Fidel took me to Puerto Esperanza the other day. This little town is located 25 km north from Viñales and it’s a place to go if you’re “I don’t like to go to touristic places” type of traveler. Puerto Esperanza means Port of Hope and I guess people living there really need one.
Viñales is a small town but with every day it comes to me that it’s rather a city locked in small houses and countryside scenario than an actual village.
Puerto Esperanza is one of those small places where life goes slowly and time seems not exist. I don’t know any place more relaxed and safe than this little port town.
To get there we didn’t have too much options. We could have gone by bike (2h ride) or take the public guagua for 10 CUP (25 CUP=1 CUC/1 EUR) so really cheap. The guagua looks like this one below. The buses leave from the bus stop in front of the gas station and the ride takes an hour.
After arriving in Puerto we took a walk with a friend who lives there. The main road it’s pretty big and has almost…no traffic. This one is one of the few streets that are actually paved. The rest looks like this.
We spent in Puerto few hours an these were the only vehicles I saw. On the main street of course so all town felt incredibly quiet.
This main road is pretty long and I guess it’s a center of town. We could see ladies selling fruits and some clothes. There was a gym, but I’m not sure if it’s even working. Few abandoned buildings and few soviet style blocks and that was the only place we could see some people walking, talking and going somewhere.
I found also this sign. I guess the guys from Puerto need a bit of Spanish classes 😉
There’s one bar in the end of the road overlooking a marina full of fishing boats. Most of the people here live from fishing or agriculture. From the bar I could see small island not that far away and even being in the bar I could see that beaches there have a crystal clear water. Unfortunately nobody took their time to think this could be a great beach destination so there’s no way to get there. You can only seat in the bar looking at the island and hope that one day somehow you’ll be able to get there.
As the beach in Puerto Esperanza is not great there were no tourists ( I did see some Casas Particulares though). The day we went I must have been the whitest girl walking around the town. But nobody cared. People in Puerto live a calm life and much more relaxed than we here in Viñales. People walked around without shoes etc and there was nobody to fine them. In Viñales you get fined for sitting on the steps of a monument. In Puerto no tourists means no money. But it also means no problems 😉
Fidel´s Girl 