One Last Colonial City for Ash

We arrived in Trinidad and once again found our casa waiting for us at the bus station bypassing the many others that are insistent on fighting for your money. Our casa is quite nice with a lovely terrace overlooking the rooftops of Trinidad where we have breakfast and dinner other than this it is just like all the others.

Trinidad itself is a colonial city with some lovely old fashioned buildings and mostly cobblestone streets. Initially we thought that no cars were allowed on the roads and hence the reason we pack marched to our casa however we later found out this wasn’t the case so not sure what happens. The street buildings are quite old but nicely preserved providing an almost village like feel however the ever present touts manage to ruin it a bit. Overall the city itself is nice but nothing spectacular and to me didn’t live up to its reputation.

We did head out to playa ancon which is by far the nicest beach we have come across with probably 10-15km of actual beach and clear blue Caribbean waters. This beach was a welcome change up to the rest of the cities and we spent almost the whole afternoon relaxing here.

Tonight we headed out to the steps of what translates to the house of music where they have a local band playing every night to a large crowd. Here we were able to catch up with some people that we had met earlier in the day and listen to the live music playing as we smoked some cigars and drank some more rum. All in all this was quite a pleasant night out for us with no one really hassling us and the wait staff very attentive to our wishes after we gave them a nice tip to start since they cut and lit our cigars. The steps were packed with approx 150 people gathered in the small area giving the place a rather nice atmosphere.

We then headed back to Habana to drop Ash off at the airport and along the way we met a Spanish speaking Dutch guy named Rene who is travelling around Cuba by himself. Once we got to Habana we were greeted with the worst casa we have had, the lady that ran it was insistent on holding us to ransom with our visas and hot water and wanted to explain things over and over again. Not really the final memories of Cuba that Ash was hoping for and by the end I think he was about ready to leave for Canada. With Ash gone I ventured west with Rene to check out Vinales, what promised to be a relaxing little village in the tobacco region.