Cuba - Lonely Planet [155]
You can observe people busily rolling cigars at the Fábrica de Tabacos Francisco Donatien (Maceo Oeste No 157; admission CUC$5; 9am-noon & 1-4pm Mon-Fri). Until 1961 this building was a jail, but now it’s tobacco central on the tourist circuit. Smaller than the Partagás factory in Havana, you get a more intimate insight here, though the foibles are the same – robotic guides, rushed tours and the nagging notion that it’s all a bit voyeuristic. There’s an excellent cigar shop opposite.
On Plaza de la Independencia near Alameda and around the corner from the cigar factory is the Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas Galería (Antonio Guiteras; admission free; 8am-9pm Mon-Sat), Pinar’s best art gallery, which houses many local works.
The wooden, 540-seat Teatro José Jacinto Milanés ( 75-38-71; Martí No 160 btwn Isabel Rubio & Colón) is a gorgeous venue dating from 1845 – making it one of Cuba’s oldest. It reopened in 2006 after a lengthy on-off renovation and, with its colorfully painted interiors and Spanish-style patio and cafe, is well worth a look.
Pinar del Río’s understated Catedral de San Rosendo (Maceo Este No 3) dates from 1883 and its pastel-yellow exterior seems to get a more regular paint job than the rest of the city’s buildings. As with most Cuban churches, the interior is often closed. Slip inside for a peek during the Sunday morning service.
Activities
Gym freaks might want to check out the Gimnasio Deportivo (Ceferino Fernández No 43 btwn Isabel Rubio & Gerardo Medina) where, with some fumbling Spanish and a bit of deft sign language, you can talk your way into tai chi, weightlifting or somersaulting over a horsebox. Alternatively there’s the Sala Polivalente 19 de Noviembre (Rafael Morales) for boxing, volleyball and basketball.
From October to April, exciting baseball games happen at the Estadio Capitán San Luis ( 75-38-95; admission 1 peso), on the north side of town. Pinar del Río is one of the country’s best teams, often challenging the Havana-Santiago monopoly. Pop by in the evening to see the players going through a training session.
Festivals & Events
Carnaval in early July features a procession of carrozas (carriages) through the streets with couples dancing between the floats. It’s a big drunken, dance party.
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LADAS EVERYWHERE
Aided by some of the world’s most creative mechanics, Cuba has long acted as a giant recycling plant for old American cars. From hectic Havana to sleepy Baracoa, the ailing dowagers of Detroit with their curvaceous art-deco lines and lovingly polished chrome hark back to a brighter, more streamlined age when gas was cheap and a soft-top Oldsmobile was every aspiring teenager’s ticket to freedom.
Yet, in reality, one in four cars in Cuba aren’t American at all, they’re Russian. Even worse, they’re Ladas. And of the ones that aren’t (the vintage American ones, that is), a good proportion have Lada engines.
An ugly cousin of the Fiat 124 Sedan, the Lada – or VAZ-2101, to give it its proper name – was first concocted in Tolyatti on the banks of the Volga River in 1966. Economical but unattractive, they quickly became a source of ridicule for leery car connoisseurs, most of whom would have rather walked 100 miles than be seen behind the wheel of one.
In Cuba, the reception was a little more enthusiastic. Readily available thanks to a solid economic alliance with the Soviet Union, Ladas quickly became prized possessions in the 1970s and ’80s, when they were handed out to model workers as reward for exemplary conduct. Not surprisingly, the car’s rugged but ruthlessly efficient VAZ engineering did well on the island’s potholed roads and the vehicles prevailed – if not always in