Trinidad and a concert

On January 14th, we headed for Trinidad, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.   The drive started in the lowlands, surrounded by sugar cane fields.  We then went up in the mountains a bit, where we stopped at a restaurant to use the bathroom.

I noticed the nearby Cienfuegos School, and asked a lady about it.  She said that her grandchild was a student, and that the lady in front was the director.  I went up to talk to the director, and she invited me in.  We ended up with most of the tour going through the two room school.  Our guides were familiar with the restaurant, but had not noticed the school before.   The students attend up to seventh grade, and then go away to a boarding school.

As we got closer to Trinidad, the road followed the coast.  We saw some beaches, as well as a shrimp farm.

The city of Trinidad is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.    It was a prosperous port town in the early 1800s, with riches based on the sugar business.   But time stopped there around 1850, and the town became frozen in time.  It was isolated from the rest of Cuba, with the only access from the sea.

Trinidad has cobblestone streets, and buildings from that era.   We were warned that the cobblestone streets are particularly hard to walk on; we had walking shoes and wished that we had hiking boots.

Trinidad is very picturesque.  The town center was full of tourists, many of whom seemed to be the backpacker type.   But if you walked a few blocks from the plaza, the streets were largely empty.

We stopped at a B&B run by a vivacious lady, who is also a blues singer.  Leah and Pasche performed a song that she wrote, and had received an award for.  They also do workshops for children, as well as house concerts.

She had fallen in love with this old building, and persuaded the 102 year old lady who owned it to sell it to her.  It took a huge amount of work to fix it up.  She left as much original as she could.  Her B&B is the ideal business for her, as she gets paid to talk to people.  ;-)   They provide employment to several local people.  They have a 35 acre farm, with a cow, pigs, and chickens, and which provides much of the food that they serve their guests.

She explained the challenges of the business, and told the story of bringing pillows back from Canada  in her luggage.  She has a lot of international tourists, but was not a fan of the French tourists, putting her nose in the air to symbolize their attitude.

Wagons are still seen on the streets.

The old cars require a lot of maintenance.

We rode back to Cienfuegos, where we attended a chamber concert of Cuban music by the provincial orchestra.   The musicians do concerts, and also teach in the schools.  They performed a mix of classical and popular music, and at one point got us up and dancing.  Their spokesman spoke excellent colloquial English, and enthusiastically thanked us, as Americans, for coming.  They are very hopeful that this will bring needed change to Cuba.