Vinales is the best tobacco growing area of Cuba and so we were going to check out cigars......just not smoke them! It also has fantastic scenery, with karst hills called Mogotes, reminiscent of the karst islands in Thailand and HaLong bay which we saw last year. There they rose directly out of water, here out of land. So we had to visit and compare!
This was our first time on a Cuban autoroute.....amazing! 2 or 3 lanes, very few cars, and a mix of horse and carts and bicycles! Which explained why most of the cars drove in the 'fast'lane! They did not want to keep slowing down to 5kms/hr.
even a tractor.......
.......apparently one always stops to help a broken down car...... no emergency services here to call!
We stopped for lunch half way..... at Las Terrazas, a UNESCO site.
This was really not worth the detour for the organic restaurant lunch......
......which was rather inedible and definitely did not look in any way appetizing! But it was all locally sourced! And it was a nice place to stop..... just not for the food!
After our lunch stop our driver decided to take us on a mountain road back to the autoroute. Probably shorter in kms. However, the road had washed away in parts, was very bumpy and it was soon obvious that the car was barely moving. The driver got out and on being asked if there was a problem said 'un momentito' and disappeared under the car...no jack needed!! We didn't dare move as he proceeded to manipulate the gear box from underneath! He did manage to get it going but it only reached the town of Vinales, not our hotel!
We only had a brief moment to view the hotel as we were already late for our guided tour of the valley.....
We did a quick tour( in a different car!!)...... and it was starting to rain!
Our first visit was to a tobacco farm...... where we met the owner under Fidel's watchful eye......
...even the carts have licence plates.......
... he led us towards his repaired barn....damaged in Hurricane Gustav or perhaps Ike in 2008.......
....where he proceeded to show us how to roll a cigar........
We were essentially left in no doubt that we had to buy some cigars as he had spent time showing us how they were rolled.....
I doubt if they would now be great to smoke as we didn't have a humidor!
We did learn however that 90% of his tobacco had to be sold to the government at a very low price and so he was only really able to make some money from the 10%. When I queried how anyone would know what his yield might be he said government officials came by very regularly in the growing season to monitor the plants development.
Leaving the tobacco farm the weather was definitely changing towards heavy rain...
but we still went for a view of the Mogotes, from the very best, apparently, viewpoint......
.........before being left at at a local paladar, Finca La Ermita......
..where we had a dinner of lobster ...... and it was walking distance to our hotel.
The lobster was great!
This was our first time on a Cuban autoroute.....amazing! 2 or 3 lanes, very few cars, and a mix of horse and carts and bicycles! Which explained why most of the cars drove in the 'fast'lane! They did not want to keep slowing down to 5kms/hr.
We stopped for lunch half way..... at Las Terrazas, a UNESCO site.
......which was rather inedible and definitely did not look in any way appetizing! But it was all locally sourced! And it was a nice place to stop..... just not for the food!
After our lunch stop our driver decided to take us on a mountain road back to the autoroute. Probably shorter in kms. However, the road had washed away in parts, was very bumpy and it was soon obvious that the car was barely moving. The driver got out and on being asked if there was a problem said 'un momentito' and disappeared under the car...no jack needed!! We didn't dare move as he proceeded to manipulate the gear box from underneath! He did manage to get it going but it only reached the town of Vinales, not our hotel!
We only had a brief moment to view the hotel as we were already late for our guided tour of the valley.....
We did a quick tour( in a different car!!)...... and it was starting to rain!
Our first visit was to a tobacco farm...... where we met the owner under Fidel's watchful eye......
We did learn however that 90% of his tobacco had to be sold to the government at a very low price and so he was only really able to make some money from the 10%. When I queried how anyone would know what his yield might be he said government officials came by very regularly in the growing season to monitor the plants development.
Leaving the tobacco farm the weather was definitely changing towards heavy rain...
but we still went for a view of the Mogotes, from the very best, apparently, viewpoint......
.........before being left at at a local paladar, Finca La Ermita......
..where we had a dinner of lobster ...... and it was walking distance to our hotel.
The lobster was great!
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