Velle de Vinales day 2

This morning we joined an 8 person english speaking tour, with guide and driver and people mover, to see the area. First the minuses - the van, a rooted unit, and several instances of being herded through tourist traps, for the milking of pesos. Sadly however none of the wooden, leather, seed and other fine artifacts on offer would have got through our customs.
We drove down into the fally, and made our way along various rodes through the limestons 'karls', called something else here. (Shantis not on hand to provide the language details which she always remembers.) Dotted around are farm houses and plots o red earth being ploughed by oxen, planted or tended as tobacco fields of various ages and stages. The ioccassional vehicle, or horse and cart or man on horseback are on the roads. Surrounding us these strange limestone mounds with steep sides make a distinctive sight.
\Firstly we viewed a mural, where a large face of one of the hill walls had been cleared and painted with the three standard governemnt paint issues of garish pink, blue and a maybe yellow. Apparently this was ordained by Castro on his first state visit, and is typical of the revolutionary slogans and bill boards throughout the country, but this one supposedly referring to the original indian inhabitants of the valley.
Next something pretty wonderful - we went into one of the farms, and into one of the tall, gable roofed, thatched barns on every farm. In it was the farmer, called Bertolino. He spoke only spanish but our guide interpreted, so we heard the details of his tobacco growing and sale to the government at the price they fix. The barn was a lattice of horizontal poles, right to the apex, with a lengthwise corridor. It was literally packed with hanging tobacco leaves at every level, in various stages of dryness from green to brown. The sweet smell was lovely - not like cigar tobacco which has been fermented, but more like sweet grasses. Bertolino showed us seed, shaken from a dried flower, and spoke in a grand, announcement style about the process. If a camera aimed at him his lit cigar went to mouth, and he puffed up into a fine pose. We followed him looking at various leaf batches, which are picked leaf by leaf from the various patrts of the plant for diferent grades of leaf and parts of the cigar which usually have about 5 distinct leaf types. Then he entranced us by sitting down with a wooden board on lap and rolling them. Ive heard of these 'country cigars' and even seen them on sale offer (via an NZ importer). They are very simplified versions of the real thing, for local consuption. He stripped sectuions of leave to give a stringy looking bunch about 20cm long, then wrapped them in a finer, parchment like section of trimmed leaf - the wrapper. The tip was cut to lengthe and the head trimmed and secured by vegetable glue. It took only a few minutes and was surprisingly even - it looked the part. Meanwhile he is puffing them the whole time. He has smoked 20 a day for 56 years he proudly announced, and he is now 59. Off comes the hat, leans forward to pat his crop of thick black hair and strikes anothe pose to indicate being a peak physical speciman. Then, as if to justify it, eyes wide he says 'but I only smoke half of every one'. He invited us to sit around on his bench and have a smoke. No one moved (pack of pussies) so I joined hime for a flourished presentation of cigar and a few puffs beside him. He felt I needed a hat, to look more bearable, so that was plonked on my head.
We went across to his farmhouse where his wife served us coffee, being another product they are self sufficient in. We had it very strong in small cups, with a good whack of sugar. Blissful with the smoke, which was only (by the way) my second puff since getting here).
Next we moved into an area where the limestone is riddled with caves. First we walked through a 200m cave, a fair way underground, then into a wide clearing mostly surrounded by these high limestone walls. In it was a reconstruction of a negro encampment - escaped slaves lived in numbers in the remote hill areas of the region.
While there we freshened up with a drink of rum, fresh fruit juice and ice. Rum is serious business here, like coffee and cigars. It also comes in many grades according to how processed and old it is. These fresh drinks use 'silver' rum being very clear.
Before the next cave system, at a different location we had a second one, so its late morning and everyone is fairly chipper! In the second cave system we walked 400m along a magnificent limestone tunnel, full of all the gfantastic weathering, stalagmites etc. Completely naturakl except the cdement floor and a strung up wire with intermittent lighting. (ps excuse the typing, spelling etc, im pushing through this without much back checking). Deep underground we encountered a stream - still enough for a light craft. We putted by outboard for another 400m or so to the outside wall. This cavern was extensive and impressive, photos dont capture its ceilings, fluted walls and weird shapes. Not a word of interest was spoken about the geology of the caves - the guide used her torch to point out what various shapes looked like - a horse, a bottle, the face of a saint etc. WE switched of and just enjoyed the enchantment of the place.
Five hours later we had enough energy left to hire a taxi, and take a brief trawl around the town and its outskirts, photographing some of the sights we glimpsed from the van but didnt stop to see. The reural areas are quite different we decided, very simple, largely self suficient, probably a lifestyle long followed.
Must go talk more later sx