We got up and had breakfast at our casa. It was delicious. There were fruits, bread, eggs, cheese and tea- way more than we could have ever eaten! After breakfast we were picked up by Osnear for our tobacco farm tour. He was incredibly friendly and spoke very good english. He walked us through town to where the horses were corralled. He then saddled Tash and I up and we headed off into the countryside. The horses rode really easily. My horse was named Tito and he loved to eat. He stuck his head into the pasture as we walked and ate an entire ear of corn- stalk and all! We stopped our horses at the tobacco drying house. The tobacco farmer, Lionel, invited us inside to learn about the farming process. Soon after it started POURING so Lionel also had to invite our horses inside as well. The cuban government has worked out an "agreement" with the farmers that they will take 90% of the tobacco grown and the farmers will get to keep 10%. There are four parts of the tobacco plant- the cohiba, monte cristo, romeo and juliet, and the fourth which I can't remember. They use the different parts to make the different types of cigars. First, the farmers plant the seeds and when the plants grow big, the farmers have to transfer them to a larger area. Next the tobacco is dried in house for 4-5 months. There are two stages of fermentation. First the tobacco is wrapped in a palm leaf. Then the farmers remove the center stem of the tobacco leaf for the 10% that they will keep. They do this because 85% of the nicotine is found in the center stem. Farmers leave the center stem intact on the 90% of plants that they will give to the government because the nicotine, along with other chemicals, helps to preserve the cigar. Also, the nicotine is the addictive property which will keep consumers coming back for more. Because the farmers remove the center stem, they use a natural remedy to preserve their cigars which allows them to last up to 3 years as opposed to the 10 years that the government claims they will last. Consumers MUST insist on papers of authenticity when purchasing cigars otherwise the status of cuban cigars decreases and the farmers are left hurting. It's good business to buy straight from the farmer, so that's what I did. Because of the rain, Lionel offered to light one up for us inside. He dipped the end in honey and then poked a hole in the middle. He said this was the farmers' favorite way to smoke them. He didn't have to cut the end of the cigar, because he rolls and finishes them naturally, unlike the government who uses a woodpress to finish the cigars. If you don't cut those, you risk getting chips of wood in your mouth. Because we were stuck inside, Osnear offered to put on music and teach us to salsa. The four of us spent time practicing while puffing. It was a really enjoyable afternoon and I was so glad to have learned so much from Lionel.
Once the rain finally let up, we took our horses outside and rode to the coffee fields to see how cuban coffee is made. The beans go through three colors, green, then yellow and finally red. The beans are ripe when they are red. The farmers pick them and ground them in a mortar bowl to lose the skins. They are baked for 20-25 minutes in an oven. The farmers then perform a smell test on the beans. This is apparently a very highly regarded trait and not all farmers have the "nose" for it. Once complete they are either ground or used as beans. Cubans make their coffee by putting the beans in boiling water for 4-5 minutes and then drinking that "water" which is now coffee.
After sampling some coffee the farmer showed us how to make the cuban dark rum. They use guavita fruit. The guavita is INCREDIBLY small and only grows in that particular region of Cuba, so it is called Guavita del Pinar. The farmer gave us a small teacup of the rum which I threw back as a shot but apparently I was just supposed to sip it. Ooops! It was quite strong.
We rode our horses back to the corralling area. Because Tash and I were on large, long stretches of open land we asked Osnear if we could run our horses. He allowed us to do so and damn was it fun! After returning to a normal speed, Osnear pulled mangoes from the trees and showed us how to poke holes in them in order to drink the juice. It was incredibly refreshing! Tash and I had such an amazing morning with Osnear and are so thankful to have learned so much about the cuban people and their way of life in the countryside.
Tash and I were starving so we headed to a small cafe in town. I ordered Ropa Vieja (beef) because it is one of my most favorite cuban dishes. This ropa vieja however came with beans which didn't agree with my stomach. I had to get up in the middle of lunch and scoot quickly back to our casa to use the restroom. I then had to quickly head back so we could pay and do some more exploring. We started toward the center of town but low and behold the beans were coming back to bite me once again and I had to quickly return to our casa. I felt bad that I kept leaving Tash so I hurried back as quickly as I could. Unfortunately however, it started to rain so Tash and I had to turn back. I was paces ahead of her the entire way because you guessed it, I had to use the bathroom AGAIN. People on the porches were beginning to notice and were pointing at me as I went by them for a 5th time that afternoon. I was thankful that the rain kept us in the casa for a little while.
Once the rain ended we got on a bus that circled the outskirts of the town. We visited a prehistoric mural and the highest viewpoint in the city. We thought we were also going to the infamous caves however they had closed hours earlier so we just got to drive by them. Unfortunately this kept us on the bus for an extra 30 minutes.
That night we went to Trepacas for dinner and a drink. It was a super cute hipster bar. While dining on the patio, we watched construction workers across the street putting up a building. It was so odd to see the way they were working. It seemed as though there were WAY too many men on the job site and that they were all looking for something to do. Mena, our server, informed us that the government puts Cuban people to work on these projects and then promises them jobs at the building once it's complete. Rarely do the workers receive the jobs. I noticed one man standing on a long board running between the tops of two pillars. On the ground, directly under the man, was another worker who was using a rubber mallet to repeatedly hit the pillar the man was being held up by. Mena enjoyed our company and at the end of our meal, he got us up to salsa dance with him on the porch.
Tash and I were determined to see the caves, so for our evening entertainment we decided to attend a disco being held in them. We found two boys from Switzerland to accompany us in a taxi to the caves. When we first arrived there was a show with cuban dancers and singers. Then, there was music for us to dance to. Mena showed up to dance with us but he became much too handsy so we found a nice man, Fredericko who let us sit with him. There was an incredibly long line for taxis home but we found some boys heading the same directions as us so we hopped in with them. They invited us back to their hostel because it had a beautiful rooftop area where we continued our party much too late into the evening.
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