Trinidad

Cuba 2015

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 Trinidad January 15-22 2015

What do you do in Trinidad? How do I count the ways to be charmed?

Walk through the still vibrant Colonial section of the city, now a Unesco World Heritage site.

Visit the many museums depicting life as it was during the Spanish Colonial era.

Browse through the excellent art work and handicrafts for sale in street markets and shops. I bought a crocheted sweater with a matching necklace which I have already worn to raves several times.

Have lunch or dinner at one of the excellent restaurants. Our favourites are Restaurant Sol and Paladar Estrela, but there are lots more.

Don’t forget dinners at your Casa Particulares. The dinners prepared by your host are usually the same or better quality as the restaurants provide.

Listen to the musicians who play in the restaurants while you enjoy your food.

Go to one of the many clubs in the evening to listen to more music. The musicians in Casa de la Trova, and on the stage, half way up the steps beside the Plaza mayor, get everyone dancing.

Take in the Folk dancing show at 10 PM at Palenque de los Congos, also next to Plaza Mayor.

 

If that is not enough reason to linger longer in Trinidad, there are excursions accessible by taxi within 18 km of the city.

 

Playa Ancón is a long white sand skinny peninsula just 16 km to the south of Trinidad. There are just three hotels on beach, but there are no crowds. A taxi driver is more than willing to take you to the beach and pick you up at whatever time you specify. Day visitors can choose chairs under a palapa, for a nominal day charge, by one of the restaurants on the beach. There are even corals near the shore with more of those tropical fish swimming around, seemingly for your enjoyment. We went to the beach twice during our visit, which got extended from five nights to seven nights, because there was so much to do.

 

If you like walking, there are two trails worth exploring. One trail, starting from Plaza Mayor, led to a communication tower from which the whole of Trinidad and the surrounding mountains are visible.

 

If you are a more experienced hiker, a trip to the Topes de Collantes is a must. A taxi, or a tour, will bring you first to a viewing platform for more spectacular views of the area. From there, it is on to the town of Topes de Collantes. The taxi or tour bus will let you out and wait around for your return, a minimum of two hours later. Bring lots of water and a snack to sustain you on the way. The walk starts out steeply downhill, past rock formations and into the forest, ending an hour later at swimming hole beside a waterfall, Saltos de Caburni. There are no facilities at the swimming hole, but if you have worn your bathing suit under your clothes you are in for a treat. The cool waters will refresh you after your walk and the rest, with a view, will be appreciated. There is an extension of another half hour to see more of the forest and small falls,that we completed three years ago. This year we were content to end at the falls. The return takes 1 to 1 ½ hours, so a stop close to the end to have a glass of natural fruit juice and a tasty snack from a trail-side vendor is worth several stops along the way.

 

A day trip to the Valle de los Ingenios, which refers to the machinery used for sugar refinery, was a lot more interesting than we had expected. Once again we hired a taxi driver to see old sugar cane plantations. There is a small tourist train that slowly circles the valley, stopping in a least one location for passengers to visit a plantation, but we preferred our taxi trip, enabling us to make our own schedule. Our driver stopped first at a viewpoint for more views of the mountains and valley we were to visit.

Plantation San Isidro was a plantation that has been willed to the government a few years ago. We had an excellent tour through the property with a very pleasant, knowledgeable guide. Extensive archaeological research has been completed and work has started to renovate the plantation house into a museum. A bell and observation tower, in front of the plantation house, has been renovated, but is not ready for tourists to climb. The tower had two purposes, one to sound the beginning and the end of the day for the slaves working on the plantation, and also to oversee the work and ensure no slaves were attempting an escape. We were shown the ruins of the slave quarters and the complicated system used for refining the sugar cane and producing Rum for the use of the plantation owners.

 

It was nearing lunch hour and another plantation, Manaca Iznaga, founded in 1750, was nearby. The plantation house is now a restaurant, where we had a light lunch and listened to an excellent musical group. Our lunch finished, we climbed to the top of the bell tower for the view. At 44M high, it is the tallest in the area. There is another plantation to visit in the area, but we called it a day and returned to Trinidad.

 

We had returned to Trinidad because we had enjoyed it so much three years ago. This year we discovered much more to enjoy. Trinidad will always be on our list of favourite Cuban locations. 

   

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