Viñales

On Saturday, Ani, Emily, Lily, Rachael, Katie and I went to Viñales, a small touristy town located in the eastern province of Pinar del Rios, the heart of Cuban tobacco production. Some people from our group had already gone to Viñales a few weeks ago and had highly recommended visiting, so we got up early to catch the bus. Unfortunately, the Viazul bus (the state company that runs buses for tourists) decided to not pick us up at the bus station and we were delayed four hours. The ride itself wasn’t bad – Viñales is only three hours from Havana. We arrived at four and saw the León León who I had talked to on the phone about arranging a casa particular waiting for us with a sign.

The town center

León and his wife were very hospitable and brought us some guava juice while we registered with our passports. I stayed in his house in one room while Emily and Lily stayed in the other room; the other girls stayed in rooms next door.

The whole town is obviously geared towards tourism – almost every other house was a casa particular and there were a couple of touristy restaurants located in the very small town center. Viñales attracts many foreigners because of the countryside that surrounds it – beautiful little mountains called mogotes which are the remnants of an ancient limestone plateau. Underground rivers eroded the plateau from underneath, causing much of the plateau to collapse and creating large limestone caves in those that didn’t. The whole area is also the center of tobacco production – Pinar del Rio’s soil is the best in the world for cigar making.

Because we arrived late, we didn’t have time to go to some of the caves that we wanted to go see. Instead, we walked around the town and found a small botanical garden that we got lost in for a while.

Entrance to the botanical garden

León and his wife made us a delicious dinner that consisted of chicken, rice, soup, fried root vegetables, salad and more (we asked if they had lobster which we had heard was good around here but they told us that only the government was allowed to sell lobster to tourists).

Before dinner

After

After dinner, we went to the only night club in the area and danced. The place was packed but we still had a good time.

Sunday morning we got up and had a massive breakfast of eggs, bread, guava jam and fruit in Maeve and Ani’s casa particular. At nine we were picked up by two cars and taken to a farm in the outskirts of Viñales where we got on horses that seemed far too skinny to support any human weight – it was sad.

Maeve on her horse

Our guide led us out into the countryside where we admired the mogotes and talked about Cuban farm production.

A mogote

We got to visit a tobacco farm and got to talk to the campesino – farmer – whose land it was. He said really interesting things – the government technically doesn’t own his land, but it tells them that a certain percentage of their land has to go to the production of tobacco, even if producing other crops are more profitable. During harvest time, the government sends workers to help pick the tobacco and set it to dry; it also provides the fertilizers and chemicals necessary for good growing conditions. In the spring, the campesinos pick the tobacco plants – each level of leaves – top, middle and bottom – are set on different racks to dry.

The tobacco is grown and then dried in the brown straw building

The government then buys ninety percent of the harvest for a set amount based on the quality of the tobacco leaves and sends it to the tobacco factories (h. The man who was leading our tour told us he made around $300 for last year’s bumper harvest – a sum that has to last the entire year. To supplement his income, he grows other crops: corn, root vegetables, tomatoes and more, which he also sells to the government. He uses the ten percent that he gets to keep to cater to tourists like us – we ended up buying 36 cigars for 60 CUC, or one-fifth of what he got paid by the government for his harvest last year. It was really interesting to see how involved the government really is in every aspect of life here.

Making the coconut drink

After enjoying a delicious drink of coconut milk with rum, grapefruit juice and honey and smoking a cigar, we got back on our horses and went back to the town. After a miserable lunch that took entirely too long (45 minutes to bring a menu? Come on, Cuba), we walked up to a hotel on a hill overlooking the city and played frisbee. We caught the 6 pm bus back and we were back at the Residence by 10.

An old dilapidated church in Vinales town center