#3387 - Finca La Roja, Vinales, Cuba - 11/3/2017

After a few excellent days in Havanna, Trista and I and the other six friends on our Cuba trip piled into a huge, classic "taxi colectivo" and rode for three hours to Vinales in the province of Pinar del Rio, the westernmost and most rural province of Cuba and source of the finest tobacco in the world. Just outside of Vinales we spotted the "Finca la Roya" ("red farm") bar and restaurant, which seemed impossibly romantic, with its thatched roofed barns and homes amidst the rolling, lush landscape, limestone "mogote" mounds in distance, and a man plowing the rich red soil behind to oxen. We would be back.

So after settling down in our "casa particular" and spending the first evening in the town of Vinales, the following day we rented scooters and headed out for parts unknown, but not most definitely to include tracking back to Finca la Roya for a cocktail and lunch. We were the only customers and the open patio gave us some great views of the valley and, much to Trista's happiness, a menagerie of chickens, ducks, dogs and more critters.

The drinks and food were pretty good, but our favorite part of the visit was the setting and the family, including when 3rd generation tobacco farmer Don Alfredo, who spoke no English, led us down into the barn and demonstrated his artisan cigar rolling skills. But then again this is one of the places where nothing I could write could possibly add much meaningful description to the pictures.

Dan Afredo, rolling a cigar for us (Trista photo)

KM 24 Carretera a Vinales, Vinales 22400, Cuba - +53 48 69539