Valle de Viñales, another UNESCO World Heritage Site
UNESCO World Heritage Sites are extraordinary. As noted on the UNESCO website, “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity…” Suffice it to say that out of the current 981 sites around the world, nine are in Cuba. To put it into perspective, the much, much larger United States has only 21.
Old Havana and its Fortification System is one that you have been reading about in this blog. Another is Viñales Valley, or Valle de Viñales, as it is locally called.
You can read all about it on the UNESCO site, but what stands out in our minds, besides the amazing karst landscape with its leafy, sugar-plum hills, is the agriculture, including tobacco farming, and wonderful, friendly people.
We got an early-ish start. The hotel put out breakfast goodies for us, and we piled into our bus. Most people went back to sleep, knowing it would be a long day. Of course, most of them had not been on a regular workshop with us, so have no idea of what a long day really is!
One drives through several provinces before reaching the Valley. Cars speed by us, including high-end Audis and Mercedes. This may be a Communist country, but as with all countries, there are the haves and have-nots. We also pass little boxy Polish and Soviet cars as well as horse-drawn, rubber-wheeled carts, their drivers sitting on one side, reins in hand along with the occasional switch.
There is a famous overlook, and it is a good place to stop and introduce our group to this magnificent area. There are toilets and good coffee, always a good combination after an early start. I barely captured this man bringing out the Cuban flags for the day’s display, and unlike most people we have met throughout the three weeks we thus far spent in Cuba, this one gave me the beady eye. One can imagine that he was one of Fidel’s soldiers back before Raoul took over. Life has changed since then, and while Raoul is not perfect, there have been many positive changes in Cuba. And this gentleman kept to himself, did his job efficiently, and soon, the flags were dancing gaily in the mountain breezes.
Most all the houses in this beautiful valley are very tidy. Whitewashed and modest-but-pristine, they sit amongst the jumble of abrupt hills, workers and dogs going about their daily routines.
At the place above, a tobacco farmer obliges us by cutting some leaves that are ready. The first crop has already been harvested, but there are second-crop leaves coming along. He shows how he rolls his cigars and lights one for our participants to share. Several buy some for their visit within Cuba, knowing that those cigars can never land on US shores. Of course, our farmer saves one for himself and gently puffs away. What a splendid face he has. I loved the way the light from the doorway etched his face.
After enjoying coffee, served in pretty little demi-tasses cups on a tray by his wife, we lingered, chatting with the farmer, his wife, and their son. Around a corner, I found this still-life.
We went to another farm, the one, as it turns out, where we enjoyed lunch both weeks last year. There were pickers, the usually drying racks, and the omnipresent team of oxen that pull the plow or later, the wooden sleds filled with racks of somewhat dried tobacco leaves. Here, one of the farmers. drives his oxen past racks and a thatched drying barn down to the fields below.
There was still another stop before lunch — a sorting and bundling center. We arrived just in time for the second pressing. Dried tobacco leaves are layered with flexible strips of the Royal Palm called yaguas which apparently help the bale hold its shape. Once pressed, the bales are wrapped and hand stitched in burlap.
In another room, ladies lined up at tables and quickly sorted the leaves according to size and quality. They get paid a base salary, but whatever they sort over and above the base amount earns them bonus money, just as in many piece-work factories in the US or elsewhere. Slogans from Fidel, Ché and others adorn the walls. Freedom from oppression is important in Cuba, and they treasure these famous quotes. There is a sense of pride here.
It was lunch time. We went to a wonderful organic farm, thinking we were going to sit down to a simple-but-tasty meal. Tasty it was, but simple it was not. Waves upon waves of food arrived.
There was a rum disguised in what many might call a smoothie. A cold soup was followed by rice and black beans. Courses of vegetables, pork, chicken, lamb, beef, and fish came. We were overwhelmed. Clearly, supper was not going to be the main course today and perhaps would be entirely forgotten!
Called Paraiso, the farm was, indeed, a paradise. After we finished with a small serving of their delicious ice cream, many repaired to the porch and sat in chairs or on the steps, engaged in quiet, contented conversation, caught cat-naps, and/or wandered around the house where everything was spic and span.
It was apparent they had Cuban/American relatives in Miami who, in the current administration, may come and go at will. Many do and bring back to Cuba necessities as well as luxury items such as the TV on the left wall.
As the afternoon wore on, no one was in a hurry to leave. It was beautiful looking down and out over a terraced garden to the typical landscape of Valle de Viñales. What a way to end out time there.
Larger versions of these photographs and others from previous blogs may be seen at https://plus.google.com/b/116621161649335930471/photos/116621161649335930471/albums/5990265691496243105
Next: Across the Harbor Followed by a Musical Afternoon.
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Beautiful photo’s, felt like I was there!
Thank you. That is always my hope!
Take care, and thanks for commenting,
TBC