Trinidad 2

Trinidad used to be an important centre of sugar production and a steam train ride away is the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills) where the ruins of mills can be seen. Along with half a dozen other travellers, 4 of whom appeared to be British, I waited at the train platform just outside of town. The guide book said that the departure was 0930 and the trip would take 2-½ hours. We waited until 0935 but no sign of the locomotive. Some Cubans told us that it wasn't running because there was no water yesterday. Scratch that day trip then.


I walked back to explore the old town in depth. There was an artisan market in the plaza. These vendors were selling straw animals.

This is the church near the plaza where I had taken the last night's photo. All of the old town had cobblestone streets like what you see.

Nearby streets have walls painted in bright colours.

This was an art gallery at one corner of the plaza.

I went up to the top of the mirador (viewing place) in the yellow tower a couple of pictures back to get an aerial view of the old town. In the same building is a Revolutionary Museum with pictures from the bad old days of Batista. I discovered that Capitán Descalzas (Captain Barefoot) was a real person and not just a fictional character in Norberto Fuentes' stories, one of which I had read in the Spanish Short Stories paperback that I had given away.

You can just make out the Caribbean in the far distance in this shot.


The day was starting to get uncomfortably hot so I retreated to the casa for a siesta.


Berta's husband asked me to come take my dinner upstairs and I soon saw why. The skies opened up and it rained and thundered. The dining area downstairs would have been flooded. The dinner was prawns in a tomato sauce and the usual fixings, rice and beans.


Berta got home late because of the rain and the three of us conversed some more in their living room cum bedroom. Tomorrow they would arrange the hire of a bicycle for me so that I could cycle to Playa Ancón, by the sea.