Cuba chapter 3

5. – 7th day
Trinidad
A magnet for tourists, god knows why…

A beautiful January day, ideal for sweating your soul out on the bus. But this time we choose the night shift and thus save on accommodation. Most travelers from Santiago de Cuba visit the town of Baracoa, but we, out of pure rebellion (and also lack of time), head the bus straight to the famous Trinidad. If you meet someone who has been to Cuba while traveling, they will immediately recommend you to visit Trinidad. After 600 km and 9 hours of involuntary yoga in the seat of the bus, we descend the steps of the bus like snails from the gutter during a summer storm. So show yourself Trinidad…

“Taxi! Taxi!”

“Well  oh, still…”

From Frida, who was staying with us in Santiago de Domingo, we have the address of her “friend” (apparently in the fight for capitalism, see below…) who is staying with us. We won’t need the address, our friend is waiting for us at the station. It’s seven in the morning, the bus was an hour and a half late before it arrived. The friend does not raise an eyebrow, stretches her wooden legs and commands “Follow me!”

Friend

she is a 60-year-old lady and shares her accommodation with tourists and her 35-year-old son, who offers tourists the backs of his crows for a ride to the waterfalls. Together, on Mom&Son business cards, they look a bit like 1970s Dallas serial killers on wanted photos. We welcome the breakfast, but we are not enthusiastic about it. The quality decreases and the price stagnates at 100 crowns per person. For dinner, a friend offers us lobster, we decline thanks to the fact that we want to enjoy dinner in the city during a night walk. We immediately announce that we will also miss breakfast and we already had a horse ride a few days ago. The friend commands, but this time, her well-practiced facial wrinkles,  to take a position: “I am sending thunder and lightning at you!!!” … For that, she deserves to be promoted from Friend to Granny. In addition, the nickname Friend will not please any single woman.

Trinidad

We explore the ancient town, which breathes on us the atmosphere of an open-air museum.

“Taxi! Taxi!”

But that’s how the whole of Cuba breathes, so it doesn’t quite send our chins towards the ground. Actually, we don’t find anything extra here. Maybe just the prices in restaurants that have extra markups.

Since we have nothing to explore the next day, we want to go to the beach after breakfast.

“Taxi! Taxi!”

We discover breakfast in local businesses with less effort, but we succeeded. The selection of morning pastries bursts with creativity, as do the pictures painted with spilled coffee on the coaster. Who knows why in Cuba they can never hit the mug when pouring coffee, apparently a local custom. Price and enjoyment get us to where we are with the old woman, but it also brings its fruits. At breakfast we are intercepted by 2 German young female travelers asking if we want to go to the beach and share the price of a taxi. We do not hesitate and we have not even breathed in, breathed out and created.

“Taxi! Taxi!”

“Yeah, now yeah, annoying…”

Around 11 in the morning we leave for the beach 7 km away and agree with the taxi driver that he will come for us again at 5 in the afternoon. Do you think he has arrived?

There is no point in describing the beach. Caribbean. Telling how you can spend an hour looking for a place to eat like that on the beach also makes no sense, because the story would end where it started. By refusing to be poisoned on the beach offering a sandwich. Cuban sandwich! And finally one of the best we had in Cuba and for a very nice price. From experience, we are still in the infancy of our Cuban expedition and we are just beginning to suspect that we will be eating a Cuban sandwich almost every day.

Cuban Sandwich

Band, salami masquerading as ham and cheese.
Lots of slices of salami and cheese.

The fifth kicks off with thunder, raindrops on a reed umbrella and the arrival of a taxi driver. Along the way, I ask: “Even our Cubans here, is there plenty of game in the immediate vicinity of your birthplace?”. Taxi driver: “Yes they are“. I continue the conversation only in classic Spanish to be safe. “And are any of them dangerous?” Taxi Driver: “Yes they are!“. I ask what kind. “Those who are stupid and jump in front of the taxi.” An explosion of laughter follows, the taxi driver laughs exuberantly at his joke and then continues to drive the taxi dryly.

We spend our last day in Trinidad watching the crowds of tourists and the suspected thief, walking through the local markets and counting down the hours until dusk so we can say good night to Trinidad and head out for a new adventure in the morning.

Photo story of a suspected thief

Note: …maybe it’s his wallet, but he’s a very suspicious and photogenic person 🙂

“Taxi! Taxi!”

We prefer not to ask old ladies for recommendations on accommodation in the next city and go on looking for accommodation in the city of Cienfuegos on our own.

After a week in Cuba, a summary of what Cuba will leave you with

“Taxi! Taxi!” – annoying taxi drivers constantly shouting Taxi! Taxi!, even if you’re staring into their face from 1 meter away.

Cuban sandwich – what Cuba offers you in stores is spaghetti and ketchup. In restaurants/bars, it’s affordable Cuban sandwiches (or sandwich, there aren’t many types)