A long Day in the Saddle

Well, of course, not the saddle but the coach that transports our group around. 10 hours from one hotel to the next with a variety of touristy things in between.
First, the best, a couple of hours drive to Viñales an area of lush vegetation and some magnificent rocks with a flat valley between the vertical cliffs. The rocks are called mogotes and the views are unparalleled in Cuba, in my opinion. We spent enough time here to appreciate them but it is a great area for walking close to the foot of the cliffs. There are numerous caves and we took a short ride in an underground river. Worthwhile as all the trimmings of caves were there.Then off to a cigar factory. Probably 20 benches with room for 4 workers each side of each bench. However there were just two each side as cigar demand has decreased. This was interesting to see the tobacco being neatly contained between large leafs. A press assures the packing is correct and each cigar is checked. Workers are expected to produce 200 per day or suffer less wages!
From there we saw something of a rum factory with tasting,then a bottling plant, neither of these were particularly worthwhile and lengthened the day!
Finally to a farm where we learnt a little about the growing, drying and curing (fermentation) of the tobacco leaves. The farmer rolled a cigar but it was very loose, burnt quickly and was as hot as hell according to our one smoker, but serve him right!
Finally back to our lovely hotel in Las Terrazzas.