We enjoyed a big breakfast for the busy day ahead. We were picked up by a local dressed as a cowboy in his old pimped up car and taken to his farm. In the car we met some fellow travelers also doing the tour and we met a few more once at the farm. Here we were introduced to our guides and assigned our horses for the day before we got going.

As we left the farm, which was just outside the city, we could really take in the beautiful surrounding environment. There were mountains with pieces of farmland and animals dotted all over. We rode the horses to our first stop for the day which was at a cave. The cave was formed by water and many of the rocks have shapes that the locals have used their imagination to get them to look like certain animals. We took a walk through the cave and back to the horses to make our way to a lake for a much needed swim.

We got into the water and as we walked in we were slipping and sliding everywhere as the bottom of the lake was clay and very muddy. Liz didn’t enjoy the feeling very much so we swam out further where we couldn’t feel the bottom but after cooling off we headed back to sore to h=continue the horse riding adventure.

We followed another path which took us to a coffee plantation where we enjoyed some pineapple cocktails which are traditional to the area. They then gave us an explanation of the coffee making process. We enjoyed some time to take in the views before jumping back onto our horses and heading to the cigar factory.

This path was very muddy and Napoleon (my horse) kept wanting to stop and splash in the water. Also, for a horse with that name, he seemed to like following Mojito around (Liz’s horse). At the cigar factory one of the guys showed us how the cigars are rolled and explained that some factories remove the stem from the tobacco leaf as this is where all the nicotine is. Our tour ended here and we said farewell to our horses who went for a bath to cool down and we were dropped back at our casa.

Liz and I decided to walk up to the hotel on the hill which has a good view of the area as well as a swimming pool. Shortly after we started our walk the rain hit and by the time we got to the pool we were already soaked. The pool was empty due to the rain but we jumped in anyway and enjoyed it to ourselves for a while before the rain stopped. We chatted to some of the Cubans in the pool who were from different areas of the country. Unfortunately due to the rain we couldn’t see much of the view.

We walked back to the casa where we met up with Joe for dinner where we treated ourselves to some rabbit and duck. From the restaurant we went to a bar where we enjoyed a few cocktails and a cigar. Yes, for some reason the cocktail umbrellas ended up in my beard!

Back at the casa I read a little before calling it a night and managed to finish my book.