Vuelta Abajo

Vuelta Abajo is a small district around San Juan y Martínez and San Luis in western Pinar del Río, and the combination of soil and climate there produces the leaf used in the top Cuban cigars, wrappers included. The landscape is red soil, low fields under cheesecloth shade, and tall thatched curing barns in every direction. Farms take visitors between planting and curing, and the sequence from seedbed to sorted leaf can be followed on one morning if the timing is right.

What you actually see

• The fields - red soil under cheesecloth shade tents, where wrapper leaf is grown.
• The curing barns - tall thatched houses where leaf hangs to cure over weeks.
• The sorting - graded leaf handled and bundled by hand at the farms.
• The rolling - farmers rolling cigars for their own use, demonstrated on most farm visits.

When to go

November to March covers planting through harvest and curing, which is when there is something to see. From roughly May to September the fields are empty and the barns are idle. Mornings are best.

Honest expectations

Outside the season the fields are bare and a farm visit is a conversation rather than a demonstration. Cigars sold at farms are legally limited in quantity and are not the branded product; export rules on cigars are strict and enforced. Farms are working businesses and a purchase is the fair exchange for the time.

Nearby

Pinar del Rio is half an hour northeast, and Vinales is north of the city.