A lot of people say that they pay to see it and it's not worth it. Well our guide knew of a little hump of concrete concealed in a little bit of a bush clearing just off the side of the road near the campground that gave us the direct view of the wall for free. Sure, it looks like a faded child's painting but it a lot more than that.
This took four years to paint and gets repainted in chunks every five years because the rain washes the paint off (the bottom right is currently being repainted).
What makes this so interesting? After the revolution this site was picked for this mural which depicts evolution (even our guide doesn't know why there are dinosaurs fighting and no monkey's. I was shocked by the evolution thing as this is a heavily Catholic country). Since this was the spot picked for the mural, people had to strip these rocks of all vegetation because this was a fully forested mountain side. That means they cleared trees, foliage, grass, moss, you name it, off the side of a mountain. They then hung people on ropes from the top who then painted this entire thing by hand. This is why it took four years to do. They created their own canvas and then filled it in.
From left to right the painting depicts mollusks in the ocean become sea creatures, dinosaurs fighting each other, and then ending with a family of humans on the far right.
If you are wanting to get close to it then you can pay CUC 6 to get in or eat lunch at the on-site restaurant for CUC 15 to have the entrance fee waived. If you have time or you are staying in Vinales then you can actually hike the left side of the painting, to the top of the blue section just above the dinosaurs fighting. There are also usually people here renting horses for horse back riding for about CUC 5 / hour.
