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Published: February 17th 2015
Hello Again Everyone!!
On our third day of our Cuba Libre Adventure we stopped during the morning in the town of Pinar del Rio for a tour of a local cigar factory. It's not really a factory per say as all the cigars are rolled by hand by about 100 young men and women sitting at little wooden desks in a 25 by 4 formation. We were able to watch them close up skillfully wrapping the cigars. They have to roll a minimum of 130 cigars during their work day. As well, they are able to stay longer and roll more for extra pay. A very nice thing we learned about the cigar factory is that the workers are read short stories and the news by a person over a microphone. It probably reduces the boredom of the repetitive craft and a nice touch we thought! It was also interesting in that this building was used to house Castro and his allies as they were planning the rebellion. There are photos of some of these instrumental men in the entrance to the building. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in the cigar factory so you will have to
imagine from my description!
Our next stop was to the Pinar del Rio rum factory. The rum here is not produced on a big scale but rather a specialized blend (about 11000 bottles per month) that is only available in Cuba and exported to Italy. It was very cool as we got a real close up view of all the steps of the rum making process from the fermintation process to the bottling. We were able to buy a bottle of their sweet rum which is absolutely declicious!
Later in the afternoon we arrived at our next destination "Maria La Gorda" which is situated on the Caribbean Sea. We stayed at a lovely resort with few people, soft white sand and beautiful clear turquoise water (my kind of place!) The snorkelling right off the beach was great.
Day two took us on a nature tour in a national park that is protected by the Cuban government where we travelled to the furthest west point of the island. We saw cenotes, limestone, forests, caves, birds, lizards, wild boars, crocodiles, a scorpion and a beautiful black hawk. On the way home we stopped for a swim at a secluded
beach with picture perfect white sand and crystal clear water.
We really enjoyed dining at the resort in the evenings at the outdoor restuarant and watching the sun set. Delicious seafood and a lovely selection of red wine which we found quite surprising as the resort is kind of out of the way with few people! We were thinking if Cuba opens its doors to the US, it probably won't stay secluded and we can just imagine the development that would occur.
That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading!
Mallory and Warren
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Pat Atkinson
non-member comment
Gorgeous
Love your blog Mallory. What fabulous winter retreats you and Warren take. Keep your blog coming as we are living vicariously through you and your beautiful photographs.