Trinidad

We arrived in Trinidad in the late afternoon after a full day of driving. Tony played us a couple of documentaries during the drive. One was about Cuban wildlife and the other was about Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Sleeping and a delicious lunch helped the time to pass quicker than expected.

After quickly settling into our Trinidad casas we went for a walk around the town. The streets are very narrow and are paved with very uneven stones which make walking somewhat challenging. Trinidad centres around its church, main square and steps which lead up beside the church. We headed to the bell tower of what is now a museum for a bird's eye view of the town and to watch the sun begin to set.

We had dinner at the house of Jesus. Jesus was the organiser of the casas in Trinidad so just near his house became our meeting place. Dinner was amazing with a whole cooked snapper the central dish. The rice pudding dessert was also a highlight. We also tried the signature cocktail of the region called La Canchánchara. It's essentially lemon, honey and rum so could be considered medicinal...

After dinner we wandered into town to watch a band playing at the steps and to enjoy a few more cocktails. There were lots of locals out and about too, and we saw some couples salsa dancing which was fun as after our lesson we had a little more understanding of the steps involved.

The next day was to be a free day for us and a day off for Tony, our driver. One of our group members hatched a plan with Tony (our guide) to allow the other Tony to earn some extra money. A group of us had decided to go to the beach as we'd heard how nice it was, and another group had decided to hike in the national park. A plan was devised where both groups would be dropped at their activities, picked up a few hours later and then we'd continue together to a lookout point over a valley that used to contain sugar cane plantations, and then to a lookout tower that still stands in the same valley.

Playa Ancón is the most beautiful beach! There were three resorts sharing the stretch of beach. However, all are built well back from the sand and two were almost completely hidden by palms and trees growing in the sand. One is an unfortunate Soviet-designed building - painted orange so it would stand out anywhere! There are some man-made shelters along the beach, although they're thatched with palm leaves so they blend in nicely. We found a place to rent sun loungers and settled in for relaxation. The water was reasonably warm and very calm so it was lovely to float about. Later Ed and I walked the length of the beach, and it was nice to see quite a few Cuban families out enjoying their Sunday.

Once the group met up again we drove to the mirador (lookout) over Valle de los Ingenios. The views were amazing and at one time there would have been 40 sugar refineries in the one valley. There was still evidence of some sugar cane being grown in the valley today, although this is now alongside other crops.

We next drove to the village of Iznaga to visit the tower built by a former sugar baron. This 43.5 metre tall tower would have been used as the lookout to watch the slaves working in the sugar fields. It was a long way up the steep and slightly rickety stairs, but the view was certainly worth it.

For dinner Ed and I went to a restaurant around the corner from our casa - another recommendation from Tony! It's operated by three brothers, two of whom left Cuba and set up a successful restaurant in Puerto Rico, then later returned to Cuba to create this restaurant. The food was beautiful and luckily the portions were just the right size for us. We shared croquettes, salad, plantain stuffed with shredded pork, and a Cuban style thin crust pizza topped with fish, prawns and crayfish. We even had room for dessert!

At 9pm our group met again to watch an Afro-Cuban show with dancing, singing and drumming. The performance was fantastic!

As our journey the next day to Cienfuegos was a short drive we had another chance to look around the town in the morning and do a little shopping. We had both been eyeing up the local hats and Ed found one he liked, which fitted him with the help of a lovely woman in one of the hat shops. She even adjusted the band for him so that it fitted perfectly.