Rum, coconuts and ice cream

Thursday, December 7th 2017

Trinidad, Cuba

It’s 9am EDT and I am waking up for our last full day in Trinidad. After driving across the country and hiking through the rain forest I am feeling like we have finally earned our beach day! My spirits are high as I bound into the courtyard for breakfast. Eventually, I am joined by a tired Andrew and a sick Laura. Laura looks and sounds markedly worse than yesterday. I really feel bad for her but secretly hope that she’ll come to the beach anyways. 

Darnel serves us another exceptional breakfast, while we ponder the day. As soon as we are done eating, Laura announces that she will not be leaving the house and I totally understand. Oh well, this is my chance to bond with Andrew! We take about 30 minutes to get ready and then reconvene in the living room. 

Previously we had discussed riding bicycles, but given the heat, we decide it would be better to take a cab. Getting a cab is easy, even with our extremely limited skills in Spanish. The ride out to the beach is about 20 minutes. The road is narrow and covered in direct sunlight. I am happy we are not on bikes. 

Soon we arrive at Playa Ancon. Our driver says that he’ll wait for us and we try to negotiate a time. He says it doesn’t matter and to just come find him when we are ready to leave. I think this is an inefficient way to run a taxi business, but I keep that thought to myself. 

First things first, we take a few minutes to walk the length of the beach. It’s mostly empty and the sand is fine and almost white. The water is warm and bright blue. The beach is interspersed with little hut shaped bars and small sailboats offering snorkeling tours. I vote for a snorkeling tour and Andrew seconds the motion. We go and talk to one of the sailboat guys he tells us to go check into a small hut up the beach. We are instructed to leave all of our stuff in the hut. We are both uncomfortable with this, but end up doing it anyways. Eventually, it’s time to leave and we awkwardly climb onto the tiny sailboat with a small group of other tourists. 

Our guide takes us about 50 feet out into the ocean and then provides each of us with goggles and a snorkel. We hop into the water and spend the next 30 minutes swimming around. The water is really warm, which is nice, but my goggles are enormous and keep filling up with water. In between emptying my goggles, I see lots of tropical fish and coral. When it’s time to head back, I am a little relieved. 

Back on dry land, I announce my mission to drink rum from a coconut. We walk up to a hut bar and do not see the coconut drink on the menu. They take our order for regular drinks and then explain that the seating at the tables are for hotel guests and that we have to go sit on the sand. 

Right when we sit down, a guy selling coconut drinks approaches us. We tell him that we just ordered from the bar. He says that he’ll come back later and instructs us to buy from him and not the bar. I agree. His coconuts look awesome. 

Soon our bar drinks are delivered and we are officially on beach vacation! We stare at the ocean and talk about our time in Cuba. At one point a tall Australian woman approaches us and asks if we have plans for dinner. We tell her no and she hands us a smudged up business card from the restaurant where she ate last night. She says that it’s really good and that we should go. I put the card in my bag. This is so random. 

Eventually our drinks run dry. I look around, but our coconut guy is nowhere in sight. I get up to go look for him but end up walking back to the hut bar. Even though they do not have coconut drinks on the menu, I tell them that I want one and they agree to make it (it’s starting to seem like menus really don't matter here). 

Man, this drink is strong. Inevitably, our old guy returns and I cleverly hide my drink from the hut bar. I almost sneak it past him but he sees the straw poking out from underneath my towel. He points at my drink and laughs hysterically. I can’t help but laugh too. Cubans have a way of laughing at you and with you at the same time. 

Around 1pm we are ready to go check in with Laura. We approach the parking lot full of cab drivers and our original driver emerges from the crowd. He drives us back to our house for the same rate. Logistics are surprisingly easy here.

When get back to the house, Laura is sitting in front of the AC. Her room is at least 40 degree cooler than outside and she still looks very sick. She agrees to look for restaurants for lunch, while Andrew and I get ready. After about 20 minutes we reconvene in the courtyard. Laura has found a restaurant in her guidebook with confirmed air conditioning and we unanimously agree this is a good idea. 

At the San Jose restaurant we are seated immediately. Our table is receiving adequate air flow and we are within line of sight of a TV playing soap operas. We are trying hard not to stare at the TV, but we are tired and running out of conversation. We start out with a round of El Presidents. After 8 days in the Cuban heat we are slowly coming around to idea of light beer. When it’s time to order I opt for fried plantains and a pork chop. I am drunk, famished and overly excited for lunch.

We all enjoy our long lunch and once we are done, we head over to the main square to buy souvenirs. I end up with a t-shirt and a handful of cigars. On the way back we stop at an open air market. I spot an art gallery and we duck in to take a look around. The art looks original and the smaller pieces are reasonably priced. I take about 20 minutes to pick out 2 small paintings of roosters. I attempt to negotiate on price, but end up paying the sticker price. Oh well, I now own Cuban art! Yay!

After shopping, it’s still hot outside and we all agree that a siesta is in order. Around 5pm, Andrew and I decide to take a walk around the newer part of Trinidad and check out Parque Central Cespedes. When we arrive, there are a handful of municipal buildings and a group of teenagers accessing wifi on their phones. Yep, we’ve pretty much seen all of Trinidad.  

We walk back to the house and around 6pm we are ready for dinner. Andrew tells the story about the tall Australian and her restaurant recommendation; Laura agrees that we have to go there. 

By 6:15 we are being seated at Taberna Don Madeley. The restaurant is completely empty. Our server is very friendly and recommends 5 different cocktails. We are overwhelmed and order the first one that she mentioned (they are all different combinations of rum, lime and sugar anyways). Our meal ends up being very tasty. I have to give Cuba credit for having extremely good service in every single restaurant. It’s the kind of place where there are at least 3 servers per table and you can just think about what you want and someone will bring it to you. 

After dinner we walk over to a little ice cream store for dessert. Laura has been contemplating ice cream since we arrived in Trinidad. This is her coconut drink. 

After dinner we decide to make the most of our last night in Trinidad. Laura is still sick, but we resolve to make a lap around the main square to see if anything is happening. In this moment, I truly love my very sick friend.

We spot a rooftop bar with live music. We climb up two flights of steps and a small ladder to get to the roof and then we have practically walk through the band to get to a table. Once we are seated, we settle on a round of canchancharas. The band is awesome and does a great job of playing just loud enough. We lounge around Paladar El Criollo for the rest of the evening. The music is good, the breeze is cool and there’s just the right amount of rum in my cocktail. 

Around 11pm we call it a night and head back to our house. On the way back Andrew sprains his ankle and I immediately feel great empathy due to my great-sprain in 2016 in New York. He hobbles back to the house like a champ and we are all asleep way before midnight.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Cuba. I like it here but I am also getting tired of rice and humidity.