Prehistory Mural is one of the world's largest outdoor paintings 

This is one Cuban painting you can be certain will never be framed. The Prehistory Mural, found in the province of Pinar del Rio, has illustrations of the likes of dinosaurs and ancient sea creatures on a massive rockface that serve as reminders of evolution.

Tourist guide Liuba Guedes Fernandez says 18 artists spent four years on a project that is 120 metres wide and has became a popular attraction, with tour buses from Havana regularly arriving in the draw’s parking lot.

Work started on what is one of the largest open-air paintings in the world in 1961, with a special paint was used to strengthen the outdoors creation but retouching work has been needed over the decades. Guedes Fernandez says the Prehistory Mural’s creators continued to paint elsewhere after finishing their massive magnus opus. She says tourists generally give the mural the thumbs-up, although that hasn’t always been the case.

“One suggested it was damaging to nature, ” she reports. “The rest say, ‘It’s something different. It’s something beautiful.'”

The nearby town of Vinales has seen many homes converted into tourist lodging and there are also restaurants, with Vinales — in the heart of tobacco country — having built a tourism trade. The Vinales Valley has actually received UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

A bar by the Prehistory Mural serves up what Guedes Fernandez labels great pina coladas , which may be welcomed by visitors in the often hot region. Meanwhile, Guedes Fernandez says there’s zero chance that the Prehistory Mural will join other intriguing Cuban artworks in a Havana museum or art gallery. 

“It’s too big to move,” she correctly notes.