Visited in January 2023.

The Viñales Valley is located 200 km from Havana, in the province of Pinar del Rio. I booked a tour through the owners of an airbnb apartment in Havana.
Europeans came to this valley among the Sierra de los Organos mountain range only at the beginning of the 19th century, three hundred years after the beginning of the colonization of the island. It turned out that the local climate is ideal for agriculture, especially for the cultivation of tobacco.
Since then, the technology of this process has not changed much. Large-scale production with its mechanization is considered to have a negative impact on the quality of the product, so the villagers here still do everything by handwork. Each tour takes you to a tobacco farm, where you can watch how tobacco is processed and cigars are made. In principle, the service is unobtrusive, and it is really interesting to get acquainted with the process of making cigars. The continuity of tobacco traditions and the folk architecture of villages and individual farms have been considered World Heritage. The second factor in recognizing the UNESCO status is the karst formations, primarily mogote, isolated limestone mountains resembling domes. As usual in karst formations there are many caves, one of which, the Cueva del Indio, can be entered for a symbolic fee. The cave is not the most impressive of those I have been to, but part of the route has to be overcome by boat. It is also nice to get out of the boat at the exit of the cave and take a fresh and cool piña colada.