Viñales - The Cuban town that works on its own

Viñales: The Cuban town that works on its own

A thriving tourism economy spurs residents to be their own bosses
Private guest houses and restaurants line the streets
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com

VIÑALES, CUBA
María Pérez sells little wooden birds and straw hats to the tourists who
visit an open-air market near this small town's main street, but she and
her husband dream of adding a room to their home so they can cash in on
the tourism boom.

The draw is the scenic Viñales Valley. With its caves and stalactites,
flat-topped limestone mogotes, mineral baths, springs and archaeological
digs, it has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

You could also call nearby Viñales the town of cuentapropistas.
Self-employment has really bloomed in this community of about 28,000
people that lies 130 miles southwest of Havana.

Along Calle Salvador Cisneros, the main drag, you can have your pick of
cuisine at the many paladares (private restaurants) and bars that have
sprung up in old tile-roofed buildings. There's El Olivo that advertises
"a Mediterranean diet," the Mar Mágico seafood restaurant, a vegetarian
restaurant, pizzerias, and the sleek black-and-white-themed La Cuenca,
which serves a mix of Cuban and international cuisine.

At the 3J Bar de Tapas, the blenders behind a bar flooded with pink
light are whirring as two barmen churn out piña coladas, mojitos and
caipirinhas.

The corner property — the second-oldest house in Viñales — had been
vacant for 15 years when Jean Pierre Rojas bought it three years ago. It
was a wreck, but the price was right, he said. And the serial
entrepreneur was up for the challenge.

"People thought I was crazy when I bought it," he said. But he turned it
into a stylish place with exposed brick walls and crystal chandeliers.
The thick wooden doors of the original house remain and open up onto the
front walkway where a few more tables have been set up.

Even on a weeknight, the 3J was full of patrons munching on seafood
tapas, barbecued lamb, ravioli and croquetas.

Rojas also runs a restaurant that serves typical Cuban food and rents
out rooms. Between all his enterprises, Rojas employs 35 people.

His biggest problem, he said, is getting the basic supplies he needs to
run his businesses. "I go to Havana twice a week to hunt for things,"
Rojas said. He even buys the baguettes for his sandwiches in the capital
because no one bakes them in Viñales.

"We're very happy to have these opportunities, but I think if I were
running a business like this anywhere else in the world, it would be
four times easier," he said.

"This was a very poor area before tourism," Rojas said as he surveyed
the lively scene at the 3J, which takes its name from the beginning
initial of his first name and those of his two sons. "I think this is
great. The moment has arrived."

With only a few state-run hotels — the Horizontes La Ermita, where
guests gather on the lawn to watch sunsets over the valley, the Hotel
Rancho San Vincente and the bright pink Hotel Los Jazmines that sits
near an overlook with spectacular views of the mogotes — entrepreneurs
have sprung into action.

Private homes painted brilliant hues of lime green, pink, sky blue,
sunshine yellow, turquoise and coral offer rooms and apartments for
rent. Some boast fanciful names: Casa Arcoiris (Rainbow House), La Casa
de las Sonrisas (the House of Smiles) and Villa Musical, but they're
generally named after their proprietors.

On some blocks, nearly every home offers rooms, and one enterprising
group of neighbors in a row of two-story homes has joined forces and is
offering their homes as a package so that larger groups — up to 20
people at a time — can be accommodated.

Airbnb, the San-Francisco-based home-stay company that launched
operations in Cuba in April 2015, has 200 listings in Viñales. Only
Havana and Trinidad have more Airbnb hosts. The average Cuban host makes
$250 per booking, making the casa particular business far more lucrative
than most Cuban jobs — even if hosts get only one booking per month.

But there are many more casas particulares in Viñales that aren't in the
Airbnb network. Fernando García, who has listed his casa on the
outskirts of Viñales on Airbnb, estimates that there are more than 1,000
casas particulares in and around the town. And he says there are more
than 50 private restaurants.

"The competition here is fierce," he said. In the past year alone, he
said hundreds of additional rooms have come on the market.

In this crowded field, the casas compete by offering extra amenities and
services. A welcome mojito is pretty standard, but other casas advertise
salsa lessons, hiking excursions, horseback riding and bicycle tours.
Others tout their rooftop bars, massages, barbecue or special vegan
menus. These services and extras are often provided by other
cuentapropistas.

García, who also runs a restaurant and bar, knows the importance of
differentiation and puts an emphasis on customer service. When his
guests arrive, he offers them juice, coffee or a cocktail. "They always
like to have something on the house," he said.

His extensive gardens that produce fresh fruit and vegetables for his
guests, his tasty barbecue, the prime views of the valley from his
property and his location — rural yet only about 6/10th of a mile from
town — help set him apart, García said.

Since joining Airbnb, he's been booking a lot more American travelers,
and recent guests have come from as far afield as Australia and
Switzerland. His wife and niece help out, but juggling the restaurant,
bar, rooms and gardens is a lot of work, he said.

García said he could have far more reservations if he had Wi-Fi at his
house. Every morning, he goes into town to the office of ETECSA, the
state telecom company, where he checks email and his reservation
requests. But he knows he is losing business — especially from guests
who want instant confirmation that a room is available — by not having
better-than-once-a-day internet access.

Within six months, he hopes to add at least another room, but perhaps as
many as four. "It all depends on how things work out," he said.

This is the crowded club that María Pérez aspires to join.

During the week, she works for a cuentapropista who owns the stall where
she works; on the weekends, she works at her home giving fancy
manicures. She and her husband share a bedroom with their baby son, but
they're trying to fix up a room to rent out. "I'm trying, but it's hard
working so much here," she said.

"Everyone here rents a room," Pérez said. "It's because there's so much
tourism."

She used to have a job at an air-conditioned state store, but she much
prefers working at the street fair selling carved wooden spoons, magnets
and other souvenirs because the pay is better.

Along Calle Salvador Cisneros, other cuentapropistas have taken
advantage of the foot traffic and restaurant-goers to set up shop. One
man repairs cellphones; another, watches. Nearby, a young woman awaiting
an al fresco manicure soaks her hands in a plastic basin while a man
hawks pots and pans and hardware he has spread out on a cloth on the
sidewalk.

The cuentapropistas are even more imaginative at Los Jazmines overlook,
which provides panoramic views of the valley, the mogotes and Los
Órganos mountain range in the distance.

Yohan Alejandro Ulloa, an actor and street performer, has perfected the
art of sitting statue-still as he portrays Tite, El Chichiricú, a famed
tobacco roller from Pinar del Rio. He wears bronze makeup from head to
toe, and even his cigar-rolling table and instruments are bronzed.

He's so realistic as a bronze statue, right down to the tiny bronzed
curls of hair that he makes by rolling thread around a pen and them
applying a gum, that he often startles visitors when he changes position
or opens his eyes. He has pre-bronzed his clothes, but it still takes
him about a hour each day to apply his makeup.

"I've been doing this art for more than two years," he said, adding that
he's a legal independent performer with "all the relevant government
permits. I prefer to work on my own, rather than for an organization,
because economically it works out better."

You might think the grizzled guajiro who works the parking lot at the
same overlook and offers rides on a saddled ox for about $1 is an
enterprising cuentapropista, as well. No, he said, he works for the state.

Ulloa used to work in a tobacco factory in Pinar del Rio — the
provincial capital where he lives — portraying, but cameras weren't
allowed inside the factory, cutting into his earnings potential with
tourists.

It's lucrative enough and there are enough tourists at Los Jazmines
overlook that he's willing to make a daily 40-minute trek from Pinar del
Rio.

But that commute may start to take longer. On a recent day, several tour
buses and classic cars clogged the road leading out of town in front of
El Campesino, a popular paladar known for its barbecued chicken. Viñales
is starting to have traffic jams.

Source: Viñales: The Cuban town that works on its own | In Cuba Today -
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