Cuba - Cienfuegos and Trinidad

How time passes; we were soon on our way to Cienfuegos leaving our casa early to catch the bus. This left from the main square next to the church which also seemed to be the meeting place for the school children waiting for their school buses. The journey felt particularly long (it took about seven and half hours in total with two stops and a pick-up in Havana); in retrospect it would have been better to get a taxi in Vinales and gone directly to Cienfuegos (by the way, the Cubans do not pronounce the "s") as the cost is not excessive. Again we were met with by a tricycle taxi who tied our luggage on the back and made off through the grid of streets (it is easy to find your way around the city as the streets are on a geometric grid system, thanks probably to the early French influence in the city). The casa we stayed at was a short ten minute walk to the main square, Parque Jose Marti, and the boulevard leading to the bay with a street market for tourists. 

The central park in Cienfuegos, "Parque Jose Marti" named after the Cuban freedom fighter and poet who lost his life in 1895 fighting for independence from Spain. Can you spot Helen?

We visited various museums, the theatre dating to colonial times (Teatro Tomas Terry), the Botanical Gardens and Punta Gorda for a boat trip into the bay. One of the museums, Museo Historico Naval Nacional, took some finding in a backstreet in the northern part of the city. It was interesting and mainly to do with the revolution but we felt a little self conscious as we were escorted by at least two women opening doors and switching lights on for us. 

Transport Nacional: One of the most popular forms of getting around in the city. These carriages take about six people. Note the poo collection bag!

We took a taxi (arranged through the casa) to the gardens, about a twenty minute drive out of the city (entrance 2.50 CUC and taxi 30 CUC). This really felt very tropical with the massive plants and colourful flowers, not to mention insects! A guide took us around and was a mine of information about the trees and plants. There is a cafe come restaurant at the gardens but little written information about the history of the park or indeed the flora, but I guess this will come with time.

Alan in the Botanical Gardens among the giant bamboo. The gardens were wet and humid after the nights rain and there were lots of biting insects around to keep us moving.

Lots of bryophtes and orchids around. We did spot Cuban Emerald humming birds but they are difficult to photograph; Cuba has three species of humming birds including the smallest Bee Hummingbird. There are no humming birds in the photo !

We organised the boat trip through the tourist information office (Infotur, there are offices throughout Cuba) and walked down to Punta Gorda, a peninsula on the south side of the city. We can't say this was a pleasant walk, although scenic it was very odorous, presumable caused by untreated sewage entering the bay from the city. It was a pity because the boulevard follows the waterline in places. We joined a group of German tourists on the cruise who had arrived by coach. We saw lots of large jelly fish and some Pelicans in the bay but it was interesting to see the locals going about their daily life on the waters edge.

Photo taken on our trip in the bay with the Castillo de Jagua in view (a fort built to protect the entrance to the bay, top left in photo).  Near here the bay opens to the Caribbean Sea.

We left Cienfuegos after lunch the next day for the short bus ride to Trinidad and one of my favourite cases of the trip, Casa Colonial run by Barbara and Nancy situated about five minutes walk from the Plaza Mayor and Plaza Carillo. The food was great and the accommodation very pleasant with two private terraces. Although they spoke little English, they did speak Spanish slowly for us and together with gestures we managed to organise most of our outing through them and their contacts.

The lower terrace of "our" casa in Trinidad. This is where we ate our breakfast and some evening meals

The main things we wanted to do in Trinidad, apart from the usual exploring in the central area, was to spend a day at the beach, try the train along the sugar-cane valley and visit the mountains at Topes de Collantes. The Ancon beach is just a short taxi ride from the centre and easily reached. By three in the afternoon we decided we'd had enough sun and sea for one day so returned to the casa before finding somewhere to eat.

Under the shade at Ancon Beach, south of Trinidad. Our taxi was an old Ford Consul that had a Russian engine and very well restored inside with wooden panels replacing the original.

The train along the Valle de los Ingenios gave us another chance to see the countryside and villages. This stopped at the village of Manaca iznaga where we bought some table linen at the market and had some refreshments. The train then went further along the valley before shunting and returning with a stop for lunch. This proved impossible as the restaurant had been booked by a tour group so we advise other independent travellers to take along a snack and enjoy the break in peace!

Linen market at Manaca iznaga, our brief stop on the train journey.

The trip up into the mountains to the north of Trinidad to Topes de Collantes proved interesting because we managed to get a taxi driver who was hell-bent on cutting all the corners on the way up and racing all the downhills to gain speed for the inclines! We decided to follow the Sendero Caburni to a waterfall in the valley and arranged to meet the taxi driver about four hours later. We set-off with threatening rain down a steep and rocky hillside, contouring at times. Our views were limited because of the dense vegetation and trees but we finally reached an opening that gave us spectacular views of the waterfall. This would not be a good walk in the drier parts of the year! We made surprisingly good progress on our climb back into the sunshine and had time for a beer and malanga frites (malanga is a hairy tuba grown locally) in a restaurant, Villa Caburni, near the start of the walk.

Helen making the final descent to the waterfall. It proved difficult to get a good photo of the falls because of the contrasting light conditions near midday, but it is around the corner to the right, you'll have to take my word for it!

It would be remiss not to include some photos of Trinidad itself, such a quaint city with its cobbled centre powered by tourist but with normal life going on all around. In the market we bought a set of wooden place mats made of different coloured natural woods depicting various fruits, birds and fish; I can't imagine how long the detailed jig-saws had taken to complete. We did the "photo walk" mentioned in the "Lonely Planet" and can recommend this as you see another side to the city. The walk is made easier with the detailed map obtainable from the Infortur office.

View towards the Plaza Major taken from the top of the Museo Historic Municipal.

We did find a private internet cafe, Cafeteria las Begonias, so for the first time on the trip we were able to contact home. We then made a last visit to our favourite plaza, Plaza Carrillo, to see sunset. By now we had become familiar with the maze of the street layout that had confused us to start with!