From Valleys to Viewpoints in Viñales

While staying in Havana we spent one day on a bus tour of the Viñales Valley. While I am not usually a fan of organised bus tours, this was the only way we could see some of the western region of Cuba in the time we had. Furthermore, the highlights of the region are quite spread out and are hard to access by public transit, if you have a car it is more feasible…although I don’t know whether I’d want to drive in Cuba!

We had a very early start at 7:30 because there was so much crammed into the day. There were lots of these bus tours going to Viñales and other places so we had to wait in front of one of the big hotels in Central Park for the correct bus.  Luckily, the guide we had gave the tour both in English and Spanish and another bonus was that my Spanish seems to be doing ok.

As we were driving out of Havana we got to glimpse some of the more distant neighbourhoods such as Miramar with all the big fancy diplomatic houses followed by a slum full of Brezhnev Block buildings reminiscent of architecture in the 1970s in the Soviet Union – quite a contrast. After having a quick breakfast stop on the highway our first major stop was in the city of Pinar del Rio. We piled off the bus in to the cigar factory (unfortunately no cameras allowed). The first thing you notice when you go in is the smell. Definitely a strong tobacco smell, but surprisingly pleasant – although I don’t know whether I’d want to work all the time in that smell. There were dozens of people employed here – rolling the cigars by hand, checking, sorting and packaging them. It was quite amazing to watch – it clearly took a lot of repeated practice to do it as fast as them.

Next we went to a rum factory. Here we could take pictures of the casks ageing and the bottling process. Afterwards we even got a free taster! We were pleasantly surprised it tasted quite different from regular rum because they put a guava seed in the bottle to flavour it. At three dollars a bottle we thought it was a pretty good deal!

After leaving the city of Pinar del Rio we travelled into the Viñales Valley to see this massive mural of evolution – depicting dinosaurs, the ice age and humans. We also tried ‘the best piña colada’ in Cuba – to which there is no doubt. This stop was quite short, but it was quickly followed by our lunch stop not too far away at La Cueva de los Indios. Here as an aperitif we had what our guide called ‘natural Viagra’ which was freshly squeezed sugar cane juice – to me it seemed very sweet and lemony. The caves themselves weren’t too different from normal caves except for the cool boat ride to take us out of the cave.

Lunch was full of good food and entertainment – better than usual Cuban fare. After lunch we made two more stops. First at a great viewpoint where you could see all the cool shaped mountains and the green valleys full of plantations. The last place we stopped was a small tobacco farm. When we visited they had already harvested the tobacco earlier in the year and so we were able to see all the leaves drying in a Cuban style barn.

It wasn’t until 7pm that we got back to Havana a little tired and a lot hungry. The day trip was definitely worth it – the Viñales Valley is quite different from the rest of Cuba geographically. It was also interesting to be able to see how different Cuban products are made.