Very long 7 hour taxi ride, including 4 hours in a nice little peugeot and 3 bone-shaking hours in a battered Lada, and we pulled into the little town of Vinales - tobacco country!

Failed to locate our pre-arranged casa but managed to find ourselves a fab place with a sunny balcony, hot showers and comfy beds....we were starting to think that comfy beds were all US owned!

Had tasty casa dinner with two fellow guests - a highly irritating Aussie couple - before hitting the local bar to watch the local bands. Shattered we only managed a few before collapsing onto our much-needed super plush beds!

Ended up staying in Vinales for over a week because it was so relaxing and such a lovely place to chill out. On our first day, we walked a few kms to a hotel up in the hills to admire the view - Vinales is famous for tobacco and dozens of massive limestone karst peaks - and sup cocktails in the sunshine.

Spent a great day on horseback with a local tobacco farmer. To start with it was a little odd, it had been arranged through our casa owner and at the appointed time we were told to follow a guy on a bike at a discreet distance for about 15 minutes until we were given further instructions!

All subterfuge and secret acknowledgements later, we finally were led down this dirt track out of town where the man on the bike waved goodbye and another man appeared with two saddled horses.....stranger and stranger.....apparently, we learned later that this is because it is illegal to undertake any kind of private enterprise unless strictly permitted by the government!

Anyway, weirdness aside, we had great day trotting all round countryside and stopped at a little finca where we were given real coffee from the plantation, drank fresh coconut milk out of the shell and loads of fresh fruits. Then after our impromptu feast the old owner showed us round his tobacco fields and plants before making us our very own hand-rolled cigar....which we duly sampled and purchased.....how often do you have your own cigar personally rolled!?

Took a day trip to Cayo Levisa, a little caye about an hour away by bus and then a half hour boat ride. Oh my god, we have been to some truly great beaches, but this is the most beautiful so far. And after walking away from the little resort and through the wood at the end of the island we came out on a totally deserted beach with the whitest sands and the clearest, bluest water that stayed shallow for ages out from the beach!

We totally fell in love with this place and headed back for a second visit where we set up camp straight away on our secret beach and even indulged in some sneakty skinny dipping action!!

When we weren't playing Robinson Crusoe, we headed up to one of the posh hotels and spent the day sunning ourselves round the pool overlooking the valley supping daquiries - our new fav rum-based cocktail - and eating top notch grub at the casa. There were only three restaurants in town, one was alright, chicken, rice and beans and the other was a pizzaria which we pilgramaged through the dark to only to discover in classic Cuban style, that they were out of pizza!

After Tim's grooming moment in Cienfuegos, I decided to go for the chop in a little salon in town. By salon, I mean, dark room, by hairstylists, I mean people armed with scissors. Seven and a half minutes later with my hair still dry, I stumbled back out a good few inches shorted. Some might call it a sassy little bob, others might not.

Had a very surreal moment one day when we stumbled across friends from home Ash and Alex who unbeknown to us had booked into the same casa as us!! We had been planning to meet up with them in Havana but by pure fluke we bumped into each other - literally - in a town of over 300 casas!!! Obviously a big night ensued, with lots of rum and lots of dancing which bizarrely involved spanking Tim's bottom and grabbing Alex's boobs!

Spent the next day hiding hangovers under umbrellas at the pool avidly reading Heat and Cosmo magazine......