Cienfuegos

We arrived in Cienfuegos in the late afternoon. At first glance, Cienfuegos seems like a somewhat run down former colonial backwater. There are colorful houses everywhere but for every one of those, there were many more that didn’t appear to be maintained well. Cienfuegos is different from other colonial towns in Cuba in that it was founded by the French. I don’t know much about differences in colonial architecture but I did note that the road along which the restaurant where we ate dinner that evening was very wide, with an elevated tree-lined pedestrian path in the center of the road - a definite departure from what I observed in other towns. I immediately noticed that there were iron grilles over most windows and doors - usually a bad sign. When asked, Tony clarified that Cienfuegos isn’t known for high crime, that the window grilles was part of the design of the buildings, and that we would see the same in Trinidad. In fact, crimes against tourists are rare because the penalties for such crimes are especially severe.

Before checking in, we drove along the waterfront road to see an old mansion called the Palacio del Valle, which was done in a combination of European and Moorish styles. The waterfront looked very inviting and I would have liked to stroll along it if we had the time. We then checked in to our guesthouse before heading out to dinner. We are in the nicest accommodation of our trip so far; too bad we’re only staying in it one night.

The guesthouse we are staying at is owned by a couple with a 17 year old son named Christian. Christian was our main liaison as he was the only one who spoke English. Christian helped us get settled in, and in the morning he came over with his parents to prepare breakfast. He turned out to be a very engaging kid and we really enjoyed chatting with him throughout the morning. He plans to forgo college to train as a tourist guide, as this is where there is money to be made. Knowing how little college-educated workers make in official state jobs, I can’t blame him for aspiring to become a worker on his own account. He supplemented English lessons from school by watching English films and reading in English. We found it hard to believe that he had his first one-on-one English conversation with a native speaker when his family opened their guesthouse barely 11 months ago. He followed our group as we walked around the central part of Cienfuegos in the morning so that he could observe Tony in action. We loved his ambition and attitude and we know that he’ll do well whatever path he chooses.

During our walking tour, I noticed that the buildings in the town center had colonnades and wide shaded sidewalks. Perhaps this was the French influenced architecture. Tony wanted to take us to a fine arts museum but it was closed, so we pretty much just wandered around the town center and the town square. After the walking tour, we checked out and moved on to Trinidad.

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