Workers roll tobacco by hand at Cuba's cigar factories

Even fervent anti-smokers will find a tour of a cigar factory fascinating.

You walk round watching people rolling tobacco by hand and packing the cigars in wooden boxes. It's meditative to watch but no doubt boring to do.

Still, there's an obvious camaraderie between the workers, and they are apparently well paid.

Ask about the profession of the tobacco reader, if no-one mentions it. The tobacco reader is someone who reads classic works of literature aloud to the workers as they work (Shakespeare, Victor Hugo), to alleviate boredom and expand the mind. They started this over 100 years ago and still do it today.

There's a cigar factory at Industria street No. 520, in Old Havana.