Cuba

We were supposed to get a bici-tour of the town. Thankfully it didn't happen! This little girl, 1.50 meter high showed up, we don't know how the hell she would manage to drag us both along among the paved street of the city!

So, walking tour it is. Through the old rich homes and Monuments, she learned us all about the history of Trinidad and the famous people who lived here.

One example : a famous pirate who at one point was the first and most important person in the old town.

He owned a big house full of pleasure lady's and next to it, a holy statue of Jesus from Vera Cruz, Spain!
Long story short, he got stranded there, and the christ statue who belonged to a pirate, displayed in his whore house is now the center of a procession every year!

The beautiful thing about the old Town is that each building and its frescoes are 300/400 years old, but still preseverd and in function!

More interestingly, we then moved to the non tourist parts of Trinidad, the "new town" (still dated back to 1800) with real people. We even stopped at our guide place for coffee, and visited her home, where she lived with her daughter and grandmother. Three generations of women under the same roof, no men, but small pig getting ready to be slaughtered in few months.

She explained us about the difference between government and private buildings, food coupons and their school systems.

Still absolute poverty around - unlike anything we've ever seen. But no crime, no feeling of anger.. Only smiling faces - its Cuba, be happy! On every corner she was greeting friends and family, like she said this part is like a big community.

Highlights of the morning was a potery atelier, owned by many generations. Specialized in "Canchànchara" cocktail cup, a fermented sugar alcohol.
The origin of this cocktail was to incite the mood of the warriors who were gonna have to fight with machettes against guns. The consequences are if we have more of those during our trip, we are gonna come back both diabetic.

Come afternoon, we're dead on our feet and happy to see our driver, Orge, back.

We drove to an old villa (plantation house) and an old sugar cane plantation - surmonted by this weird tower of cuban Pisa made by a rich owner to impress a lady.
The bees living in the stairs made it quite an adventure to go up. Of course Michael didn't reach the top, fear of heights!

They were selling impressive table brodery and crochet table cloth for 35€.. For a considerable amount of work! We decided to be reasonable, and not to buy everything because of the story behind it. A table cloth of this finesse has a life expectation of one dinner with us before a glass of wine ruins it - and it is definitely not washing machine friendly. So we passed.

We tried an excellent fresh pressed sugar cane juice - amazing. It's absolutely not preservable, as it has to be pressed and drunk within 10 mn.

We also tried two fruits, unknown name for us. A weird sweet acovado type, almost with a dates taste. A red peer with the inside texture of a lychee...

Another lobster dinner for Nina who's gathering the last of her energy to dance later!Read more