the morning before all the tourists come out :-)

Car Rental - check your confirmation...
Christof got up at 8:15 and around 9:00 we were ready for our breakfast. Ruth was eager to get to the car rental. We took a cab to the airport where we were supposed to pick up our 4x4 with soft top! At the rental office they did not have a reservation from us, the guy drove us over to the main terminal. Same story there - no reservation. After three hours of discussions and waiting (Christof considered calling his company's travel service to "get us out of there"). Ruth eventually got us a Peugeot 205. Half the car for twice the price.Studying the "confirmation" email revealed some small fine print at the bottom: "if you like to book this car, please send us an email to confirm your reservation". So we never booked a car. We learned that what may look like a confirmation and even shows a confirmation number can be just as easily a simple email.
On the road to Viñales
Road navigation turned out to b a challenge. With no street signs around, we missed the entrance to the highway - it looked like a side road. Luckily Christof had put a map of Cuba on his GPS. It was not always 100% accurate and did neither include all the small streets nor street names or turn-by-turn directions, but it allowed us to determine where we were and how much "off" we were compared with the tourist map that was our only other navigation tool. Eventually we found the highway leading to the north. You can find more information about the GPS map here. (Thanks to Richard Smith for the work he put into mapping the entire caribbean - you're our hero!)We stopped at a gas station. They had packaged ham and cheese sandwiches (Christof loves ham and cheese sandwiches). They put them into the microwave. They also had all kinds of cookies and chips along with a variety of soft drinks, ice cream, and we even spotted Beck´s beer. We left the highway right after the gas station and drove towards Soroa. Our cab driver in Havana had given us instructions. Without his advice we would never have found the road. The road was actually much better than the highway.

Hotel Los Jazmines
Sure enough we missed the hotel, there was no sign when coming from Viñales but after turning around a wonderful new green sign showed the way. An amazing hotel, kept in pink. All rooms have a view to the mountains - looks a bit like Tanzania - breathtaking and very relaxing. The hotel has a nice swimming pool. Even tough the hotel is very nice, the food is not, just like the guide book promised. The menu was very European - Spaghetti etc. Ruth had fruits for a starter and fish as the main course. The plate arrived with rice and French fries I thought I am in England :-) Christof ordered Spaghettis and with a beer and a water we paid 13 Pesos.
Unfortunately Ruth had 2 Mojitos, so fighting and going to bed at 20:15 was unavoidable. Ruth made a note to herself to stop drinking.

Things we noticed: • Hotels don't provide toilet brushes • Forget about road signs. Heck, there are not that many roads to begin with... • Bring a GPS (forget stories about GPS' being illegal. The alternative is getting lost. Check out http://rwsmaps.griffel.se • When you miss an exit on the autopista - just "bang a u'ie" and turn around