Hi again from Trinidad! I really, really love it here, despite the heat. The city is teeming with life and has so much music in its soul. It’s hard not to fall in love with the place.
Trinidad also celebrated its 500th anniversary two years ago, making it one of the oldest European-founded settlements in the Americas. Hear that, Mayor Coderre? 500 years is a real reason to celebrate. Not 375; that’s just a lame ego project that invites mockery.
Exploring Trinidad
I woke up today after a luxurious lie-in, and had breakfast in the casa. Mid-morning, I headed to the bank to change some Canadian dollars into CUCs, since the ATM in Trinidad didn’t seem to like my card. I had to wait in an hour-long queue, though I was standing in front of a French girl from Cote d’Ivoire who has been living and studying in Montreal for the past few years at Polytechnique. Go figure; we’re everywhere. She was there with her sister, who lives in New York. We got to chatting, and after changing money, we spent a few hours walking around and exploring.
The main square near my casa had some sort of free dancing lessons going on in the square. We stopped off to watch for a bit, as dozens of people, young and old, followed the steps. Good fun.
Walking around aimlessly, we found an old library, of the sort that you just don’t see anymore. It had an old-style card catalogue still in use, stacks of old history books — mostly about the Cuban revolution, it seems — and an open outdoor courtyard. Probably not very good for the preservation of the books, but it was really something. I love libraries.
We found the bell tower and paid the two CUCs to enter and climb up to see the views. The bell tower is inside the municipal museum called Palacio Cantero. It belonged to a doctor who was a wealthy landowner in Trinidad. The story goes, he fell in love with the wife of another landowner, who then mysteriously died after he was treating him. The doctor then married his rival’s widow and inherited all the land and money she had from her late husband, too. Suspicious much? Hmmm. Anyway, other than the views from the top, the museum has some old furniture from the era, and some panels of history written mostly in Spanish.
We stopped off at the Casa de la Musica for a lemonade and to listen to the band playing for a bit. By night, the place comes alive with big performances, but during the day it was quiet and peaceful.
I split up from the French girls and headed back to the casa. On the way, I looked around for a place to buy water. I met a British guy trying to do the same, and we teamed up and looked for a shop. We finally found one, but as we tried to enter, the owner first slammed the door shut in our faces. Not sure why. She then opened the door again, reluctantly, and once again we saw they had all kinds of other stuff for sale, but no water. I asked the employee and she said she only had small bottles, and disappeared in the back to get them. Later, I found out that there was another warehouse-like shop around the corner from my casa that was devoted exclusively to the sale of big bottles of water. I guess you have to know where to go in Cuba.
The heat was oppressive by that point in the day. I wasn’t really hungry for lunch after the big breakfast I’d eaten that morning, but I did feel like taking a break from the hot sun. So I headed back to my casa for a short siesta in front of the air conditioner.
To the playa
Mid-afternoon, I decided I’d spent enough time ducking the heat. I changed into my swimsuit and asked the casa owner to get me a taxi to the beach.
Normally, I hate the beach. But when in Cuba and all that. This one, just fifteen minutes from the city, was actually quite nice. It’s not built up with hotels and restaurants. It’s pretty empty and peaceful. I met a group of travellers there, and we hung out and had a swim and a beer. They’d packed some picnic items for dinner, and invited me to join them for some food. We stayed for the sunset, and then got taxis back to town just as it was starting to get dark. So there you have it: I did make it to a beach on this trip after all. I think I’m done now, though.
City of music
After returning to city, I had a shower and changed my clothes. It was much cooler and more pleasant out, now that the sun had gone down.
After dinner, I walked back up to the main square and returned to the Casa de la Musica, and paid the 1 CUC entry fee for the right to sit on the steps and watch the show. This time, there were lots of people there. The live band was hopping, and tourists kept getting up to dance with varying degrees of skill. The place was seriously cougar central; lots of middle-aged tourist women dancing with young Cuban guys. Quite entertaining. I sipped a beer and watched the show for a while.
Finally, I wandered back to the casa through Trinidad’s narrow streets, still alive even late at night. I stopped off at a bar along the way for a couple of drinks, running back into the Irish travellers from the beach (of course). We had a good chat over a couple of pina coladas, and eventually I headed back to my casa to turn in for the night.