Trinidad is Cuba’s colonial pearl. The city lies between some beautiful green mountain tops, filled with hiking paths and waterfall, and picture-perfect beaches. In Trinidad there is a little bit for everyone. You can visit sugar plantations with an old steam train, beach all day long and enjoy the wild nightlife. Even though Trinidad is a city it has a very cozy town-like feel to it. Find out how I spent my days in this paradise in the post below. For a full overview of my Cuban itinerary click here!

Saturday 20th: Trini-what?

Getting There

Although a lot of early activity outdoors woke me up around 7 already, I managed to snooze until well past 8. I packed up my backpack for the so manyth time and went out for breakfast. Although I know it’s healthy, I’m just not used to such big breakfasts so early. I still managed to eat a good part of it though and afterwards I settled my cuenta with Carlito. I asked if they could arrange a bicitaxi to the Viazul bus station.

After some waiting on the porch he finally came. I gave Yvette my thanks and a hug before loading my backpack and myself on the tricycle. The ticket office was closed so I just waited at the bus stop with some other passengers, hoping I could buy a ticket on the bus itself. I overheard two Dutch girls singing their musical travel adventures so far, accompanied by one of them on the ukulele. I commented on the originality of it and, surprised at my Dutch, they introduced themselves and their two Spanish travel companions from Barcelona.

We all bought our tickets from the conductor as soon as the bus arrived, and I sat directly behind my new friends. I inquired a bit about their visa adventures in Paris. Apparently, they all did not have the required tourist card on departure and needed to get it in Paris but missed their flight because of it. They wandered drunk around the streets of Paris for a whole night before hopping onto the next flight to Havana. The bus ride was quiet and rather comfy. I watched some movies and series and enjoyed the lush green landscape out the window on the way to Trinidad.

Familiar

After a brief stop in Cienfuegos, we continued our way and about 3,5h after leaving Playa Girón we drove into Trinidad. The similarity with Antigua Guatemala was striking and very pleasant: low rise multi-coloured colonial style houses and cobblestone streets. We got off the bus and grabbed our backpacks. Amber, Dare, Josep and Alberto already had a casa, so I agreed to meet back up with them at the Casa de Música at night before parting ways.

I walked out of the bus station and was immediately offered multiple lodging options. I initially walked past them, but one woman was more persistent and promised me my own little house with an amazing view over the city for only 15 CUC, breakfast included. I took the bait and told her I would check it out. So, I followed her up the hill through the cobblestone streets that slowly turned into steep rocky roads the farther we got out of the centre.

We got there eventually, and the place was huge. So, I gladly accepted the offer and agreed on at least two nights with an option to extend. I dropped all my stuff and headed for the bank to get out some cash. From there I headed for Parque Cespedes and afterwards back up to the Casco Viejo, the old centre of Trinidad. The city had a very nice town feel to it and the walk described in my Lonely Planet showed me through best parts of it.

Shirt and Tie

A random black dude in the Los Tres Cruses barrio started to talk French to me and claimed he needed a shirt for his boxing match. I truthfully told him all my shirts were dirty, but he insisted. So, I promised him I would be back at 5pm to hand him a shirt. I continued my tour and eventually went back home to shower off the sweat. After I went to hand the dude a shirt, I went to the stairs of the Casa de Música and chilled there for a while with a mojito before searching something to eat.

I went to Vista Gourmet, a rather fancy place. and had some great pork leg but realized, after finishing my beer on the terrace, I had no money with me. I told waiter and explained I would leave my phone so he would know I would be back. He said that was unnecessary and told me to go get my money and come back to pay whenever I could. I did so immediately, amazed about their relaxed way of handling it.

I returned to the stairs planning to grab another mojito. They already started asking for cover to get in (1 CUC) so I had one outside first before going in. I went looking around a bit to see if the others had arrived. When somebody called out “Tom!”, I was sure I had found them. However, when I turned around it was Chienfang, the Taiwanese girl that I had met in the hostel in Havana, I was looking at. Surprised to see each other, we got a table and caught up on what we had been doing since we last saw each other.

Canchánchara

We had some beers and the locally popular Canchánchara: rum with honey and lemon juice. Eventually, while watching the salsa show and enjoying the live music, I spotted Amber and Dare at the bar. I introduced everyone to each other and soon noticed I had actually gotten Chienfang rather drunk. She repeatedly disappeared to bathroom only to resurface with her hair and face wet. Clearly, she had been splashing water in her face to try and sober up. Not surprisingly, she was the first one to call it a night.

The rest of us joined up with two other Cataluñan girls which the others had met before. We ended being the last table still occupied after everyone had cleared out of the stairs. Despite the valiant efforts of a local dude working in the Casa, we did not pay the cover for the after-party but were adamant on going to La Cueva, a club hosted in a natural cave. It was all anybody could talk about after visiting Trinidad. We started climbing up the hill but got delayed by another pair of friends at a Mojito stand. We joined them for one without hesitation. That way effectively avoiding all queues at the entrance of Disco Ayala aka La Cueva.

We paid the 5 CUC cover and got our drinks voucher before going down several stairs, descending into the cave. The place lived up to its expectations: a huge cave turned club with two big dance floors and several bars. We danced until the music stopped at 3:30 and streamed out of the cave with everyone else. On our way home we stranded at the same Mojito stand, enjoying the evening and our buzzed state of mind. I ended up grabbing two of the delicious burgers they were making before we all eventually moved further down the hill and I took my exit home.

Sunday 21st: Rojo Cangrejo

Beach Ready

Getting up at 8:30 when you went to sleep at 5 should be prohibited. Unfortunately, that was the hard reality my alarm kept trying to tell me. I rolled out of bed and got my breakfast served on the little patio outside. The fresh fruit juice saved me from an even worse hangover. After packing my beach stuff, I went down to the stairs of La Casa de Música to meet up with Chienfang. I found her easily, but she had decided to be more cultural first and maybe go to the beach later.

I walked down the hills of Trinidad to the casa of the others and waited for them to finish breakfast. When they were ready to go, we all hopped into a small taxi. They were kind enough to let me and my long legs sit in front while they piled in the back. We drove straight to the beach called Playa Ancon, located on a peninsula about 20 min driving from the centre of Trinidad. We agreed with the driver to get pick us up at 7pm and found ourselves two sombrillas on the mostly empty beach.

Sailing

The burning already has us all hot and sweaty, so we immediately dipped into the wonderfully refreshing water. We got approached by Orelbe (in his own words: like the toothpaste but with an E) to undertake a snorkelling trip on his small catamaran. We were all still rather hungover, so we decided to first take a nap before doing basically anything. An hour and a half later we packed our most important stuff into Orelbe’s tiny shack, signed our lives away and climbed on the catamaran.

After 15 min of sailing we got off the boat and snorkelled around for about an hour. The reef was nothing spectacular but there were a lot of cool fishes like horn fish, needlefish and pufferfish. We climbed back on the boat and sailed back to the beach, craving for a beer after all the saltiness. I was starting to picture the fish ‘a la plancha’ at the end so I knew I was getting hungry. The others felt the same, so all except Josep ordered a burger or a ham and cheese sandwich.

We just chilled in the shade for the rest of the day. Alberto went fishing with Orelbe and Josep waited for the promise of fresh lobster that never came. The rest of us continued enjoying the reggaeton played by our neighbours, reading, dipping in, sleeping… We also ordered some mojitos and even shared some Canchánchara in a coco while we enjoyed the beautiful sunset. We did not want to leave back to Trinidad.

Replacement

Some random guy approached us on the beach telling us he was sent by our driver since his own car had broken down. The new guy’s car was bigger and nicer so none of us complained. We enjoyed the ride back to Trinidad through the lush green landscape and after paying the drivers I went to my casa to eat dinner. Although the others invited me to join them for dinner, I did not want to cancel last minute on my host. I was glad I didn’t because the chicken she served was delicious. Even though I wasn’t that hungry I still ate it all.

After dinner I took a shower to try and get all the sand and salt of my body. I met up with the group again at the Casa de Música. Everyone was tired from the night before and despite a game of Ocalimocho we ended up going home at 1:30 after saying goodbye to Martha and Ana, the Cataluñan girls we had met the night before.

Monday 22nd: La Mejol Cascada

Viewpoint

After another fruity and eggy breakfast, I walked down to the casa of my friends. As usual they were still getting ready. After Alberto packed his shit and Joselito clipped his toenails we were apparently ready to go. Through the owner of their casa they had arranged a trip to the mountains. The usual 30 minutes late, a big Hyundai jeep taxi with a Papi Chulo (he was a playboy because he had shark tattoo) as a driver pulled up in front of the casa. He took us first to the ATM, loaded up with gasoline and next straight into the Toppes de Collante.

The first stop after leaving Trinidad was a viewpoint offering a fantastic vista over the city, the coast and peninsula of Ancon beyond it. We had a long discussion with the driver and between us on which waterfall we wanted to hike to. We wanted to do 2 but the driver assured us that they would have to get us back out with a helicopter if we tried that. In the end we went for the most accessible one. Since we were still low season and we were starting our hike rather late we figured we would not bump into a shitload of people anyway.

We got dropped off at a little coffee house that unfortunately did not serve any food except some honey and nut energy bars. We figured we would need it, and all bought some. The hike through the forest was great and easy and we found the waterfall easily enough after going down into the valley. Even more fantastic was the swim and dive into it. The water was so refreshing, and we had some fun jumping through the waterfall itself and swimming under it. We took lots of pictures of the beautiful place and hung around a while to enjoy it.

Buffet

Once ready, we got dressed again and started our very sweaty hike back up. It had started to rain a little bit, but it was more refreshing than it was bothersome. We got back to the little coffee house where our driver was already waiting. We asked him where we could still find some food and he called a paladar to ask if it was OK for 5 people to come over still. When we arrived there, the deal was an amazing huge buffet for 8 CUC with desert and everything. I ended up paying 10 with a beer and ate my biggest lunch yet.

Afterwards we drove back to Trinidad and I completed my goal of teaching yet another 4 humans how to play Yaniv. We played it at the genuinely nice Casa de la Cerveza. They were instantly hooked to the game, but we had to cut it short since it was time for dinner. I joined them for dinner at their casa. We all got some nice bean soup and a yummy grilled fish accompanied by the mandatory ‘moros y cristianos’.

After dinner I went back to my casa for a well needed shower. We met up again at the Casa de Música and had some Cancháncharas there while watching the (this time very weird) show. It involved people picking up tables with their teeth and putting snakes on very suspicious volunteers. After the weirdness there was luckily music and as usual we ended up staying as the last ones. Martha and Ana were leaving the next day, so they still wanted to go out. They went to the Rincon de la Salsa but only Josep ended up joining them inside. The rest of us were really tired and I walked back up my dark hill and slid into bed.

Tuesday 23rd: Putas y barcos

Sending Sand

The others wanted to sleep in and have a chill day at the beach, which honestly sounded great to me. I woke up around 9 however and had a nice breakfast half an hour later. My casa mama did not even ask what I wanted for breakfast anymore; she already knew my preferences. The juice was fantastic and, feeling refreshed, I packed my stuff for the beach.

Before heading to my friend’s place, I went looking for the post office to send out some postcards. At first the lady did not understand why I needed an envelope but when I explained her that I wanted to send some sand together with the card, she immediately laughed and agreed it was a great idea. She giddily double glued it shut to make sure the sand would not escape. Unfortunately, I had not brought my coins so they had severe issues finding change for a 20 CUC.

Wireless Friends

After the postal adventure, I was planning on buying a 5h Wi-Fi card at Etecsa but the line looked dreadful. I was standing there for 2 minutes deciding if it was worth the wait when a French girl approached me and told me they just bought a 5h one but it did not work with their phone. I gladly bought it of her, skipping the queue altogether. They were apparently also going to the beach by bike, so I told them where we were going that we might see each other there.

I went to the other’s casa and waited until they were ready to hop into our taxi. On the way to the beach Dare ukuleleed away and the driver told us his dad worked in a ukulele factory. True or not, but he did end up with a picture of Dare, him, and her tiny guitar. Not 5 min after arriving on the beach Joselito was already trying to arrange a fresh lobster.

Lobster Heaven

The bars there were apparently not supposed to be open since they only had a license for high season, however they did serve from behind closed shades. We ordered our lobsters and beers and they were gloriously delicious. I devoured mine with a nice cold beer in the best setting I could have imagined: with friends on a beautiful beach in the shade in Cuba.

After digesting a bit, suddenly the French girls showed up and I invited them to join us. Me and Alberto went snorkelling a bit and afterwards Dare finally convinced enough people to play Yaniv. Gaelle, one of the French girls also joined in. As if fate demanded it, Chienfang also suddenly wandered down the beach and came up to say hi. With a lot of complaints by the Catalans and a lot of ‘nietinmenkaartenkijkenvantevoren’ we played for about an hour until the beauty of sunset interrupted us. We all scrambled to take some pictures.

Rain or Shine

It was still dry on the beach, but rain was clearly coming in from the mountains. While this resulted in spectacularly lighted cloud formations, it also meant it would start pouring. This luckily happened about half an hour later, when we were already on our way back to Trinidad. It had not quite stopped yet when we got there so I walked up to my casa through a drizzle. I packed my stuff already a bit since I was planning on taking the bus very early in the morning from Trinidad to Santiago de Cuba.

After a quick desalting and desanding shower, I got ready to go out. I realized after paying the casa I needed more cash. Frustrated that I hadn’t done it on my way up, I walked back down to the centre. I figured I might as well meet my friends at their casa since it was close anyway.

As expected, they were not ready yet. After arranging their transportation from Trinidad to Havana with Carlos, their host, we walked through the insistent drizzle back up the hill. Since it was the guys’ last night, they had told me they would go all ‘putas y barcos’, Apparently the going expression for being fancy and drunk (like having a yacht party). I loved it and took them to Vista Gourmet.

Familiar Face

My waiter from last time recognized me and I immediately assured him I had money his time. He was clearly happy I had brought more people along, it was after all low season, even in Trinidad. The food was at least as delicious as last time and whenever something fancy happened like bread with dip, nice salad, beautifully dressed and presented plates, Alberto looked at me and I said, shrugging: me has preguntado por putas y barcos entonces te doy putas y barcos…

After desert, the others got some got coffee while I ordered another beer. The waiter told me however the bar was already closed. However, when my previous waiter heard he, simply took a Bucanero from the fridge, smiled at me, and opened it in front of me. Good guy waiter. Since we had had dinner quite late,  we decided to immediately go to the cave. However, just like last time, we got stuck at our favourite 1 CUC mojito place on the way there. We each bought a round resulting in about 6 mojitos for me since Dare couldn’t finish hers.

Clubbing

Already slightly tipsy (me) to drunk (the girls), we arrived at the cave. My mistake of the night was thinking the mojitos were not that strong. So, I used my ticket to order a pure Ron with lemon. That one got me to the same level as the girls, after which I joined the guys drinking Bucaneros for the rest of the night. Dancing with drunk Dutch girls has the advantage that whatever you do, you’ll never be as shameless as they are.

At 3 o’clock we got kicked out when the music stopped and made our way back down the hill. Of course, not without the mandatory pitstop at the 1 CUC mojito place for a burger. Drunk but happy about my time in Trinidad I fell slightly comatose into my bed around 5 in the morning.