Cuba - Lonely Planet [158]
Getting There & Away
BUS
The city’s bus station (Adela Azcuy btwn Colón & Comandante Pinares) is conveniently located close to the center. Víazul leaves for Viñales twice daily at 12:05am and 4:30pm (CUC$6) and for Havana at 8:50am and 2:50pm (CUC$11). The afternoon Havana bus also stops in Las Terrazas. Tickets in Convertibles are purchased at the window upstairs (open 8am to 7pm).
Numerous tour buses and excursions leave daily for Havana – a trip that may include a couple of tourist stops. Ask at Havanatur ( 77-84-94; cnr Martí & Colón; 8am-noon & 1:30-6pm Mon-Fri, 8am-noon & 1-4pm Sat) about these and other transfers to Cayo Levisa, Cayo Jutías and María la Gorda.
Private taxis hanging around outside the bus station will offer you prices all the way to Havana.
TRAIN
Before planning any train travel, check the blackboards at the station for cancelled, suspended and rescheduled services. From the train station ( 75-57-34; cnr Ferrocarril & Comandante Pinares Sur; ticket window 6:30am-noon & 1-6:30pm) there’s a painfully slow train to Havana (CUC$7, 5½ hours, 9:45am) every other day. You can buy your ticket for this train the day of departure; be at the station between 7am and 8pm. Local trains go southwest to Guane via Sábalo (CUC$2, two hours, 7:18am and 6:30pm). This is the closest you can get by train to the Península de Guanahacabibes.
Getting Around
Cubacar ( 75-9381) has a car-rental office at Hotel Vueltabajo and Havanautos ( 77-80-15) has one at Hotel Pinar del Río. Mopeds can be rented from La Casona.
Servicentro Oro Negro is two blocks north of the Hospital Provincial on the Carretera Central. The Servi-Cupet gas station is 1.5km further north on the Carretera Central toward Havana; another is on Rafael Morales Sur at the south entrance to town.
Horse carts (one peso) on Isabel Rubio near Adela Azcuy go to the Hospital Provincial and out onto the Carretera Central. Bici-taxis cost five pesos around town.
If you are up for cadging a ride to Viñales Cuban-style, trudge north to the junction of the Carretera a Viñales and the northern extent of Rafael Morales and get talking to the amarillo (traffic organizer).
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SOUTHWEST OF PINAR DEL RÍO
If Cuba is the world’s greatest tobacco producer and Pinar del Río its proverbial jewel box, then the verdant San Luis region southwest of the provincial capital is the diamond in the stash. Few deny that the pancake-flat farming terrain around the town of San Juan y Martínez churns out the crème de la crème of Cuba’s (and hence the world’s) best tobacco and the rural scenery is typically picturesque. Further on, there are a couple of little-visited southern beaches and the freshwater Embalse Laguna Grande, stocked with largemouth bass.
Sights
Well into his eighties now and threatening to out-live Fidel, Alejandro Robaina is the only surviving Cuban with a brand of cigars named after him. His famous vegas (fields), in the rich Vuelta Abajo region southwest of Pinar del Río, have been growing quality tobacco since 1845, but it wasn’t until 1997 that a new brand of cigars known as Vegas Robaina was first launched to wide international acclaim.
An enterprising man in more ways than one, Robaina has also unofficially opened up his tobacco farm to outside visitors, and with a little effort and some deft navigational skills, visitors can roll up at the farm and, for a small fee (CUC$5), get the lowdown on the tobacco-making process from delicate plant to aromatic wrapper.
To get to the Alejandro Robaina Tobacco Plantation ( 79-74-70) take the Carretera Central southwest out of Pinar del Río for 18km, turn left onto another straight road and then left again (after approximately 4km) onto the rougher track that leads to the farm. Tours are generally available from 10am to 5pm every day bar Sunday, but call ahead to check. The tobacco-growing season runs from October to February and this is obviously the best time to visit.
RANCHO LA GUABINA
A former Spanish farm