Trinidad

The town not the island, a good six/seven hour bus ride from Vinales. The bus dropped us off on a side street with hardly any room to move between the people scrambling to get your business in their casa. We went with Elio, a teacher of languages who lives just a short walk down the road. Sarah was well catered for as Elio's brother was a chef who was more inventive with dinners, not an omelet in sight. 

Streets of Trinidad

Canchanchara -a Trinidad special, firewater (rum), water, honey, ice, lime juice, served in bulbous clay pots, a delicious concoction for pre-dinner drinks. Another night for pre-dinner drinks we wondered into the Iberostar Grand Hotel, a Spanish owned hotel chain that felt like stepping into the Titanic. Full of art deco, vintage decor and a waiter with impeccable service so much so we went back the three nights we were in Trinidad. 

A day out at Playa Ancon, not as secluded as Cayo Levisa, yet just as nice, with a good mix of locals and tourists enjoying the sunshine. While on the beach there was the threat of another tropic storm which ended up just being very dark clouds coming over the beach - a pretty cool visual.

Playa Ancon

There were various tour operators, but we found them to not quite offer the full listing, the most helpful was a guy sitting on the Cubatur desk. We booked a tour out to the national park to the Guanayara trail with a waterfall and small pool to swim in. The road up to the trail was pretty rough, needing a 4x4 wheel drive. The taxi driver dropped us at one end of the walking trail and picked us up at the other end after lunch. We wondered the trail though coffee plantations at the beginning then it turned into lush forest, it took about two hours, a very relaxed trail nothing too extreme, no one but us and a couple of locals overtaking us. On the way back to Trinidad we passed what I think was a hire car with a few tourists in trying to get up the trail and not having much luck at all. They were going in the opposite direction, I hope they got to wherever they were trying to go.

Guanayara Trail

Trinidad had the most amount of shopping for tourists selling much of the same thing, art, lace, wooden trinkets, and buckets of necklaces made of seeds, all a little same, same, but different of which I bough just a few. 

We went to Cuba in low season, I hope that in peak season it gets busier, as we went to a few places that just had way too many staff for the number of customers coming in. Don't go to Cuba for the food, it's not that exciting, except the fruits, I had a variation of a ham and cheese sandwich every day the whole trip. Do go to Cuba to sit, drink rum, wonder around, listen to music and take your time. More photos of Trinidad here.

Viñales

Took the tourist bus, Vizul, to the valley of tobacco plants and the town of Viñales a few hours bus ride from Havana. Casa particulares are a cheap way to stay in Cuba and do a home stay with Cuban families at the same time. Viñales does not have a lack of casa's to stay at, we were met from the bus by a gaggle of women holding pictures/descriptions of their homes. Tamara and her husband took us back to their house a short walk from the main street. Apart from the first day we didn't see the husband again, and Tamara every so often, our hosts were really casa grand pa and ma who were so cute, they spoke hardly any English and between using my very limited Spanish and the international language of signs, we managed to communicate what we needed. 

It's the norm to get the meal deal along with accom at the casa as there aren't really many places to eat out. Breakfast was usually a plate of yummy fruit with bread and/or omelet. Dinner for me was vegetables with some kind of protein, fish, chicken or lobster. Sarah's a vegetarian and was served seven omelets in three days, that's a lot of eggs.

Top left clockwise: Breakfast at the casa, tobacco farmer, main street, Casa grand pa/ma.

Tamara persuaded us to go on a horse riding tour though the tobacco fields which had been harvested, the leaves now being smoked in huts then rolled. Our guide, Louis, took us to a tobacco farmer where he made a fresh drink from coconut juice with rum and honey. The house itself was under renovations, but there was a corner to have a drink and buy cigars and again, speak in my limited Spanish and the guide's broken English. Thanks to Manu Chou, I know how to say 'I like you' in Spanish and therefore I can also say 'I like rum', 'I like Cuba', 'I like horse', 'I like men'. Part of the tour was also to a cave with no lights, just a guide with a torch. At the end was a pool of very still, cool water, went for a little dip with a little nudge from the guide, I thought he was joking about swimming in it until he started undressing. I walked though the water to a second pool and got a little mud massage, very strange.

Before and after the tropical storm

Day trip to Cayo Levisa, a thirty minute boat trip from the coast and one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been too, the water was so clear blue. Apart from a small resort there was no one else on the island. I walked along the beach, past the huts and there was literally nothing but the sand and sea, I could almost see a pirate ship off in the distance.

Cayo Levisa

I really like Viñales, it was really relaxed, we had more cocktails in hotels that over look the valley and a few more in a local cafe waiting for a tropical storm to pass or in the Casa de la Musica. The whole trip felt like a lot of sitting and watching the world go by, it was lovely. More photos of Viñales here.

La Habana

Last minutes plans came together for a ten day trip to Cuba, three days Havana, three days Vinales, three days Trinidad - and that's the town Trinidad, not the island of Trinidad and Tobago, and a couple of travelling days here and there.

It's hot in Cuba, so hot, we spent a lot of time moving from one sitting location to the next, people watching, listening to any music that was playing out of near by restaurants. Habana, and the other places in Cuba we visited, have the faint smell of cigar smoke lingering around. 

I really liked the people in Cuba, the men are hot and flirty, though not in a sleezy way. Sitting on a bench, a lady approached us as started talking and then let us know she could get us 'good cigars', generally, I knew people talking to us wanted to sell us something, everyone knew someone who could get us something. But they did it such a way that didn't come across like it did in a country like Egypt or Vietnam. You tip in Cuba and I actually felt like I wanted to give it to them. 

An afternoon sitting session at the Hotel National coincided with lunch, the first of many a ham and cheese sandwich, accompanied by something rum based. Piña colada, mojito, Cuba Libre, daiquiri - permanent fixtures throughout the trip, I will hence forth be choosing Havana Club as my rum of choice. The various plaza's in the old town were perfect places to sit, as were the small parks or anywhere shady. Any of the steps around the Capitolio building are not good places to sit and you get moved on pretty sharpish by the security guards. 

Haggling doesn't really work, prices seems to have been standardised amongst the taxi drivers. We were hassled, 'taxi?', generally people understood we meant no and moved on.

As most guide books will say, don't go for the food, it get quite same same and there isn't a lot of variety when eating out as it's such a luxury and basically for the tourists. Our hotel is famous for paella, having had it compete and place in the International Paella Contest in Spain. I tried it while I stayed there and didn't think it was so special.

Sarah described Habana as '...a run down Europe', I agree, Habana has beautiful buildings, some of which have seen better days. No one rushes in Cuba, it was extremely easy to slide into this relaxed city and watch the world go by with a rum cocktail - of course. More photos here.