Cuba Day 7 - Thursday September 6
Pinar del Rios - Vinales Valley

Today we met the real Marlboro man and saw the land before time!  Seeing pictures before arriving to Cuba, I thought for certain that this was PhotoShop!  This couldn't exist.  Pictures do not give justice to the beauty of the scenery here.

Yes - this is the real police, with spurs on his boots - look closely.

La finca de Benito Camejo

La finca de Benito - much of the work on the island is still done using cattle.

Benito's family owned a huge portion of land before the revolution.  After the revolution his family was allowed to keep 10 acres.  He and his family live on and work the land.  He sells some of his tobacco crop to the government, and it able to keep a portion for his personal use and or resale.

Not just tobacco on this farm....

Dried coffee beans

Thanksgiving dinner?

Fresh coffee beans

Take your pic!  Baby 'nanas.

This is a fresh coffee been - before the drying process - believe it or not, has a bit of a sweet taste to it and doesn't smell like what you'd expect it to.

Cuba's Marlboro man!  This is Mr. Benito Carmejo himself inside his palm-frond barn where he stores his tobacco.

Fresh tobacco leaves being dried and 'cured'.

Benito sat and rolled fresh cigars.  Yovani sure looks the part doesn't he?  David Noe, a cigar aficionado, commented that it was honestly one of the best cigars he's ever had.

Y

Ready for rollin'

Palm-frond barn.

There he is - taking a well deserved break.  Great pic of Jorge.

These aren't the 'fancy' cubans, but the presentation and apparently the taste are  equally worthy.

Ms Evelyn - so sweet.

Lot of the pics above are on the bus - so I wasn't able to capture the creepy caves!

Better pics of the caves.  Spelunking anyone?  This was the part of the country where Che had a homebase during the revolution.  

Tell me this looks real?  This was truly breathtaking.

Can't you imagine dinosaurs roaming there - well, except for that building...

Jorge