Hotels - La Ermita

About  La Ermita

You know you're in for a visual treat as you snake uphill to this three-star hotel perched on the precipice of a mogote (limestone hillock) with dramatic vistas across the Valle de Viñales. 

Designed in neo-colonial fashion, La Ermita hotel is laid out in a kind of half-moon around spacious lawns studded with an attractive Olympic-size swimming pool. The Las Terrazas restaurant, decorated country style and serving a motley menu of continental and traditional criolla fare, overhangs the valley – a superb setting. The mood is enhanced by live troubadors. Make the most of breakfast here, but you're better off dining in the village by night.

Hotel La Ermita accommodations are in four two-story blocks with shaded porches or balconies with Adirondack chairs. Choose your room carefully, as some of the blocks are angled at ninety-degrees to the valley. A few older rooms are further back and don't have quite the same enthralling views. 

Rooms are kept spic-and-spac, although at last visit they showed visible signs of aging. Ceiling fans help keep things cool, and there's air-conditioning for those who prefer. Furnishings are utlitarian – nothing fancy here – and things could be improved with better quality mattresses. But overall, rooms are comfy enough and, let's face it, unless it's raining you're going to be out exploring.

It's a 30-minute downhill hike into town, but taxis are usually on hand outside the hotel. Must-see attractions include Prehistoric Mural, Palmarito and Ancon valleys, etc.

Valle de Viñales, Pinar del Río

Mural of Prehistory

Across the massive rock face of Mogote Dos Hermanas, Diego Rivera disciple Leovigildo González (or the 25 farmers he directed) painted this immense—200 x 300 meters (660 x 990 feet)—luridly colored mural of prehistoric men and creatures, between 1959 and 1962. In this Mural, Cuban artists have portrayed pre-historical moments of the territory, where archeologists and some other researchers have found evidences of the geological development along millions of years. As part of the comfortable environment amidst the countryside it boasts an assorted cafeteria and a restaurant, plus the charming camping Dos Hermanas. 

Extremo norte de la calle Salvador Cisneros, Valle de Viñales, Pinar del Río

Jardín Botanico de las Hermanas Caridad y Carmen Miranda

This slightly oddball, 100-year-old garden surrounds a farmhouse on the northern edge of town. It was started by a man, whose daughters both lived here into their nineties and created an idiosyncratic world for themselves. Billows of bougainvillea blossoms, flowering shrubs, and fruit trees are populated by dolls and toys, mostly threadbare now and even a little macabre in places. It's not terribly tidy but it is interesting, with chickens clucking around and gardeners at work. After a stroll through the shady garden, you can sit on wicker chairs and sample some fruits. The house is full of antique furniture and photos, which a grand-niece of the sisters will happily show you. 

Valle de Viñales, Pinar del Río

Vinales National Park

Viñales National Park declared Cultural Landscape and World Heritage by UNESCO because of the way its natural features have been integrated with the activities that the valley’s farmers have engaged in over the centuries. Their impressive mogotes (tall, rounded, flat-topped heights with vertical sides) stand in sharp contrast to the red-soil plains at their bases. This area contains the oldest rocks in the country, and many fossils of marine reptiles, mollusks and fish from the Jurassic Period have been found here.

Camino a San Vicente, Valle de Viñales, Pinar del Río

Cueva del Indio (Cave of the Indian)

Cave of the Indian is crossed by the San Juan River (navigable). Visitors enter the cave through a narrow opening and follow a well-beaten, dimly lighted stone trail for 255 meters (842 feet), narrowing and widening until you reach a high-ceilinged grotto and an underground river. You board a boat here for a short cruise (300 meters [990 feet]) past illuminated stalagmites. The boat takes you out of the cave through a narrow, vine-draped opening in the rock. 

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