adventure, on!

It's amazing how much Spanish you know when someone is trying to rip you off.

This weekend in Vinales, in la casa particulare de Grisel (her name even sounds conniving), my Spanish skills moved beyond ordering at restaurants to full-throttle anti-swindling vocabulary.

My friends and I came in on the defense because Grisel tried to charge us $30 extra CuC because when she meant "5 CuC for food per day" she really meant "5 CuC for dinner, breakfast, drinks and napkins."

Hmm.

That did not work out so well. It would have been different if we hadn't specifically established a price at the beginning, 15 CuC per night and 5 CuC for food per day. This per day part was very important because she assured us she meant 5 CuC a day, not a meal.

We have been in Cuba long enough to know not to assume anything.

I may only be studying here, but I know by now there are people who are not looking out for your best interests and will try by any means to do whatever it takes to get what they want. My friends and I had our anti-swindle faces on and paid exactly what we agreed to pay, despite the remarks of how stupid we were or threats to call the police (and by calling the police her husband meant going out to the street and yelling “policia” and then sitting down on the front porch to smoke).

In my head I was thinking, please sir, I would love to talk to the police and tell them you are harassing tourists.

That is a major “no” in this country.

Despite the psychological exhaustion from the situation, I can’t help but see it as the time my not-so-fluent friends and I battled the beasts of trickery and prevailed.

On that note, Vinales turned out to be the ideal adventure with all the necessary components to make it grand:

Grand component uno:

Outdoor activities--- These included horseback riding, swimming (in both a lake AND CAVE), spelunking, bike riding and hiking.

Grand component dos:

New friends/Old friends--- William, our guide for Spelunking, restored my faith in Vinales and made me realize not all Cubans there were out to swindle. When two of our bikes got flat tires and we couldn’t bike home, he helped convince a group of tourists to let us take their cab. I certainly don’t take that for granted.

We also made friends with our horses: Choupa Choupa, Caramelo, Linda, Chiquitica, Moraina and Semi-Automatico.
Also, it’s nice to have flat tires and ride horses with friends who consider the outdoors to be as great as you think it is.

Grand component tres:

Cave bar--- Saturday night we went to a bar in a cave that just so happened to have a live band. After a day of horseback riding, biking and spelunking, how could you resist not being the first ones to dance?

Grand component cuatro:

Challenges--- My padres always say that character is built from adversity. As crappy as Grisel made our Sunday morning, I spoke (even if it was quite assertive) more Spanish than I thought I could have.

But was it worth the trip to deal with crappy rental bikes and a sneaky hustler?

If it meant jumping into a freezing cold cave pool and turning a white T-shirt to a spelunking shade of brown afterwards, you’re damn straight it was.

La reina de cuevas,

Sara la fresa

p.s. I changed my mind about cold fronts. They mean less of a wait for ice cream.