CUBA - Pinar del Rio / Vinales Valley

 Pinar del Rio and Vinales

In January 2017 Jim and I took a ten day trip to Cuba, stopping off in Cancun for a couple of days to visit the Chichen Itza Mayan ruins on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula en route.  Please see our separate blog posting. 

From Cancun we flew to Havana then bused to Pinar del Rio.

More laid back Pinar del Rio.

When planning our trip to Cuba, we decided to limit our time to Havana and one other destination, choosing Pinar del Rio as our second stop.  We happily left Havana after a couple of long, hectic days in search of something a bit more... laid back.

Just another normal day in Pinar del Rio.

Pinar del Rio is a three hour bus ride west of Havana.  The town is centrally located in the middle of agricultural lands.  It's only 20 miles from the picturesque Vinales Valley and village of Vinales.  It isn't a very touristy town and we were only two of a handful of gringos around.

This was built as a house, later donated to create a strange, odd museum.

Gargoyles and seahorses decorated the structure.

Vintage Russia cars and motorcycles are normal.

Like a lot of Cuba,  older architecture has been carefully preserved.

The local parking lot.

A different taxi stand.

We were very glad that we decided to book into Pinar del Rio instead of Vinales when we heard that there were 300 case particulars in that tiny one street town!

Tobacco is the major crop in the region but agricultural lands abound with avocados, potatoes, sugar, tropical fruits and rice.

We visited the Alejandro Robina's plantation for a 30 minute tour 

Overhead panels limit the sun's burning rays.  Plants are strung up
so they reach for the sky, allowing the leaves to develop properly.

The expert guide rolled a cigar from carefully selected tobacco leaves. 

They monitor and control humidity,  helping with the drying process.

 Shops, services, banks and restaurants are all easy to find near the centre of Pinar del Rio.

Just a normal day in Pinar del Rio - not film props!

For a small fee taxi drivers are available for half to full day trips to see the local sights.

Jim with Miguel, our taxi driver for our day trip to Vinales.

Many Cuban taxi drivers take extreme pride in their vintage automobiles.

We spent days visiting two tobacco plantations and a small coffee plantation, taking a leisurely horseback ride through agriculture lands, touring an ancient cave by boat and relaxing in the perfect Cuban winter temperatures, which were very similar to our BC summer temperatures.

Learning about growing coffee 

And the first coffee grinding machines. 

Not the fastest way to get around but easy on gas.

A small tobacco plantation owner and his grandson demonstrated
how to roll cigars.  They then insisted we ALL try it. Yuck!
The fellow on the left is from Timperly, England, where Jim grew up!

After our horseback ride we returned to the ranch for a
home cooked meal of chicken for me and Jim's favourite - fried fish.

These locals are re-enacting life of their ancestors, but this
time they're doing it for the benefit of the tourists.  A bit cheesy.

We stopped by a large, significant cave in the Vinales Valley.

A large section of this sacred cave was only reachable by tour boat.

We could sense that this was
a very special place for sure.

Jim overlooking the slim exit from the cave.

Not a horse in site? How about an oxen?

This giant mural took four years to paint!  It isn't prehistoric at all.
That's Jim in the the blue tee shirt near the base of it.

We loved the slower pace of this region -  the helpful locals, our fantastic homestay and the picturesque surroundings of Pinar del Rio and Vinales.  We definitely hope to visit again one day.

Tricia and Jim Bowen
S/V Falcon VII - land cruise to Cuba 2017
email: tandjbowen13@gmail.com