Cuba Today: Vinales

(UNESCO valley of Vinales)

What an amazing setting to arrive at the valley of Vinales, where mogotes (boulder-like hills) dot the valley floor between tobacco fields and fields of corn and other vegetables. We had driven west to Sierra del Rosario, the first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the country, filled with unique bird species, lush woods, orchids, ferns and waterfalls. There are several people still living in these communities, working in coffee plantations (such as Las Terrazas and the Buena Vista). The area had been strip harvested but 5000 hectares of terraces were created and planted as a restoration project.

We stopped into a school to get a first hand view of the education system. We spent about an hour with a local family practice physician who worked with the 1,200 residents of the community, observing the state-run supply store where rations are provided to all Cubans at a government-subsidized rate.

A family practice physician to whom we had given “reading glasses” for him to distribute to his approximately 1200 patients

National Ration store, demonstrating how little is available, but also how heavily subsidized. CUP 7 is about 0.003 US cents! So rice and beans are super cheap — but limited to a certain allotment of kilograms per person per month.

Near Pinar del Rio, we visited both a state run as well as private tobacco farm, learning how the tobacco is grown, dried, fermented and rolled into top quality cigars (Francisco Donatien cigar factory). Of note, the tobacco is sorted and any factory can produce any of the cigar brands, depending on what the government needs to export. It is just the tobacco leaf blends (top, middle or bottom leaf, how it is aged, where it is grown, whether under a canopy or not, and the ratio of the leaves) that determine the cigar brand.

Tobacco field, with large leaves at the top used for the wrapper

Really serious about not peeing in their garden — they’ll be cut off

Farmers must give 90% of what they produce (monitored closely by inspectors during the growing season) to the government, with the remaining 10% used for personal consumption or sale.

The Indian Cave is a combination of dry and underground river experience, with interesting rock formations.

The food is sparse, limited and not varied: eggs (not every day), rice, beans, fish or chicken. Cucumber and cabbage; dessert is guava puree with cheese or rice pudding. Surprisingly, they never ran out of rum to use in a variety of libations!