An American in Cuba: Day Three Vinales Valley

Day three

We had an early start today as plans were to travel to Pinar Del Rio and Vinales on the western most part of the island.

Before travelling to Cuba I did not realize how big it is.  I like to read novels about destinations before I visit them.  While reading a novel for this trip I started to get a sense of the size of the island as the character was travelling to different places and discussing how long it was taking.  It is the largest country in the Caribbean consisting of one large island and several smaller islands.  The large island has an area of 42,803 square miles which means it is slightly smaller than the state of Pennsylvania. Another way to look at the size is it is 760 miles long by 55 miles wide.  Cuba has a population of 11.27 million. Our bus ride today would take three hours to get to our first destination but along the way we would get to see how life looked in the countryside.

Our bus left Havana and headed down the National Highway westward.  We had nicknamed our bus driver “our Fast and Furious” driver because of our encounters with the movie set.  He proved to be fast today.  The bus had a sensor that went off every time he got to 120 km/h.  It went off a lot.  Finally he found his footing and settled in to a comfortable 118 km/h.

I think I would enjoy driving on this highway because there were so few cars on it, and many of those were old classic cars.  However, there were also people walking on the highway, horse and buggies on the highway, and bicycles.                               Bridges were a place that people congregated to wait for rides.  It was not unusual to see a large truck with the back loaded with passengers.  Several bridges crossing the highway had no roads attached to them.  Our guide explained that at some point Russia had published a 5 year plan that detailed plans for new factories and bridges.  Cuba decided to follow this plan and started building bridges.  They just never built the roads to go with them. 

Alongside the highway we saw rice fields and sugar cane fields.  Cows and goats were seen and they were always tied out to eat, sometimes on the side of the highway.  Part of the highway was used as an emergency landing strip.  Palm trees were in abundance making them appropriately named the national tree of Cuba.  Palm trees are vital to Cuban agriculture as every part of the tree is used for something.  However the farther west we ventured we started to see a different variety of palm tree that was called Belly Palm because the trunk is swollen in the middle giving the appearance of being pregnant.

Along the way our guide shared more about daily life in Cuba with us.  He explained that there is a shortage of farmers and of milk in the country.  He said not many people want to be farmers any more.  There is no incentive to have cows produce more milk.  Milk used to be paid at $1/gallon.  Raul Castro increased pay to $1.60 per gallon and milk production did increase saving millions of dollars for the country by reducing some importation of milk.  This is the heroic story of economic reform that our guide shared.  Of course the real story may be a little different.  The cows are not producing as much because the government has cut the rations for the cows so they are existing on what they find at pasture.  Farmers are frustrated as the government checks the quality of their milk and pays a third of a peso for the two gallons required to be turned over to the state.  As milk production decreases the need to import milk increases and the economy continues to suffer.

We passed a few tour buses on the highway and made our first stop at a tourist station.  This tourist stop made me realize how much tourism Cuba actually has.  It was so similar to stops I’ve made in tour buses all over the world.  The only difference was that we were the only Americans there.  Cuba has approximately 3 million tourists a year.   Canadians comprise 1.5 million of those.  The rest come predominately from the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and Mexico.  Americans have been entering illegally through Mexico but now are starting to come in greater numbers as travel restrictions have been relaxed.

We were so happy to have arrived when we did.  Things will be changing.  One member of our group had traveled to Cuba in 1991 on a press pass.  He said it this a very different trip.  He would come back to find his things had been searched in his room on that trip.  They were escorted everywhere they went and watched.  He snuck off to someone’s home and the man’s wife was terrified to see Americans in her home and refused to take any money for fear of being caught with American bills.  This trip we were very free to walk around and the people were very happy to have us.  Suzanne said things had changed dramatically sine she first started coming 6 years ago.  Three days after we left Carnival would be docking in Havana – the first cruise ship in 50 years to do so.  How will that impact the country?  They hope positively but are they ready?  Between the Obama’s visit, the Rolling Stones, and the Tampa Bay Rays visits they ran out of beer.  Will they be able to meet the demands placed on their already stressed resources with the number of people a cruise ship will bring?  They do need the financial boom that tourism will create.  We’re just happy we got to see it while it is still Cuba.

We hopped back on the bus to get to our first stop, Vinales Valley.  Along the way were told that we were crossing the narrowest point of the island at only 19 miles wide.  The valley is a beautiful landscape surrounded by mountains dotted with limestone outcrops.  It has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for a series of tall rounded hills made out of limestone called “mogotes” that arise out of the valley.  The view is truly breathtaking. There was a display of various nations’ flags at the viewing area.  It was nice to see an American flag included in the display.

We got back on the bus and headed to our sixteen course lunch.  It does seem wrong that we ate so much while there when so many Cubans are still near starving.  We made our way to Finca Argroecologica.  The owner, Rachel, welcomed us and told us a little about the farm through our guide interpreting.  She was proud to have been featured in the LA Times.  She told of us of our welcome cocktail called the “Anti Stress Drink.”

It contained coconut milk, pineapple, anise, lemongrass, basil, and yerba Buena (Cuban mint), and a healthy dose of Vitamin R sprinkled with cinnamon and honey.  The frozen concoction was brought to the table followed by a bottle of rum to add as we saw fit.  This was by far and away the best drink we had the whole trip.  And of course it must be good for us – it’s called anti stress!  Rachel had told us that her recipe had been printed in the Times so we didn’t need to write it down.  I’m still trying to find it!

After the drink was served the food started coming, all served family style.  Plate after plate of the most beautiful, freshest, fabulous vegetables was served and we all gorged. We had not received many vegetables at our meals and now we were sitting above the terraces of this beautiful organic farm eating fresh picked produce.   We were all quickly becoming stuffed.  I reminded someone sitting next to me to save room for the meat.  He said I don’t think we’re having any meat and then I reminded him of a dish that Suzanne had told us about that had meat. No sooner had we spoke than the meat started.  I can’t say which meat was the best. I think it was the tuna but as we thought we couldn’t possibly eat another bite they brought out the pig.

We’d already had pork but everyone had to try the fresh pig and the skin.  And again when no room was left in our stomachs they brought out dessert – perfectly made flan.

The family dogs politely sat around the table as we ate.  There were so many leftovers that people felt the need to share with the dogs at the end.  They were probably some of the best fed dogs we saw on the trip.

Several people had given up on eating more and started touring the gardens.

After dessert was served we made our way through the garden.  A farmer was by the terraces proudly showing off his crops.

Several rabbits set in suspended cages.  Their waste was collected to make compost for the plants.  When asked if they eat the rabbits he said some people do but he doesn’t care for them.

He seemed to be proud of his farm and to love what he does. He said he plants maize at the end of each row because he has made a deal with the bugs.  He said the Aztecs used to offer sacrifices so he offers the maize as sacrifice.  The bugs will eat the maize instead of his crops.  Organic farming as its finest!

We felt that we could have been perfectly content to spend the rest of the afternoon at the farm but it was time to move on.  We now were taken to an Indian cave.  We walked past actors dressed in Indian costume to the cave where we enjoyed the Cuban lifestyle of waiting in line.  The line ended at a boat ride through the cave (of course the ride was shorter than the wait).  We came out of the cave to find the sky was darkening and soon it started to rain.  Once again our group was running behind and there was a chance we might not get everything in.                                             Fortunately our driver and guide found a way to accommodate us and we saw everything.  After the cave we were taken to the Mural de la Prehistoria.  It was raining hard now and we were low on time so we stopped close enough to get pictures through the bus window.  It was still very impressive.  The painting was commissioned by Fidel Castro in 1961 to display snails, dinosaurs, and a family of cavepersons on this limestone cliff.  It had a bit of an alien feel to it.  It took eighteen people four years to complete this mural.  Even in the rain the brightness of the colors was evident. 

Now it was time to head to the tobacco farm.  We were afraid that we might have to miss this. When we arrived puddles were everywhere and it was raining hard.  Our guide seemed concerned about us walking through this.  Our wonderful driver pulled the bus up as close as he could to the drying hut.

I didn’t care about getting wet but appreciated his effort.  We made our way into the thatched hut full of drying tobacco leaves and met Benito.

Speaking in Spanish and interpreted by our guide Benito began to educate us on tobacco farming.  Once a year Benito’s family plants 50,000 tobacco plants on 10 hectares. The drying and fermenting of the leaves takes several months.  He showed us the seeds that looked like coffee grounds.

He took a few leaves and deftly rolled a cigar for us in the dark hut.  It was then smoked by a member of our group. Afterwards we went into his house where we were given coffee with rum and purchased fresh rolled cigars 10 for $10. They do receive rave reviews from our cigar smoking friends.

All through the valley we saw numerous carts being pulled by oxen.  We were told that tractors are not used in tobacco farming because they compact the soil too much.  Tobacco plants like aerated soil and the oxen pulled plows are better for the soil.  Judging by the plants they are doing something right.

It was time to head back to Havana.  Our long drive would be longer now thanks to the rain and a vehicle ahead of us with bad brakes.  It was evident that we would be late to dinner.  I don’t think any of us would have minded missing dinner but our amazing team managed to move our reservations and as we rushed back to Havana we made it to the restaurant just in time.

Tonight we were eating at a paladar named Mediterraneo Havana.  This paladar boasted an Italian chef, which is apparently a fairly common thing now.  It was interesting that as the waiter told his the chosen menu he said multiple times that the seafood was “safe.”  I hadn’t thought that it wouldn’t be until he gave me reason to.  While lobster may be a large crop for Cuba much of its seafood is imported.  At this point we had to ask how these families afford to open paladars and I had to know if the Italian chef could own it.  Many of these families have relatives in the U.S. that send money for the venture.  Our guide told me that the Italian chef can own the paladar; he just cannot own the property.  Therefore many of the foreign chefs will marry a Cuban so she can own the property and he can own the business.  This meal started our food photos as everyone at our table were inspired to capture our food memories for posterity.

It was such a lovely evening that even though the day had been long a group of us headed down to the Nacional when we got back.  We enjoyed a couple of drinks on the patio while listening to music.  We decided to head back around midnight and left our companions to finish their cigars and drinks.  Suzanne told us we should take an anti diarrheal whether we needed it or not.  She said, “Trust me, I have this down to a science.  After our vegetable fest today you will need it or you will suffer a tropical experience.”  I don’t know about the rest of our group but we debated her advice and opted to risk it.  My advice is if you are travelling with an expert on your destination LISTEN TO THAT EXPERT!