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The
Viñales Valley
One
of Cuba’s greatest natural attractions, was declared
a National Natural Monument for its remarkable landscapes.
The valley has a surface area of 132 km2 and is a part of
Sierra de los Organos, in Pinar del Río province. It
is the finest example of a karst valley in Cuba, where mogotes,
knolls with rounded tops and steep slopes, contrast harmoniously
with the flat surface of the valley where they stand.
Deep in the valley bottom you find cultivated lands-mainly
tobacco, taro and bananas-and scattered peasant houses, all
forming a rural landscape of great beauty. |
The
surrounding sierras abound in caves, making it an area of
speleological interest. Outstanding among them are Cueva del
Indio, a cave which San Vicente River runs through, and Cueva
de José Miguel. Further west, the Santo Tomás
cave system, criss-crossed by 45 km of galleries, is one of
the largest in Hispanic America.
The
flora is an important element in Viñales. Cuban endemic
plants found there include: the ceibón tree (Bombax
emarginatum), palmita de sierra (Thrinax microcarpa), cayman
oak (Ekmanianthes actinophylla) and a kind of palm tree (Mycrocycas
calocoma)-a living Jurassic fossil that can only be found
in a small area of Pinar del Río.
There
are also many endemic animal species, especially birds like
hummingbirds, the Cuban trogon (Priotelus temnurus), tody
(Todus multicolor), mockingbird (Cuban solitaire) and a small
paserine bird that inhabits pinewoods.
UNESCO
The
Viñales Valley has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage
List since November 1999 as a cultural landscape enriched
by traditional farm and village architecture. Old-fashioned
farming methods are still used in Viñales, notably to grow tobacco. The local population
is an ethnic mix that illustrates the cultural development
of the Caribbean and Cuba in particular.
Source:
Report of the 23rd session of the World Heritage Committee,
in Marrakesh, Morocco, 4 December 1999. |
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Lost
in the smoke of time
Reina
María Rodríguez, Cuban poet and novelist, author
of La Foto del Invernadero (Casa de las Americas prize, 1998)
and Te daré de comer como a los pájaros (La
Habana, Letras Cubanas 2000). (Source: UNESCO.org)
The
Viñales Valley, near the western tip of Cuba, is a
magical landscape of hills and caves where life centres on
growing tobacco. A Cuban writer recalls discovering this World
Heritage site through books well before setting foot there |
In
the west side of the Cordillera de Guaniguanico, at the foot
of the Sierra de los Órganos, lies a region of limestone
outcrops known as mogotes. These huge round-topped hummocks
rising out of the ground emerged from the sea more than two
million years ago and were formed during the Jurassic period.
Born in the vicissitudes of history, the land still bears
the marks of precipices, chasms and seams carved out by erosion.
Tobacco grows in the valley—strange red leaves almost
starved by the salty soil but brought to life by permanent
sunshine.
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I
always dreamed of the Viñales Valley but never ventured
there. In school I could touch the lush tobacco leaves pictured
in textbooks and see the caterpillars that live off them, slowly
and avidly taking on the aroma of tobacco before devouring the
plant.
My
life was that of the concrete city, though the sensation left
by dew on my hand was so strong that I still recall it as
if it were real. The leaf, bright and green like a child,
turns a deep toasted brown before it is smelt, chewed or burnt,
becoming like time itself and ending up, in old age, as wisps
of smoke. |
Farmers,
most of whom came from the Canary Islands, arrived around
1800 and began cultivating tobacco across the region, which
is commonly known as the Vuelta Abajo. Two hundred years later,
tobacco is still the lifeblood of the Viñales Valley,
which produces 661,000 quintals of it every year. Only the
best leaves get sent to Havana, where hundreds of workers
called torcedores and anilladores handroll them into cigars.
Cuba produces 65 million cigars a year, packed in cedarwood
boxes and exported to the entire world.
Growing
tobacco calls for patience. Some even say that the plant grows
better if you speak to it. Once the seeds are sown (between
October and December), the moment to reap and pack is of critical
importance, marking all the difference between acidity, sourness
or waste-product.
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The
valley is like its tobacco—discreet, thrifty and tranquil,
stuck in the same serene pocket of time as its villagers.
People who have never been to the Viñales Valley, in
the Cuban province of Piñar del Río, should
know that it boasts a unique variety of plant and animal life,
some of it in danger of extinction, such as the cork palm,
the agabe, the macusey hembra, the alligator oak and the dragon
tree. Unaccustomed to the ways of civilization and to music
unlike their own songs, the valley’s birds also come
in a kaleidoscope of species, with names as evocative as the
pine-forest grass quit, the mockingbird and the totí. |
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Where
Nature invites painters to take place
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Returning
to Viñales is a bit like returning to a museum. A silence
hangs over it, a mysterious calm that dwells in the early
morning mist. In Viñales village we visit a church
built in the last century with sombre pews that have been
repaired countless times. The musty odour mingles with the
smell of warmed-up food. Heavy rainfall in the wet season
has spoiled the splendid facades of the houses, which now
look like faded mosaics. |
And
Cuban hands, always touching and caressing things, cherishing
the past, have worn out the fine wooden railings at the front
of the houses. As in every village in my country, Viñales
also has a central square—a byword for order amid confusion.
Four kilometres from the village, on one side of the Dos Hermanas
(Two Sisters) mogote, stands the Mural of Prehistory, a impressive
120-metre high fresco painted by Cuban artist Leovigildo González,
disciple of the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Depicted are
the animals and other creatures that lived in the valley in
prehistoric times.
People
who have not read the poem of José Lezama Lima (1912-76),
Bajo el arco de Viñales (Beneath the arch of Viñales),
or have never seen the paintings of Cuban artist Domingo Ramos
or contemplated the Mural of Prehistory, should know that
this valley, which rose from the bottom of the ocean near
the western tip of the island, is above all a place of art,
a site where Nature provides the frame and waits for the painter
to be seated.
But
how does one take leave of the valley? Through its cliffs,
its hollows? Through the passage in a mogote and its columns
of gentle stalagmites? Through the long line of big-belly
palm trees with their fiery plumes lit by summer? Through
its chattering streams full of blind fish? Through the echoes
of cockfights left in an old sugar factory? Or through a cheap
painting on the yellow wall of a restaurant somewhere in Havana’s
tourist district? Which path home is best? |
To do in and around Vinales
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Cueva
del Indio
The
Cueva the Indio is a cave in which you can sail of over a
small underground river for about 400 meters. Nice artificial
lamps and souvenir salesmen.
Exploring
caves to the tune of haunting tales
It was here that the Guanajatabey Indians built their primitive
homes in caves hollowed out of the limestone mogotes, where
relics of this nomadic people have been found along with fossils
of Pleistocene mammals embedded in the rock. Deep inside the
caves, albino fish swim and butterfly bats flit.
Some
caverns, such as the Cueva del Indio, rediscovered in 1920,
have close to four kilometres of underground streams which
can be explored in a small dinghy so long as you don’t
mind listening to all the scary tales the peasant guides love
to recount.
As the streams slowly work through the limestone and mix with
the mojote clay falling from above, they become solutions
of minerals and coppery earth, both of which are then deposited
on the roofs and walls of the caves, turning the surfaces
ochre milky green, rendering the scenery all the more mysterious. |
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Casa
de Caridad Botanical Gardens
One
of the most cute attractions in Viñales is the little
Casa de Caridad Botanical Gardens located at the northeastern
end of town, runned by a mother and daughter. The lush gardens
feature a mix of ornamental and medicinal plants and flowers,
as well as orchids, bromeliads, palms, and fruit trees. If
you're really lucky, you'll be able to munch on some freshly
harvested fruit. No admission is charged, but donations are
warmly accepted
Located on the opposite side of the Cupet gas station just around the corner towards Hotel Rancho San Vicente |
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Mural
de la Prehistoria
It's big, but this attraction can't
quite cut it as kitsch, is decidedly uninteresting as art,
woefully inadequate as narrative, and just not impressive
enough in execution to merit all the attention. Despite some
fresh paint, which restored, and even improved on, the vibrant
colors of artist Leovigildo González Morillo's original
work, this massive mural lacks the style and weight of the
works of his mentor, Diego Rivera.
The mural is located 4km (2 1/2 miles) west of Viñales
and is open daily from 11am to 5pm. The $1 admission is waived
if you eat at the Rumbos-run restaurant on-site. |
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Museo Municipal
Local artists exhibitions.
It also offers hiking and tours information. It is possible to make arrangements for guided tours at this place located in the main street of Vinales
Address:
Salvador Cisneros #115
Vinales, Pinar del Rio, Cuba
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Casa
de la Cultura
A small art gallery and organise cultural activities.
It also sells some souvenirs.
Address:
Aa nice old mainson next to the church on the main square in Vinales center |
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Hiking
Tours in Viñales Valley
Check
out our Viñales Specialized Tours page.
Cuba-Junky can help you with booking a good guided hiking
tour or visit to a farm and talk to the farmers
More
information about hiking in Vinales |
Date: 27-09-2008
Author: Rossella
Country: UK |
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I spent a lovely time in Vinales, at Villa Pupi y Norma
loved their hospitality and Pupi's food - if you are after some authenticity go for it , more info on www.villapupi.com
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Date: 04-08-2008
Author: Juan
Country: Spain |
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Cueva San Tomas
This cave is 10 times better than La Cueva del Indio, a tourist trap. Cueva San Tomas, a nice 15km drive West of Vinales, is the longest in Latin America. They give you the proper gear (helmet with lamp) and guide you through an easy 2 hours tour (some people come here from all around the world and actually spend weeks in the caves (they are 47 kms long!).
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