The ruins of dozens of small 19th-century sugar mills, including warehouses, milling machinary, slave quarters, manor houses, and other remains dot the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the suger mills), which begins 8km east of Trinidad on the road to Sancti Spiritus. Most of the mills were destroyed in the two wars of independence, and the focus of sugar-growing moved westward to Matanzas. Some sugar is still grown here, however, and it's all as picturesque as ever.