|
Day 5 and 6: Trinidad, las Cuevas full until September, casa particular.
We knew we wanted to go to Trinidad anyway. So we went there even if we did not know if the horizontes Hotel there was full or not. We arrived in Trinidad and quickly found out it was full. We decided not to let the overbooking & poor service by Horizontes ruin our Holidays, so we asked the guard if he knew some other places. The guard called someone, who sat in our car and guided us to a "Casa Particular" smack bang in the middle of the historic center of Trinidad. The Casa is run by Reniel Armando Pomares Amaro, on the Jesus Menendez Street nr. 85, between Colon y Smith (also known as Calle Alameda). We had a very nice room, incredible breakfasts and we also had a very nice dinner there the second evening. Reniel and his wife are very friendly, we talked a bit about life in Cuba versus life in Amsterdam, and again we learned a lot of things. Trinidad is full of casas particulares. You should not have too much trouble finding one.
Trinidad is a stunning place, as any travel guide will tell you. We enjoyed the museums, the canchanchara (a bar where they serve a mix of aguardiente, honey, lemon and water in clay pots, very refreshing). In this bar there's a guy making cigars by hand, which taste just as good as any Official cigar and are not expensive at all.
The pictures speak for themselves. In the evening we went to visit Casa Fisher and saw some traditional dancing. Then next day we went to the beach, to playa Ancon. It was incredibly hot. Also I found out that there were a lot of sea urchins. The spines of the black variety scare me a lot, so I decided I would just wear my gym shoes. If you go to Cuba, take some shoes you can wear in the water. Even without the sea hedgehogs old bits of coral can still be razor sharp. Just a tip.
In the evening that followed we went to the "casa de la musica" and watched performances by local groups. When we went out there was a "Santeria" ceremony going on (Cuba's blend of European Catholicism and old African animism) in front. We watched it for a bit but we felt out of place (and it was getting late too)
We went back to our casa particular, to find out that my seawater-soaked adidas had developed a very special aroma that now filled our room. Think Old shrimps & Swiss Cheese, I had never smelt anything similar. Must have been that Caribbean seawater.
|
|
