Plowshares & Panoramas

Farmer tilling his field in Viñales

Hello again, Blogonauts!

Yearning for more prose and photos from Cuba? For today, let's turn our attention to the forests & farming.

After we left Havana, we made our way to Las Terrazas, a village located in a forest restoration area & nature preserve. Trees planted here on the formerly denuded hills were placed on terraced hillsides, thus, Las Terrazas.

The local population (about 1000 people) truly live in the boondocks. The nearest shops are at least an hour's drive away, and cars in Cuba are a luxury. Fortunately, they have a local clinic, and they grow much of their own food. Most of the residents work as farmers in the limited agricultural fields, as forestry workers, or in hotels & restaurants catering to tourists. Inevitably, we also found a couple of souvenir shops, all selling handicrafts.

The view from Las Terrazas' local pub (for tourists)

Have I mentioned the music? Along with the strong rum punch doled out here at La Terrazas, musicians (who seemed to appear out of nowhere) played for us. Musical buskers play more in restaurants than on the streets, tapping the tourists for tips.

The park is the home of a number of species, including the 16-foot-long Cuban boa. Sadly, none of them showed up for a photo-op. (Maybe it's the time of year, but I was surprised by how few wild animals and birds we saw. Turkey vultures were, however, soaring overhead EVERYWHERE!)

The trees, however, don't wander off. One unusual tree has a crimson bark. While it's known to science as the gumbo-limbo tree, the Cubans call it the Tourist Tree, because it's reddish tinge resembles a gringo's pealing sunburn. (For what it's worth, I was a devoted user of sunscreen to fight off the tropic rays.)

The crimson bark of the gumbo-limbo (aka, tourist) tree

From Las Terrazas, we dodged some heavy showers to reach Viñales, one of my favorite stops on the tour.

A break in the showers, on the way to Viñales

The homes around Viñales seemed lovingly tended. Most were painted in cheerful shades.

As it turns out, there was a reason for this. Our guide for the day told us that initially, all the homes were painted white, but they reflected the sunlight and blinded folks walking or driving through the village. So the government (this is a communist country, after all) allowed the residents to mute the bright reflection with some charming colors.

We were staying in private homes (Casas Particulares) that had been outfitted with en suite guest rooms. (Along the way, some home-stays, like my guesthouse in Viñales) had only 2 guestrooms, but a few had as many as 6.)

Viñales' main square

A Viñales taxi

Local transport in Viñales

The day after our late arrival we walked alongside farm fields growing tobacco, sugar cane, and garden vegetables. (Also see the farmer plowing his field at the top of this post.)

A restaurant's private garden to grow food for guests

Young tobacco plants

The two guides for this day describing the way they roll cigars

Guava Liqueur and a packet of farm-rolled cigars

Plantains (bananas)

A tobacco drying shed. A cave (Cueva de la Vaca or Cave of the Cow) runs though those mountains to the other side.

It seems that oxen and horses were far more common than cars. (In fact, the only field cultivation I saw during the entire tour was with oxen and plows...not a tractor to be seen.)

The oxen are not attached with a yoke, which would have them pull with their shoulders, but instead with a board behind their horns, which means that they pull with the strain on their necks.

Our last night in Viñales, we were driven high above the village to the Finca Agroecológica El Paraíso (The Paradise Sustainable Agriculture Farm).

They raise the food for the restaurant without the use of manufactured pesticides and only natural fertilizer.

The clouds finally lifted a bit so we could see sunset from our lofty vantage point.

 

Sunset at Finca Agroecológica El Paraíso (photo taken from my table)

Some of the raised beds at Finca Agroecológica El Paraíso

 

That's more than enough tales of the farmers' larder for today! But wait! Where are the photos of phood ... err ... food?

Next time, we'll see not only some of the victuals, but also how yours truly was wrangled into wearing an apron and Cuban chef's hat and into wielding weaponry (directed toward our coming dinner)!

Blog to you later!