Enjoying Cuba's Great Nature! Take a tour of the Viñales Valley full of local flavor! Monk Takahiro Ueda's Circumnavigation of the World - Cuba ⑬
June 11. The last day of the actual stay in Cuba.
The next day, June 12, they would finally board their flight home.
I was down due to the salsa incident, but I managed to recover on this day.
On the last day, I had booked a local tour of Viñales with a local tour company.
It was truly a last-minute revival, as I was prepared to cancel the event if I remained in poor health.
It takes about three hours by car from the center of Havana to reach Viñales Valley, where we are going.
The Viñales Valley is a World Heritage-listed scenic area.
It is also famous for producing some of the highest quality cigars in the world.
Cuba is never boring during the car ride.
The scenery is completely different from Japan.
Furthermore, the people driving there are also very different.
The further you go into the countryside, the more likely you are to encounter horse-drawn carriages.
You can feel the local atmosphere of Cuba just by getting in a car and moving around.
Now, here is the view from the observation deck in the Vinales Valley.
This view is often used in photos of Cuba package tours.
The mountains seem to have been raised from the ground and are clad in deep green.
It evokes the strong vitality of the tropics.
Today's tour starts here.
The first place we visited was a cigar factory.
In a dimly lit factory, women were silently folding the leaves that would become the base of the cigars.
Here, the guide gives us a thorough lecture on the cigar-making process.
The process was quite elaborate and gave a tremendous sense of handmade.
Cuban cigars are acclaimed by connoisseurs around the world as being of the highest quality in the world.
I asked my guide, "Why are Cuban cigars of such high quality?" He replied, "First of all, the climate is suitable for cigar making. The second reason is that they are carefully and meticulously made by hand with quality control.
Indeed, watching the process at the factory here, I thought it might be overkill, as each cigar was made by hand with such care and attention to detail.
This is labor intensive.
However, I was convinced that this laborious process is the secret to Cuban cigars being loved around the world.
Now, after the cigar factory tour, this is where the tour really begins.
The usual tour would take you to the caves for a boat ride and to see the famous murals, but I ordered a local tour.
The selling point of this company is to experience local landscapes that are not usually visited on sightseeing tours.
We quickly got out of the car on the mountain road and walked from here.
We entered the mountain road.
We continued walking along a narrow path in the blazing sun of nearly 35 degrees Celsius.
Coffee trees were also cultivated along the road.
I visited a coffee plantation in Tanzania, the first country I traveled to, but I never expected to see it here again. (Click here for an article about that trip)
The coffee berries were green because the harvest season was still far away.
These ripen into bright red berries at harvest time.
After walking along the mountain path for a while, the view opened up.
Apparently, they are walking near the mountain seen from the lookout point earlier.
We followed the guide closely.
In fact, this guide usually works as a farmer.
He earns his income by working as a tour guide while living as a farmer.
We have walked quite a bit. All around us are fields.
Well, it's still hot! The temperature is over 35 degrees Celsius, and the hardest part of all is the direct sunlight. The killer rays of the Caribbean sun are relentless. It was as if we were being scorched.
Then the guide suddenly spoke to me.
What comes to mind when you think of Cuba, Takahiro?"
-Ummm, baseball, I guess!
Yes, it is." Baseball! I love baseball too.
I have been playing baseball since I was a child.
But my kids can't play baseball."
-What? Why?
I can't afford a glove."
-?
'After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba ran out of supplies. So there are no gloves to begin with. Now, in this country.
Baseball is no longer the casually accessible sport it once was.
So now kids have no choice but to play soccer."
I was reminded of this when I heard those words.
Indeed, I never saw children playing catch, let alone baseball, on the streets of Havana.
All I saw were children playing soccer.
For Cubans, baseball is more than just one sport.
I still love baseball. It is the national sport of Cuba.
But we cannot pass it on to our children's generation.
It's really frustrating."
-That's the situation...then Cuba may not be a great baseball country in the future, right? Under these circumstances, there is no way for young players to grow up...
Yes, it is. That's right. It's not right the way we do things in this country, like we don't even have gloves."
Unlike Daniel, who guided us in Havana, this guide was clearly angered by the current situation in Cuba.
People living in the urban areas of Havana and people living as farmers in the countryside.
I guess we think and feel differently.
It is the same in Japan. People live in completely different situations in Tokyo and in the countryside.
We talked with our guide and just kept walking.
Still, it is hot...I'm at my limit...I regret violently that I should have brought water with me.
-Excuse me. Is there a place where I can drink water? I am thirsty!
We are almost at the farmer's house! Let's rest there and eat pineapple!"
I managed to follow behind the guide, suppressing the sound of "No...I want water, not pineapple..." I was so happy to be able to see the beautiful scenery.
We finally arrived at our destination, a farmer's house, when I began to seriously worry that I might collapse from heat stroke.
The farmer's hut stands alone in the distance.
Finally arrived..! Thank God!
Come on, let's have some pineapple! It's delicious!"
No...get the water first! I was tempted to say, "No...water first!
be unbroken
Next Article.
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