The Best View in Cuba: Los Jazmínes

One of the things that you really can't miss when visiting Viñales is what my Lonely Planet Guide calls "the best view in Cuba!". Hotel Los Jazmines is a strawberry pink villa nestled into a hillside that looks out across a brilliant green chequer board of coffee and sugar plantations splashed with the deep rusty red of the Cuban soil. The best times to soak in the view are in the early morning when the mist creeps back as the sun rises and at sunset when the sky is streaked fiery orange behind the mountains. 

We set off on the short and winding walk up the hill hopeful but without holding our breath- that afternoon we'd had a rainstorm and the sky was still full of fat grey clouds. The spectacular sunset we had been promised looked like a no show...

On the journey we came across oxen trudging through fields dragging a plough, a troup of teenagers playing with a horse and everlasting vintage cars that would whoooosh past so that we had to hold on to our hats.

As we got higher and higher the scenery started to unfold beneath us:

After a bit on confusion we found the right track and then the hotel appeared:

 

The sky had been white with cloud and the air was still heavy with the rain that would fall throughout the night; we sat on the terrace under the canopy and waited. As we watched, the setting sun burned a hole in the clouds and the sky was set alight.

 

 

 

 

 

By the time the clouds cleared enough for a truly spectacular view the sun had already sunk too far below the skyline and the light was fading. For a few brief moments though Viñales had been lit up in all its glory and we were glad we took our guidebook's advice and bothered to hike up and find the best view in Cuba!