Viñales

One of my favourite places I visited in Cuba was the small town of Viñales in the northern part of Pinar del Rio province.

To get there from Pinar del Rio city, we had to drive through the spectacular Viñales Valley of lush green forest and striking unusual-shaped mountains.

The valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site and passing through, it was easy to see why. It’s jaw-droppingly beautiful.

We arrived in the town of Viñales just after an intense thunderstorm and there were huge puddles in the streets where the rainwater had collected.

So naturally we set off on a trek through the surrounding countryside.

Set against the stunning backdrop of the Viñales mountains, the countryside is filled with crops grown by small farms.

We passed fields of corn (in all different colours – red, white, yellow, black…), cassava and banana, as well as lime and guava trees.

I watched in amazement as a man passed us on a sled pulled by two oxen, an effective, traditional mode of transport, which nevertheless surprised me as it’s so alien to anything I’ve seen outside a museum.

Further along, we came across a small farm holding where three men were making a horseshoe. Having finished shaping the shoe on the blacksmith’s stone, they then fixed it to the horse’s hoof.

We carried on to the next farm where an elderly couple offered us mini-bananas and guavas, which we happily accepted. The mini-banana was delicious, similar in taste to a normal-sized banana but sweeter.

Next we wandered up to a nearby tobacco plantation where one of the farm’s owners offered to show us how to roll a cigar (above) – which he then did in just two minutes.

He took some dried tobacco leaves, making sure it was a good blend, and quickly rolled it on the spot.

After an hour or so trekking through the countryside, we headed back to town for supper.

I loved the trek, it offered a fascinating insight into a simpler, traditional way of life that’s largely been lost in Britain but is still very much in existence in Cuba.

As a history and anthropology geek, I was enthralled watching the old traditional farming methods in action – the making of the horseshoes by hand, the use of oxen on the farms and the cigar rolling on the tobacco plantation.

It added another dimension to the picture I was building of Cuba, its people and its way of life, and I felt very privileged to witness it in action.