Trinidad de Cuba

Thursday 4th February 2010

From Cienfuegos we headed to Trinidad – Cuba’s Trinidad. Trinidad is in the province of Sancti Spiritus and was originally founded by a Conquistador named Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in 1514 and has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1988. Nestled between the Escambray mountains and the Caribbean Sea, Trinidad’s original industry, aided by the natural resource of wood and the plentiful supply of slaves, was sugar; however, nowadays the main income for the area are tobacco and tourism.

After first checking that we did not have any accommodation arranged at our next destination, our Cienfuegos host made the phone call and our next accommodation and pick-up is booked; all we have to do is arrive on the bus and look for the sign with our names on. As the bus pulled into the terminal a chain was pulled across the entrance to keep out the ‘accommodation touts’ and we already have the notion that, although the pre-booking of accommodation is helpful in that there is no worry, it is more for the benefit of the Cubans than for the tourist.

Anyway, our host greets us with a big smile full of charm and charisma, and finds a bicycle taxi to carry us and our bags the 10 min walk to his house. On arrival, I have to admit that it is the nicest Casa we have lodged in to date. The room is not a bad size and the bathroom is a 100 times better then in the last stop. Meals are to be taken on a very pretty terrace on the roof of our room; so much better than sitting in a stifling closed in room. Our host goes on to tell us of all the good things about Trinidad; how beautiful it is with a beautiful beach just 12 km’s away, wonderful museums and town squares and, most importantly, no nasty smelly factories like Cienfuegos. He went on to warn us that we should not eat out as the food is not so good, not fresh and too expensive, and that we should eat at his place all the time. Hmm! We usually have breakfast in the Casa anyway and his prices for dinner were the same as the other places in which we had stayed, and the terrace was very pleasant, so we decided to eat in all the time.

That first evening, we only had about an hour and a half to two hours left before sunset so we used that time to climb the hill to the north of the town for a view of the town and to watch the sun set over The Caribbean. It was a bit of a long and dusty trek and at the top was a building with radio mask for television and telephone communications. We found a spot just in front for our vista viewing and noticed that there was a small party of people on the roof of the single story building. Pretty soon we realised that one of the ‘watchmen’ was making his way over to us and thought ‘here we go’. We are either going to get touched up for some money or told to leave – or both. To be fair, he was a really nice guy; in his broken English he told us that the view from the roof was spectacular and that one could see up the valley as well as the town and sunset in front and invited us to join him on the roof, which we did.

Between his little bit of English and my little bit of Spanish he managed to point out an ex sugar plantation hacienda and small patches of sugar cane and a small railway line. He told us that the whole valley used to be covered in sugar cane but not any more; now it is just grazing for cattle. Paul’s research had already informed us of all of this but it was nice of him to point out the various areas. As mentioned before, there were already some westerners up there when we arrived; a Belgian woman and a French woman who had met at a Casa and decided to spend the rest of their time together as they both wanted to see the same areas and it is good to have a travelling companion. There was also a Swiss young man, still at university in Germany studying chemistry and an American.

When the sun set we all walked back down the hill together; it gets dark quiet quickly and the road would be dangerous in the dark. On arrival back in the town we all decided to go for a beer at a bar that had tables and chairs outside and when we got there we found that there was a small Cuban group playing traditional music. Because of the loudness of the music it was only possible to talk to the person next to you so Paul chatted to the Swiss guy while I chatted to the American. Jason, it turns out, is currently teaching English in Vietnam where he had achieved ‘the American dream in a communist country’. He is married to a Vietnamese woman and they have children. It would appear that he had some vacation time which his wife did not and he didn’t want to take the kids out of school anyway so he was there by himself.

Teaching English as a foreign or second language is exactly what I want to do and his recommendation was that I do the Cambridge course. It is very intense, he informed me, but it will make me far more employable; advise that I intend to investigate further.