After taking a pretty damaged road through the hills from Santa Clara, through Topes de Collantes National Park, we arrive in Trinidad in the early afternoon and schedule an orientation walk for 5pm, so that it is a bit cooler. This is one of the hottest cities in Cuba, hence trying to use the cooler parts of the day- and its stays light until just after 8pm.
The walk takes us through the UNESCO word heritage, cobblestoned city center. There are several squares here and we have some history of the city. As the six lane national highway passes on the other side of the mountain; it remained forgotten for most of its life except for phases of boom- like with the sugar cane industry and a small gold rush. Once better ports were established, closer to Havana, then it lost that status too.
We did stop by a Bodega – this is where everyone still collects their monthly food rations of sugar, rice, oil, eggs and daily bread. The one thing I have noticed is that none of these shop have much, but all have loads of rum!
On Day 2 in Trinidad Margret and I went on a catamaran trip to Cayo Blanco –a two-hour trip from Trinidad. We were there with 6 other passengers only and had the whole island and beach to ourselves. We did a 45min snorkel, with a decent array of fish, had lunch and then floated around the shallow waters off the beach. It was a very chilled and relaxing day.
On the second full day in Trinidad I decided not to take the sugar train but to spend some time around town. I visited the Romantic Museum, which is a house of a rich family, decorated by opulent items from around the world- especially European art and glass ware and Cuban mahogany furniture. When the Spanish came in the late 15th century Cuba was covered by up to 90% mahogany forests. The layout and design of the house, with large open windows, shades and courtyard is a great example of cooling in the hot climate.
I had a salsa lesson in the evening – it went OK. I’m pretty bad at following a lead… and like to improvise 🙂 I did learn the basic steps and three turns, will see if I remember them when I need to?! Later in the evening I went to the Plaza Mayor to enjoy some music and mojitos on the steps of the city.
One reply on “Trinidad”
I like the atmosphere around this place. And the furniture are amazing