A rainy day prior refreshed the weather and gave us relief from the hot, humid, sticky conditions. Just in time for a trip to get out of the city. Our bus left early for a three-hour drive into the countryside to the north-central Pinar del Rio Province of Cuba and the Viñales Valley. This area is famous for tobacco production.

The valley around Viñales is a beautiful karst landscape. Surrounded by mountains and tall rounded outcrops (mogotes), with red clay soil, and lush green fields of tobacco. It is a UNESCO heritage site.

A Family Side-bar

I was very excited to visit this region since my Spanish Abuelo worked in the industry, making handmade cigars. In the early days, my Abuela was one of the ladies adding the colorful cigar bands. After his 1920 arrival in the US (transiting from Spain through Cuba), Abuelo spent his first years in New York City, where he helped organize the Fonseca Cigar Factory, earning plaudits from famous union leader Samuel Gompers. A few years later, he moved to Tampa, Florida, which, in the 1920s was home to more than 200 cigar factories.

Today, 25 of the historic buildings still exist (many successfully repurposed), which is why Tampa is known as “Cigar City.” Abuelo joined the thriving Spanish-Asturian community, spending the next 25 years working for the Garcia y Vega Cigar Company (using Cuban-grown tobacco) and another quarter century with the Corral Wodiska company. He estimated he hand rolled more than three million cigars for the luxury market. And he never smoked.

My grandparents above, in Tampa, 1929. Abuelo joined the thriving Spanish-Asturian community, spending the next 25 years working for the Garcia y Vega Cigar Company (using Cuban-grown tobacco) and another quarter century with the Corral Wodiska company. He estimated he hand rolled more than three million cigars for the luxury market. And he never smoked.

Back to Viñales

We visited a tobacco farm, heard from the owner, and saw how the tobacco was dried, baled, and stored. He rolled a quick one to light-up. Ladies demonstrated how the leaves were smoothed, cut, and layered to roll cigars.

It was a very breezy, cool day with beautiful blue skies, perfect to be on a farm. We enjoyed the cats, turkeys, and chickens, but were not too thrilled with the caged hutias, which is a large, ugly rodent eaten in this area. Too ugly for pics. One crazy person tried to pet them, luckily, she didn’t get bitten.

Town & Highway

The town of Viñales was tidy with lots of restaurants, a block-long market, and some small guest houses.  In contrast to the city, the mostly one-story homes with porches seemed to be orderly and well-maintained. The focus of the town square was a lovely small church. We had a typical Cuban family-style lunch served at a local paladar where our big excitement was the uninvited guest seen in the photo above.

There wasn’t much traffic during either portion of the trip, and although the road was a bit rough, it was in better condition than I expected (it is a major highway). We frequently spotted one-horse carts traveling along the road. Farmers still use oxen to plow fields, but most the land we passed wasn’t being used for any purpose. There is a huge food shortage in Cuba, and it’s a shame some of this land could not be more productive.

In spite of all the travel time, it was a very enjoyable day.

If you enjoyed this post, check out my other content about Cuba: Reflections Intro | Reflections of Cuba ’25: Music & Dance