Steps and hitchhiking
Trip Start
May 19, 2010
1
10
19
Trip End
Jul 27, 2010
Trinidad, Cuba
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
On the bus I met three guys who were travelling together, one from Switzerland, England and Mexico. As they were also going to Trinidad and wanted to watch the soccer game we met again in a small café to watch the game and ended up planning to go to the beach by bicycle the next day.
Trinidad is much smaller than Habana and much more crowded with tourists as they almost live solely of tourism. Therefore at night everyone, more tourists than Cubans almost meet at the main plaza on a huge stair case where they play live music and dance salsa of course J My new friends and I were listening to a little and met three more lovely girls from England as well as two Danish girls. Our beach excursion was going to turn into a huge adventure because they decided to come with us too. Back to salsa – if you dance salsa in the open I feel like it is much different than when you dance it in a club, because first off, it is not as messy and sweaty but also because you really cannot mess up that much as everybody sees you. It was great non-the-less and after the stairs were emptying out we proceeded to – now listen to this – a disco in a cave!! You had to walk up a hill over gravel ground, past a church ruin all in the pitch black. Arrived at the top of the hill it only meant to go down in the cave from that point on. Hold on to the railing and watch your step because those were merely carved out stone steps leading down a good 5-10 meters. After walking through a tunnel where you had to lower your head a little you arrived on a dance floor with a bar, a seating area and a DJ much higher up on some other rocks! A few Mojitos later and basically everyone was dancing. English music came on at some point too and the Cubans in Trinidad seem to be more used to this kind of music than the ones in La Habana because it seemed natural for them too. Great fun once again and I can't believe that I have gone out pretty much every night since I got to Cuba. I got lost on my way back home as usual but it gave me a much better impression of the city and I saw streets which I probably would not have otherwise lol once again – I feel safer here than walking around the streets in Germany or America at night.
30th June – When you begin the day you think that oh it will just be another beach day but no no. We rented bikes to ride to the beach and took the long road – 20km – past a small city directly on the water. On that street we rode past Mango trees, which were full of mangos. Mangos hang on small strings from very large trees and I think you have to harvest them by picking them off the tree because the fall would probably mush them. Along the beach rode we had to make sure not to step on crabs that were crossing the road even though they looked as if they were ready to attack us with their little (one large!) hand things raised. Just after we rode past a few small beaches with cardboard signs of Bucear, nadar (diving, swimming) we arrived at a larger one where we met up with everyone else from last night.
At the beach we had fresh pineapple and I got myself a coconut from a beach vendor walking by. So we ended up sitting at the once again turquoise water sipping on coconut juice, eating pineapple and an occasional cracker with Chilean peanut butter. Can life be any better?!
When the three English girls and I left we realized that one of our bikes’ tires was flat. We tried to bike back with it nonetheless but when it made a squealing noise we decided it was better to take a cab back home. But instead of a cab we just hitchhiked back! I held out my arm and very conveniently a pick up truck stopped, took all of our bikes and us on the back of it and gave us a lift all the way back to Trinidad. I tried to explain one of the people in the car what I was studying, or better what I studied at university but try to find an appropriate term for business in Spanish. I couldn’t find one, but it ended up that marketing is the same in Spanish as in English. Or at least I believe it is.
Back home I had a delicious dinner with fish, rice, beans, vegetables, mango juice and mangos for dessert. As they hardly have any chocolate here fruit and ice cream are their main ways to satisfy the desire for sweets. Absolutely fine with me because the Mango in Trinidad is the best in Cuba and for that matter I believe it has to be the best in the world. It is incredible. Absolutely delicious.
Tonight we only went for a drink at the steps and watched others dance. We had to say goodbye to my English friends as they were leaving for La Habana early in the morning again..
1st July – It is July! And what is on the plan today? Horseback riding through the mountains of Trinidad. After fruity breakfast I met up with my friends from the bus, we walked through a few back allies of Trinidad until we got to the outskirts where people were waiting for us with the horses. I think I either got the lead horse or a really stubborn and competitive one because mine wanted to be at the front at all times which I did not mind at all until we started galloping and I could hardly hold on. Still it was so much fun to ride a horse again because it has been I think a good 10 years since I did the last time. We went past a small home (shack would be more appropriate) where a happy old man and his son I believe were working on a sugar cane farm. We had fresh sugar cane with lemon juice and proceeded onto a water hole with a waterfall and water so clear that you could see the fish swimming around. We jumped in from the rocks and dove underneath more rocks in order to come up again in a cave where the water was a see-through green. One of the Cubans that worked there helped me dive underneath the rocks because I freaked out as you cannot come up and claustrophobic as I am this was not a good thing. Once safe though it was great because you could see out from under the cave and sit down. He told me the colour from the water was green because of the rocks.. I guess because they grow grass on them? Mmm
We had lunch on a farm in the middle of nothing. And this time with frozen mango juice lol Back at home we were all so tired that we split up just to meet up again at another café/bar with salsa music in the background. But before that the host where I was staying at was teaching me Spanish and we both wrote down Spanish and German terms while at the same time talking about him fishing huge lobsters haha
My friends from the bus were leaving the next day too so we said our goodbyes and I went with two Swedish women back to the steps where we were the only ones sitting outside because it started to rain and Cubans really do not like the rain. But anyway – here in Cuba I have realized that there can be lightning for hours but hardly any thunder and only a little or no rain at all. For a good 4 hours the sky kept being light up by lightening (some actually called them fireballs because that is what they looked like). Absolutely incredible to watch. Until it seriously started pouring and it was time to go home ;)
