Cuba, Day 12
Out into Tobacco Country
Our second group had not yet visited tobacco country. Cuba is known for its cigars, and for someone who neither smokes nor likes smoke, I was amazed that these cigars do not have the heavy, cloying smell (note I do not use the word “aroma”) so associated with the cigars in the U.S. Instead, it reminds me more of my dad’s pipe tobacco … mellow and homey.
We enjoyed the changing landscape, the mix of horse-drawn carts, buses, 50s-era cars, and bicycles along the highway.
We stopped at the overlook that affords such a commanding view of the valley, had a coffee, and photographed the scenes below. This time, I homed in on a tobacco drying barn, nestled amongst sugar-plum mountains with sheer cliffs.
The graphics of the tobacco on their drying racks with the soft light made a great subject for me.
After lunch, an enterprising hen hops onto the table and partakes of dessert! She was soon shooed out by one of our hosts. Naughty hen!
At another farm, an older gentleman, whom we had met the week before, relaxed in his chair by the open door.
After a full day, we stopped along the highway to fill up the bus. It was approaching running on fumes, and it would have been a long walk back to Habana. Stations are few and far between, so one does not pass up any opportunity to fill up. As we waited, a horse trotted over the bridge, driver in a two-wheeled cart behind. It reminded me of Amish country in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and Ohio.
We had enjoyed a full day, and some people napped, as we returned to the city.
Next: In and Around Habana