#684 Valle de Vinales, Cuba

The lush green, the limestone cliffs, the rich brown earth, the brightly colored buildings in this laid back town, the old cars cruising up the street, they all combine to make quite a pleasant relaxed place, so grab your pina colada, pull out your cigar (made locally), and sit back in the square to watch the world go by. 

 

The tobacco farms take full advantage of the rich soils and sunny climate to grow. If you take a walk out of town, you'll seen many a barn with drying leaves hanging from the rafters and a local farmer will be happy to show you how they roll them, before the take their oxen, turkey, chicken or goat, and return to the fields. 

It was in 1961 when Leovigildo Gonzalez Morillo hired several local farmers to paint this 120m long painting 4km west of Vinales village. This massive mural took 4 years to complete and with its huge snail, dinosaurs, sea monsters and humans, it tells the story of evolution. Mural de la Prehistoria.

Founded only as recently as 1875, and in 1999 declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vinales is part of one of Cuba's National Parks for its rocky outcrops, locally known as mogotes, all of which form part of the Sierra de los Organos mountain range. Several caves are part of the mogotes, including the second largest cave system in the America, the Gran Caverna de Santo Tomas (not to be mistaken for the Cueva de los Portales, which was used by Che Guevara during the Cuban Missile Crisis as headquarters (where he played a lot of chess, apparently). 

Source: Lonely Planet Cuba 7th Edition, 2013