Wednesday, June 3, 2015: Havana, Cuba

The day started better with regard to the weather but the afternoon proved to be rather wet once again. A storm cloud seems to have assembled over the entire Caribbean. Just our luck.  We needed to do some quick packing and rushed to the bus station at c. 1pm.  The bus eventually left at 2pm after much chaos and the usual mess of no one really knowing which one was the right bus to Trinidad.

Anyway we managed to get on (it was quite empty) and the scenery was very pleasant. Very green and lush countryside, very unspoilt, with hardly any houses or farmhouses (or gas stations) to be seen. Just lots of trees, grass, the occasional cow and also quite a few horses (with and without the riders and often the horses were in front of a cart).

When we arrived at c. 7.30pm it was lashing like crazy. The rain came down like a waterfall and the streets of the little town of Trinidad were submerged in water. We picked the first guy who talked to us about rooms in his casa (we hadn't managed to pre-book any decent hotel from Havana).  Well, the rooms are basic to say the least and the mattresses look suspicious and not very comfortable. I'll find out in a minute. The lady of the house prepared a nice dinner for us and we had a long chat with the young son of 18 who is just finishing school. He is a very bright lad with good English. We talked about life in Cuba and he also voiced his frustration with the virtual impossibility of traveling and obtaining a passport. It seems that one needs tons of money to obtain a passport.  And visafree travel is still restricted to a very limited number of countries (including Ecuador and Russia). A very enlightening conversation.

We finished the evening with a stroll into town. We came acorss a music bar dedicated to the Beatles and aptly named "Yesterday." It's full of Beatles posters and memorabilia.  We ended up with a couple of Mochitos in a different bar (with equally loud music, only Latin American this time) and eventually in the town square where another (good) band was playing. Lots of people were listening and dancing the night away.

Trinidad is a very small interesting town. By American and European standards it's quite untouristic but I understand by Cuban standards it's quite touristically developed.  And there are a number of nice looking restaurants, souvenir shops and a couple of art galleries. The roads are mostly unpaved and the town square dominated by its Spanish-style church is attractive. Most houses, however, are in an advanced state of disrepair. Something ought to be done urgently to save them.

Thursday, June 4, 2015:Trinidad, Cuba

contrary to my worst expectations, I slept quite well. There was a cock outside who kept crowing throughout the night starting at something like 2am; there were also a couple of dogs who did not observe the quiet of the night and kept barking at irregular intervals. Whenever I was just about to doze off, either the cock started crowing or the dogs commenced barking, or both. But I still felt fairly rested. We had a lovely breakfast on the upstairs veranda of the house and then decided to stay another night in Trinidad after all. We wanted to go to the beach. The beach bus, however, never showed up. As there still wasn't brilliant sunshine outside (but still fairly warm) the bus driver had decided to give it a miss and stayed at home. We shared a taxi to the beach near a resort called Los Amigos with two Dutch girls who also had been waiting for the bus. The beach was grand. Very white sand, hardly anyone there and plenty of sunbeds on the beach. The water was perfect too apart from the fact that some hidden underwater creature burned me across my left writh with its tentacles (posslby a jelly fish or something like that). I never saw the culprit but I certainly felt its bite or sting. It swelled a bit and turned red but nothing much else happened and in due course the swelling and the pain subsided again.

Aferwards another leisurely stroll through Trinidad. We got talking to an elderly English teacher and former Cuban pilot who served in Moscow and Kiev in the 1990s. He was highly critical of Raul Castro who only looked after his own family he claimed. He was much more upbeat about Fidel and his achievements. Fidel would pass on within 6 months due to his stomach cancer. The man was hopeful about developments after Raoul. He warned us not to give any money to anyone who accosted us in the square. Two minutes later he was wondering if we had a couple of CUCs for him (which we did).

Later on we enjoyed a nice chat with our landlady and landlord and Davis, their son, on the veranda of their quite basic but pleasant house. Was good fun. George did some singing and did a good job of impersonating Johnny Cash and Walk the Line. He tried to write down the lyrics of some pop songs for the young son of the house while listening to the tunes over and over again. Eventually I managed to get him out to have dinner.

Lovely restaurant with a 5-piece live band that played Cuban music just for the two of us as the other guests had had dinner much earlier in the evening. Very nice. Then a walk to the main square and some more live music. Was good fun though George kept dozing off.....

Tomorrow it's off to Santa Clara by bus in the early afternoon.