Cuba: Farming amongst the Mogotes

This mini-series was shot near Vinales in the West of Cuba, an area famous for it's limestone Mogotes which give the region such a dramatic landscape. I'd hired a bike and cycled out of town with know clear objective until I’d cycled past a bunch of Lithuanians who informed me that just a bit further up the road was the vast painted rock that was in the guidebooks as something worth a visit. It supposedly depicts the evolution of man and was painted 'art attack' style in massive scale on the rocks, commissioned by Fidel Castro in the 1960's. Personally I wasn't overly impressed - the feat itself was impressive but it just seemed a little odd and out of place. I suppose it was meant to be a kind of 'modern cave painting' but it looked more like Neil Buchanan had been let loose in Cuba.

Anyway the point is that the diversion led me past a farmer and his grandson, ploughing their field. As I stopped to take pictures the light got better and better and I started to move closer to get the picture. Next thing I know the little boy (Mikey as I later found out) was scampering along the dirt paths bordering the field back towards the family hut. It wasn't long before I realised they'd seen the rain coming. I on other the other hand hadn’t, and thus stood there like a lemon as a wall of water came cascading down the road as if someone in the heavens was steadily walking along with a giant watering can. It quickly dawned on me that the trees I was in were giving little shelter and as I turned I realised the little boy and his mother were beckoning me over so I ran with my bike up the dirt track, thus escaping the worst of it in the shelter of their home. These are the pictures I made. I only wish I spoke more Spanish so that I could have extended my gratitude more eloquently.