Day 4 – Getting in and hanging out in Casa Sta Domingo
We had two options to travel to Trinidad, which is 330km from Havana. The Viazul bus has two trips on most days costing 25CUCs. It’s best to book this trip in advance since showing up at the bus station will not guarantee you will get on the bus, but prebooking will. Or take take a taxi for 120CUC. We ended up taking a taxi and sharing with another couple that was going to Cienfuegos. This cost us 5CUCs more then the bus and we were there in three hours instead of the 6 it takes on the bus.
We again booked accommodation through TripAdvisor. Again you cannot contact the Casa’s directly but after some sleuthing we found the website Trinitour.com where we were able to book Casa Santa Domingo; which we found to be pleasant and which we highly recommend
Trinidad is a small colonial city founded in 1514 by the Spanish. Its main industry was Sugar farming, now it is Tobacco and Tourism. In the main part of town there are many tourist shops, restaurants and bars. The streets of this town are very narrow and shared by horse carts, busses, classic taxis and newer ones. Trinidad is a really cool town and well worth visiting.
Trinidad from Lee Lau on Vimeo.
On the long hot road from Havana to Trinidad via Cienfuegoes
Arriving at Casa Sta Domingo I expressed my love of ice-cream to Yailyn who promptly pulled out ice cream!
We were suitably impressed and partook of dinner at the Casa! Yailyn’s dad was a professional chef. It apparently runs in the family
Inside Casa Sta Domingo
Casa Sta Domingo’s courtyard. A comfortable shaded respite from the day’s heat
The classic shot of Convent St Francis of Assisi church tower from Plaza Mayor
The church at Plaza Mayor and the requisite Cuban stray dog
In the evening I took a walk around Trinidad’s corner via Ave Juan Manuel Marquez via Plaza Sta Ana and an old abandoned church
Brightly painted houses (these at Plaza Sta Ana) are commonplace in Trinidad and show pride of ownership. Such a contrast to the decrepitness of Havana
Classic shot of the Church of San Francisco tower from Plaza Mayor at night
Plaza Mayor Trinidad by moonlight
Day 5 – Playa Ancon and Plaza Mayor Easter
12km from town is the beach Playa Ancon which has three hotels. We spent the morning wandering around Trinidad then tried to take the tourist bus to Playa Ancon. It was late or perhaps chose to never show up. Not much you can do about that so with a shrug of shoulders we hired a taxi; splitting the fare with others and paying very little.
You can lounge on hotel chairs for 2CUC apiece for the whole day. People watching and beach walking is the order of the day as there isn’t much to do for water sports rental. Be warned that food is not readily available, or I didn’t trust the food that was available (turista pizza mostly). The resorts at the beach are all-inclusive so the restaurants there are for people staying as paid guests.
We came back to the city and chilled more. By now the days were getting hotter and hotter and the mid-day heat was getting to us. One way we got respite was with copious amounts of ice-cream. Another way was to hide in our Casa’s magnificently cool courtyard until the evening when heat dissipated slightly.
We went back to downtown touristy Trinidad for dinner and after dinner stumbled onto the Easter evening parade. Despite socialist agnosticism Cubans are still quite religious. Catholic pomp and finery was on full display. Quite the visual and aural treat!
A gunboat used by the Cubans under Castro to patrol inland waterways at Museo Historico Municipal
Playa Ancon is a public 2km long achingly beautiful public Trinidad beach 12kms from Trinidad. Its easy to find a few people to share a cabride there or take your chances on the bus that may or may not show up. At the hotel furthest East on the beach 2CUCS gets you a shady umbrella spot and use of the pool. Score and kind of necessary given the presence of sandflies
We went back to Trinidad in the heat of the day so went for more ice cream
Cubans love their helados/ice cream as do I. Dulcea Cremaria in Trinidad at Antonio Maceo y Simon Bolivar had so many flavours. Ask Danny for the Copa Especiale with dos or tres bolas/scoops. Ice cream coffee is also really good
mmmm more ice-cream. This time out of a street vendor right outside our casa
Rest El Rincon is one of Trinidad’s new private restaurants ie paladar permitted to run under Raoul’s relaxation of the restrictions on Cuban private businesses. It’s located at Antonio Maceo y Zerquera.
Rest El Rincon’s menu is basic, the food good, the staff are proud of the place and the owner obviously worked his tail off. Prices are very very fair
There are many other fine places in Trinidad. Rest Santisima Trinidad might have one of the finest views from its terrace
Terrace view of Trinidad’s evening
We then hung around and watched the Easter parade in Plaza Mayor
Easter Day parade at Plaza Mayor – Trinidad. Pomp and pageantry.
Trinidad Easter – April 2015 from Lee Lau on Vimeo.
Moonlight – Plaza Cespedes right around the block of where we stayed
Day 6 – Cerro Vieja and more Trinidad randoms
There are quite a few cool day trips to do from Trinidad but with Lee’s broken ribs we were a bit limited in hiking or horseback riding or other activities. Our only exercise was to hike up to the radio tower hill at Cerro Vieja just E of town. This is a rather boring, sun-exposed doubletrack hike (you can also take a donkey ride up here) and I’d recommend skipping it unless you really want the exercise. You do get a peekaboo at the Sierra Escambrays but realistically you can do better by checking out the Toppes waterfalls outsider of town.
The rest of the day was spent recovering from the morning heat blast. In the evening we enjoyed the cooler temps. This time we had the good fortune to find an excellent Son band playing at a rooftop patio. It’s worthwhile noting that Cubans really value music and musicians. The musicians are actually government employees all paid as salaried workers. Admittedly they’re not paid all that well (the number of 20CUCs/month gets thrown around it’s still amazing that the government has taken arts and culture promotion so far.
Many of the musicians supplement their income by playing in bands and in small groups to tourists at the many private restaurants. It was explained to us that musical supplies can be in short supply so essentials we take for granted like guitar strings are coveted. The son band we listened to played music composed by Alfonso. You won’t hear Buena Vista Club covers in Trinidad!
Futbol cafe on the way east out of town on our walk up to Cerro Vigio
Disco Ayala in a cave (actually probably would be cool in the evening) E of town
View from Cerro Vigia
Looking to the Sierra Escambray mountains
Shar was feeling the heat so chilled. I took the trouble of taking some more pictures. This is outside Casa Sta Domingo on Calle Sta Domingo – Trinidad
Portrait of Che Guevera on Calle Sta. Domingo y Frank Pais in Trinidad. He is still their national hero
Dominoes game on Calle Frank Pais. I played a 1-1 tie with the older gent in the striped shirt
Classic Trinidad restaurant just off Juan Marquez near Plaza Mayor
Trinidad electrical spaghetti.
Cool sunsets from another nice terrace
Requisite sunset shot
Rest El Criollo in Trinidad has fantastic prices and a mean terrace view
Alfonso is a composer based in Trinidad. He sings a mean alto
Trinidad Music – April 2015 from Lee Lau on Vimeo.
Transportation in Trinidad
Car ownership in Canada is 750 per 1000 people. In Cuba there are 30 cars per 1000 people. The US has the highest in the world per capital ownership at 980 cars per 1000 people. I am continually fascinated by how people get around in Cuba. Truck, bikes, horse carts, donkey carts, old crap welded together with duct-tape; its all used to get around. By law government trucks have to stop to pick up hitchhikers!
Despite the communist tripe about everyone living together harmoniously the lack of adequate means of transportation does lead to lots of inefficiency. Short distance commutes consume a lot of time. Perhaps that’s why Cubans seem so patient and inordinately OK with standing in lineups – they don’t have much of a choice!
Donkey chilling in the main street Camillio Cienfuegoes – Trinidad
Roadies probably don’t find Trinidad’s cobbledstoned streets all that comfy
Working horse cart on the road near Ciego Montero
All this needs is a Ferrari sticker. This car probably would cost north of 30,000 CUCs in Cuba
This endurobro is 24’ing the main street of Calle Sta Domingo pacing this tour bus who’s patiently chilling and waiting to pass
Horse carriages are a common mode of transport in Cuba. Some are tourist but many are used to haul. This is a working horse; the farmers use the cart to haul food grown in farms into town
Yet another fantastically preserved classic car on Ave Jesus Maria
Two jeeps now one
Horse cart enduro used to transport farm goods in Trinidad