Cuba: 4 Days in Viñales

We watched the city fade away as our view from the bus window was replaced by vast undeveloped land. I hadn’t realized how busy Havana was until we arrived in Viñales where life slowed waaaayyyyy down. The city is situated in the eastern most province of Cuba, Pinar del Rio Province, which literally translates to something like “pine place of the river.” Perhaps you can imagine the lush, green wide open vistas. The locals subsist on tourism where the main attractions are tobacco, the Valley of Viñales (crowned a National Park by UNESCO sometime near the turn of the century), and Arabica coffee. You can learn more about this special place here.

I quickly realized our fortune in visiting during low season because every home in town doubles as a guest house and is prominently marked as such, and the main street is lined with restaurants catering to tourists. The city must be packed during high season. Fair enough – we really enjoyed Viñales.

Our host, Pollo (yes, he calls himself Chicken), collected us from the bus stop and we settled in with the traditional offer of coffee and conversation. He was once a soccer coach, but now he focuses solely on managing two casas particulares (private rooms for rent). His self-taught English was impressively understandable and not at all surprising – Pollo is a mover and shaker. He made quick work of our request for a horseback tour through the park and off we went to wander. The highlight of the afternoon was meeting Maria Elena (tiny lady in the blue sweater below). She invited us to her family’s small tobacco finca (farm) where she treated us to an impromptu private tour of the production process and rolled Diego his very first Cuban. A brief recap in his own words.

A farmer on his way to work the tobacco fields

Young tobacco plants with a secador in the background

Diego’s first Cuban

Roosters roam

A beer, a Cuban cigar, and a view of Viñales

Not a bad chillin’ spot for a 15 year old

Mary Elena in her secador

Parque de Viñales: Coffee Plantation

We highly recommend that you explore Viñales National Park by horseback. We had a blast. Our ride began bright and early after meeting the rest of our group, Neils and Lilda, the Dutch couple below (blonde and beautiful). We spent most of our time in the Valley of Silence, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where powered machinery is forbidden — hence the name. Our first stop was a coffee plantation where we learned about the process of harvesting Arabica beans by hand. That’s our host, Christian, below pictured against a pink background. They dry the beans in the sun on large screens and use an oversized mortar and pestle to separate the shell. Once they’ve pounded the beans a few times, they filter them out using their hands like a colander and letting the wind carry the shells away. The final step is to roast the beans and viola, delicious Arabica coffee beans. The process is shockingly manual and the result is very expensive. The plantation sells the beans in old water bottles for $7/bottle and they barter with the other farmers in the area as well.

Coffee in Cuba is served in tiny little tea cups like espresso, but more concentrated. The locals generally add a healthy dose of sugar or honey. They juice sugar cane on the plantation creating nectar of the Gods. Seriously, why don’t we use this in the States? It’s 100% natural and absolutely delicious straight out of the “juicer.” It was adorable to see Diego’s face light up when he saw the sugar cane. Apparently it was a regular treat in Argentina when he was a kid so he knew just how to pulverize the cane and snack on the inside. On the topic of adorable, Diego also discovered he could make a friend for life by feeding his horse fallen mangos. Pure joy.

Lilda

Drying the beans

Our coffee plantation host, Chrisitan

The juicer

Neils

Our sweet horses for the day

Carolina

Separating the outer layer from the beans

 Parque de Viñales: Tobacco Finca

Our final stop before heading home for the day was at another, larger tobacco plantation. We saw the fields being tilled by oxen and a man building a new tobacco drying hut called a secardor (dryer). Again, powered machinery is not allowed so the rough lumber is prepared entirely by machete. #impressed

The tobacco business is an interesting one. After the revolution, the government divided the plantations among those capable of working it. In exchange, the farmers are required to meet production targets and sell 90% of each harvest to the government. I asked around about the pricing. I hope the responses were lost in translation, but I was told that they earn just $35 per TON. Still, at least some of the farmers felt it was a fair trade since the land was a gift. What you see hanging inside the secador below is the 10% that the family is allowed to keep. It smelled delicious in there. The process takes between 4 and 6 months end-to-end and is far more complex than I had imagined. For example, different parts of the plant are collected and dried together because they contain varying levels of nicotine and have different textures. The wooden branches holding the leaves are expertly moved throughout the secador to help ensure appropriate humidity levels during the drying process. Once the leaves are just right, the government takes their cut and continues the aging process elsewhere. As for the family’s cut, each finca has their own recipe for finishing the tobacco, which generally involves rum and honey along with tightly held family secrets. The leaves are soaked in the solution and wrapped in large square packages made of special palm leaves that act as natural humidors. Before each cigar is rolled, the stem is removed from the center of the leaf because it carries more than 95% of the nicotine and the locals don’t want their cigars to become addictive. 

On the way home we passed by various types of farms and the rice fields pictured below. When it was time to say goodbye to our horses for the day, Diego soothed his disappointment by cuddling with baby chicks. Okay, it’s possible we all did, but photographic evidence suggests otherwise. 

Awwwwww

End stage of production

Tobacco secador

Working the fields

Secador

Preparing the lumber for a new secador

Rice fields

Low Season for a Reason

It rained nearly every day while we were in Cuba, but our third day in Viñales produced an impressive tropical storm. Our host hurriedly unplugged everything, instructed us to put on our shoes because *gulp* the house is not grounded, and then we huddled in the living room and shared rum as we watched the street turned into a river. Here’s to living dangerously. I’d still recommend low season. The temperatures drop rapidly after the rain and it’s such a nice respite from the heat. Next stop….Varadero!