Trinidad

Matching our surroundings!

Trinidad is a beautiful city. We arrived after the long drive from Camaguey to a lovely casa, the Casa Ramirez, dropped our things and headed out for a late, late lunch and a wander around the city. We headed up to the historical centre and popped into a restaurant B recommended: San Jose, which had a fabulously airconditioned section at the back.

We had a bunch of yummy things: more of the filled plantain fritters (the pulled beef ones were the best), some taro, and K&R had Cuban sandwiches, I had what I thought would be small (it was in the appetiser section of the menu) lobster salad. It was the meat from about a whole lobster, tossed with a salsa of tomato, red onion and cucumber, with a couple of green leaves. Yum!

Delicious lunch

Once fortified, B took us around the centre, showing us the various sights, as well as pointing out other good places to get food and drinks, and also places with great music. By the time we finished, we decided we would go back to the coffee place, where we accidentally surprised B who was relaxing after sending us off to explore on our own.

Coffee (I think I needed it!)

Our second day in Trinidad was much more focused on leisure – we went to the beach (Playa Ancon) in the morning, then had a salsa lesson in the afternoon before heading back up the hill for some drinks and snacks.

Swimming in the Caribbean

The beach was as picturesque as you’d imagine the Caribbean to be. There were shade huts made from palm leaves, long lines of sunlounges, huge catamarans coming right into shore, and the blue, blue water. Which was very warm and very salty!

On the beach

We stayed a while there, watching the hermit and digging crabs until it got too hot and busy for them. Sellers wandered up and down the beach selling pizza mainly, but the drinks got started around 11am, so we bought some coconuts and felt like we were in a postcard as we hid from the sun under our shade hut.

Coconuts

The road to and from the beach was a revelation – so many potholes and problems that the taxi ended up driving in the gravel at the side of the road at some points. Of course we were passing horse-drawn carriage taxis, carts, tractors pulling trailers full of people (buses), bicycles and cars, so the road would have been interesting to navigate as a driver!

Canchancharra

Lunch was cooked by the casa today, so we chowed down on a huge meal of bean soup, chicken drumsticks, mixed vegetables, rice, which was finished with a small bowl of icecream. No icecream shortages here! They also made us canchancharra, a local drink made from rum (of course), honey, lemon and ice. Very refreshing – a cold toddy.

Delicious lunch

After a quick lie-down to aid digestion, it was time for our dance class. Our teacher runs a dance school mainly for tourists, so he’s used to teaching absolute beginners.

Our dancing was… hot!

We learned the basic steps, and added a couple of extras to spice things up. By the end, we were drenched with sweat, our feet and ankles were complaining, but we felt very accomplished as we could dance a whole song through with different combinations.

The fan was our greatest fan

Just in time, as we were dancing in the back patio of the casa, we finished before the heavens opened and another rainstorm hit. Once we headed out, we realised it was a good thing we’d waited, as the streets were torrents of rainwater. Since the city is built on the side of a hill, the whole streets act as rainwater drains, sluicing all the way down. As seems to be the habit, the rain cleared as quickly as it came, and we were able to wander up to the historical centre in search of sustenance.

Tostones

We tried a few places and had a drink here and there, but ended up at an Italian-style restaurant run buy the same people as San Jose from the day before (San Jose was too busy and had a half-hour wait). Like their sister restaurant, the food looked good, but we stuck to snacks of stuffed plantain fritters. Any place who can make banana taste like pastry gets my vote!