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Tuesday, December 5th 2017

Habana, Cuba and Trinidad, Cuba

It’s 6:30am EDT and I am waking up after my first good night of sleep in Cuba. It’s early, but I barely notice since I went to sleep at 9pm. I quickly get ready for the day and finish packing up for our trip to Trinidad. At 7am, I meet up with Laura and Andrew for attempt #2 at accessing Cuba’s wifi. We walk a block over to the closest hot spot and easily access the Internet. It only takes a few minutes to pull up our check in instructions for our next Airbnb. It tells us to call a local number upon arrival. Ugh; this is annoying. We speculate that our driver will have a cell.

We make a quick pass by several cafes, but none of them are open yet. When we get back to the Airbnb, Manny is waiting with a small pot of coffee. I could hug him right now. 

By 7:25am our driver, Hickli is waiting for us outside. He is driving a maroon Volga and his shirt is at least two sizes too small. Andrew offers to sit in the front seat again and Laura and I take him up on it. The backseat of this car is unbelievably comfortable. Hickli is polite to us, but he is all business. Once we hit the road, his cell phone is ringing every 5 minutes. He answers each call with a curt “dime” (which translates to “tell me”) and is talking a mile a minute. The entire drive is going to be 4 hours. Within 10 minutes my shoes are off and my iPad is out.

About two and half hours into our drive Hickli pulls over in a dirt parking lot and tells us to get out and take our bags. I was unprepared for this stop and am frantically trying to get my shoes back on. We think that we are switching cars, but it’s not clear. Once we are out of the car Hickli introduces us to his brother, who is named Yusmani. We are switching cars (whew). Hickli explains why several times, but we don’t understand. We quickly pile into Yusmani’s Volkswagen to continue our journey. Yusmani is a lot nicer than his brother, but his car is definitely smaller. 

After another 2 hours on the road, we arrive in Trinidad. Andrew gives Yusmani the address of our Airbnb but he can not seem to find it. We drive around the narrow cobblestone roads of Trinidad while Yusmani talks to all of the pedestrians. Finally, we find the house. When he pulls over, Laura asks if he can call our host for us. Yusmani dials the phone number and then hands the phone to Laura. She manages to explain that we have arrived and our host promises to come right over.

Just as Yusmani is finished unloading our bags, we are greeted by Darnel, our next host. Darnel quickly shows us into our house for the next 3 nights. We have the entire place to ourselves and it’s totally awesome. There are 2 bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms, a large living room, a kitchen, which is stocked with beer and Coke, and a small outdoor courtyard. We set up breakfast service with Darnel and also ask if he can help us find a driver to go to Topes de Collantes tomorrow. He says that he’ll have someone over by 10am. I am slowly getting used to booking activities in the absence of Yelp reviews.

Once Darnel leaves, we only take a few minutes to settle in. It’s nearly 12:30 and we are ready for lunch. The main square is a few blocks from our house and we walk in that direction. It is definitely hot in Trinidad. We pass a plethora of restaurants, but they all look the same. Eventually we settle on a place called Shango. We enter through large stone arches into a dining room with 20 foot walls on all sides and no roof. The restaurant is mostly empty and we all huddle together in a sliver of shade. Our server turns on several fans and points them all at our table. 

I order coffee and a sandwich and our food takes nearly 30 minutes to arrive. It’s okay though, we are just happy to be out of the car. After a long lunch we wander over to Plaza Mayor, which is the main square. Each side of the square has some version of a museum. After a quick lap, we unanimously vote for a visit to the museum of architecture. The entrance fee is one CUC each and the woman at the front desk asks us if we would like a guide in English. We all shrug yes and she says that she’ll be right back. After a few minutes she emerges from the back room with another women that will our “guide in English”. Oh well, maybe we’ll learn something! 

Our guide walks us through several rooms. The museum is laid out like an old house. She points out different kinds of windows, keys and door knockers. Inside is mostly marble and the temperature is substantially cooler than outside. Next we are shown to the courtyard, which is located behind the house. Our guide points out that the main kitchen was traditionally located outside and also shows us a replica of a very old shower that looks like a steampunk art project. The entire tour is over in about 30 minutes. We provide a small tip for our “guide in English” as she retreats to the back room. 

Next we stop in a few stores surrounding the square. I note the best place to buy bottled water and we all vow to return for souvenirs in the next two days. 

Next we go to Covento de San Francisco de Asis, which houses a small tower that boasts the best view of Trinidad. When we arrive, we learn this is also a museum of natural history. We pay our entry fee of 3 CUCs each and then we pay 2 extra CUCs so that we can take pictures. We immediately find the stairs to the tower. They are incredibly narrow and there is not enough room to pass by anyone traveling in the opposite direction. Luckily the stairwell is empty as we slowly climb to the top. After a few flights of steps we find a small gift shop in a room off to the side. We continue our climb only to find a smaller, presumably more exclusive, gift shop a few more flights up. Eventually we get to the last set of steps, which is actually a ladder. Once we’re at the top we are greeted with an amazing view and nice breeze. We take turns taking pictures of each other and looking over Trinidad and into the valley surrounding it. Eventually we head back down the treacherous steps. We take a few minutes to look around the museum of natural history. The captions are only in Spanish and, honestly, it’s not super interesting. 

Now that we have officially toured the city center, we decide it’s okay to find somewhere to sit and order some cold beer. We start out at La Casa de Musica, which is a small group of bars and restaurants situated on a large hill, which has been terraced into 5 different levels. We go to the top terrace and try to order Bucaneros, but they have ran out. We have to settle for Cristal and I am grumpy about it. 

After one round of drinks we decide to move on to La Casa de la Cerveza, which is a large, outdoor beer garden, surrounded by collapsed walls from a previous structure. They do not have Bucanero either, so we end up ordering El Presidentes. The bar is just crowded enough to be lively and the tall walls, which surround the garden provide nice shade. We end up hanging out for a few rounds. As the sun starts to set, we head back to our house to change for dinner. 

For dinner, we opt for a place called Paladar Sol Y Son. Our pre-trip research showed this is the best restaurant in Trinidad. We are worried that we may not get in, but decide to try anyways. When we arrive, we are seated immediately. Most of the dining room is situated in a cobblestone courtyard that is sprinkled with old statues and fountains. The ambiance is very nice. I start out with a sangria and end up ordering some version of pork and rice. The food is good, but the ambiance is really making the meal for me. 

After dinner we walk back over to the main square. We are not sure where to go, so we order a round of beer from a street vendor and sit on the lowest terrace at Casa de la Musica. A few teenagers are running around, but, otherwise, there is not much going on. 

Around 10:30pm we are pretty tired and head back to our house for the night. Tomorrow we have plans to hike and I am already scared of the humidity. Oh well, off to bed!