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after driving through Habana a bit, it stopped at the
huge Astro bus station for a few more passengers.
Viazul was primarily a tourist bus service, as it
charged in CUC, and had relatively new Volvo buses.
Astro, the national line, had about 1000 new Chinese
buses, but the fares were priced in pesos, and the
buses were all very full.
After our bus entered the freeway, I was surprised
how wide, straight, and empty it was. A person could
almost sleep on the roadway at midday. After a few
hours, we stopped at a rest stop for lunch, where a
chicken interestingly attempted to eat the bus driver's
lunch. Awhile later, we passed the turn-off for Playa
Giron (Bay of Pigs), and then a short while after that,
we exited the freeway for the trip down the narrow old
highway through canefields and then
Cienfuegos
to Trinidad.
After riding on the bus for about six hours, we
finally arrived in Trinidad,
and drove up Guinart, a
"main" street, where I was surprised as hell to see an
older man holding a sign with my name on it as the bus
passed by. The Habana lawyer had asked if I needed
another casa, and I had thought I would need to look
for the casa particular, but it was delivered right to
me. The guy introduced me to Chino, who then walked me
the next 60 m to his casa. What a score! I was shown
the upstairs suite, with a fully stocked bar fridge,
and then the rooftop terraza, which had a magnificent
circumferential view of the whole area, including about
200 degrees of ocean vista. By 14:00, I was relaxing
in luxury on the rooftop, drinking cold beer in the hot
sun.
After a few hours, I decided to get out and check
around the old town. I was completely enamored with
the vintage streets and restored buildings in
relatively unsullied tranquility. A few blocks away
was the main restored
plaza. Trinidad had a reputation in its early years for accommodating rich and retired
pirates, whose houses still stand, 500 years later.
The cobbled streets were mostly built using ballast
stones from the transoceanic ships, and there generally
was a gutter down the street centres built from larger
flat stones.
After my excursion mini marathon, I needed a tiny
break, so I stopped in at a small bar, Ruinas y
Segarte, where a superb salsa band was playing. I was
really impressed, and I ended up going back quite a few
times. The state runs everything, including the bars
and the musical groups, and in Trinidad's case, this
seemed to work very well. After being so disappointed
in Habana, I was more than pleasantly surprised at the
community and life in Trinidad.
While walking around, I first heard and then later saw, an old steam train passing up the valley, and travel through town. Later, sitting on my terraza in luxurious and placid surroundings prompted me to contemplate revising my travel plans. I initially was going to spend two days each in four towns, but I decided then to spend as much time as possible in Trinidad.
Later towards evening, I checked out the main plaza
again, and some more surrounding streets. Most the
houses were easily a few centuries old, and probably a
lot closer to five centuries. Trinidad was not a large
place, with maybe maybe 30 000 inhabitants, and easy to
walk all around. The old city all had very narrow and
interesting streets, which totally justified the U.N.
heritage designation and yielded infinite photographic
opportunities.
On the second day, after a splendid breakfast and a
late start, I decided to check out where the old steam
train had ventured to the day before. After walking
many blocks down through the city, and past a dimly lit
cigar factory, I came to a large building that used to
be the train station. After enquiring, I had to walk
around, past the firehall, to where there was a small
station to sell tickets ($10 CUC) for the
steam
tourist train, and also the daily local train car up the
valley. The train had already departed at 10:00, so I
decided to return the next morning.
I then walked straight back up through town, past the city hall, and up the hill past the abandoned church to the Hotel Las Cuevas grounds which overlooked the city. I noticed that there was not any access to the hill top above town, so I guessed it was considered militarily strategic.
After that, I stopped in for a beer or two at las
Ruinas de Segarte where another excellent band, Santa
Palabra, was performing. I was constantly blown away
by all the live music in Trinidad, and I especially
liked that bar. The government seems to have a large
and proficient musical stable which they rotate around
a lot. The extensive live entertainment would
certainly not be viable in a market economy.
Later, I left the bar, and walked across the plaza to the Museo Historico, which had a tower to look over the whole town, from where I was able to shoot the Escambray Mountains in the setting sun,
On Tuesday, I was up early and ate breakfast, as I
wanted to get to the train station by 9:30. I was the
third person there, way before any staff, and after a
long while, I wandered over to behind the old train
station where some rail workers intercepted me, and
asked if I wanted to see the engine which was getting
some emergency repairs. So, I was able to watch them
replace a bearing on the big crank on the driver wheel,
and I got up on and into the engine. Besides being
very dirty, it was a enlightening experience. Also,
while waiting at the station, a funeral procession came
by with a large crowd all walking behind a fairly
new black hearse. Finally, after 11:00, the train came
belching and steaming up the track to pick us up. The
train had the engine and tender pulling two open air
passenger cars which were rustic, but modern.
The
train pulled us away and blew its
whistle through town, where many inhabitants were outside
watching us pass by, and then we ran under a highway
bridge and into the countryside. A short while later,
we stopped on a big trestle over a river, then
continued on past an abandoned sugar mill, which the
Valle de Ingenios (Valley of the Mills) was noted for a
few hundred years ago, as it was a major sugar growing
and refining area. After passing through more pastoral
scenery, including the small village at Guarico, we
ended up stopping for 40 minutes at Iznaga, where I
climbed up the huge tower that used to look over a
sugar plantation. There was an adjacent restaurant and
museum and vendors selling mostly cotton and linen
ware, but they were more for the bus tourists. After
the train whistle blew, we headed back for the
journey's continuation to the restored hacienda at
Guachanango. The hacienda in the middle of nowhere
with only rail access served a small lunch and drinks
with the usual live music. At the next table were some
Dutch guys. I walked around the estate a bit, where
the resident goat herd were the most interesting
occupants.
The train had gone up the tracks to turn around, and
on the return trip, the tender was noticeably short of
water, which the engine crew kept checking. After the
crew phoned in at Iznaga, we kept on steaming (barely)
to Guarico, where the engine stopped at the crossing,
and shut down, as we had to wait for water to get
trucked in. The girl who was leaning on her house on
the way out was still in the same place, and many
villagers came out to watch. After about 70 minutes
downtime, we were on our way again to end our excursion
back in Trinidad. Even though the journey to the
hacienda was only about 10 km, it was very interesting
and exceptionally worthwhile, especially since
un-obscured photos could be shot from anywhere along
the line.
That evening, Chino invited me out to the Casa de
Musica, on the stair plaza next to the church, from
where every night I could hear music. The place was
packed with tourists and locals, and after the three
bands were finished, we went up into the discotheque
until fairly late. Chino had lots of cash and everyone
was partying pretty well, communist rigour did not seem
to be apparent.
The day after visiting Cienfuegos, I decided to
visit some museums and also go to the beach. Exploring
the tourist markets, I was really enamored with the
goods that were for sale, as there was not so much
trinket crap like in Mexico, but many beautifully
crafted and useful, yet exotic, articles, especially
musical instruments and art. I think the German
tourists were really scooping the stuff up, and
probably helped Trinidad remain a relatively prosperous
town.
After some more protracted wandering around the
streets, I talked to a coco taxi driver, who then
called a buddy to take me down to the beach at Playa
Ancón, about 15 km away. I thought we would go around
the point, but instead we went straight through the
swampy back way, and came out onto a small beach. From
there, he took me over to the resort, and dropped me
off in the parking lot. I found a nice bar, and sat
and had a coco cola at the uninspired and bland package
tourist beach, before I found a bus back into town. My
impression of Cuba was that beaches were very rare,
and that Mexico is infinitely better for them.
I then checked out the square some more, and wandered over to old Convento de San Francisco, which was converted into a revolutionary museum. it was interesting, in a small town way, and there was a plethora of information on how important the local area was to the Revolution's success.
While walking up a small street in the morning, an
older guy intercepted me, and told me about his band.
He then brought me into a house which was just loaded
with lime green instruments, and after I bought a CD,
he asked me to come by later, as they would be playing
out in front. I returned late in the afternoon, and
sat and listened to them for a long time, along with a
few tourists, locals, and dogs.
For the last night, my hosts put on a superb lobster
supper, and I could not believe how luxurious my time
was in Trinidad compared to Havana.
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