Cienfuegos and Trinidad de Cuba

We just arrived in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The ship is in the bay and we will take a tender into town. This morning we heard two very good lectures, one on Cuban music and dancing, and another on the revolution of Fidel Castro. After catching the tender, we passed through a health and passport scan before taking a bus to Trinidad. Our first stop in Trinidad was called Sugar Valley. We went into the landowner’s house, which has been converted into a museum. In the yard was an old sugar press. We saw a museum made from an old palace that belonged to the Cantore family before we had a rather compulsory visit to a lady’s house that doubled as an art museum. There infrastructure of Cuba is crumbling. In the town there is only water for an hour each day so while we were at the artist’s house no one could use the restroom. Finally we walked around the streets of Trinidad and had about 45 minutes free time. The plaza by the cathedral had a salsa band that was playing beautiful music. The whole town gathered and just sat around the plaza. Just before we went to the restaurant, a man came up to me, offered me a cigar and told me that he was a former Canadian who had moved to Santiago de Cuba. I was a little suspicious of him but very soon Glenda rescued me and told me that we had to meet with the group. A restaurant Los Conspiradores, or the conspirators, served us broiled snapper, vegetable soup, bruschetta and rice pudding. The restaurant was named for a series of meetings that were held there during the revolution of 1846. Finally we rode the bus back to Cienfuegos, got on the ship, cleaned up, and went to bed. Tomorrow we have an overnight trip to Havana.Read more