Not Trinidad

When we got in the taxi to leave Cienfuegos on New Year's Day, the driver asked if we had been to Trinidad. Every traveler we talked during our trip to was either coming from or going to Trinidad. It's supposed to be a beautiful, historical, colonial town. That's why I didn't want to go.

"I think there are more tourists in Trinidad than people who live there," the driver explained, as we leaned against the car, waiting for the 3rd passenger who would travel to Havana with us.

Surama, my Cuban friend, said in the course of one conversation,
"Trinidad is great, you should absolutely go," and
"you should try to see the authentic Cuba while you are there. There's nothing authentic about Trinidad."
I imagine it as a museum of a town, a Cuban colonial Williamsburg, or the tropical version of Bruges, Belgium.

There are places where you travel in order to see stuff: castles, museums, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, the Corn Palace, the world's largest ball of twine, etc. Cuba, at least for Brian and me, is not one of those places. We came to Cuba to see how this place has shrugged off globalization, to see what it's like to live without advertising. We wanted to feel the sun and hear the music, to visit the place with (arguably) the purest form of Communism that still exists. Now the U.S., with some help from our friends Pope Francis and the Canadians, has agreed to crack open the door of the embargo. We look like geniuses because, as you'll recall, we beat Burger King.

Cienfuegos

No one is sure just what will change in Cuba, but everyone is sure that some changes are coming. Fred the farmer is concerned that agribusiness will bring in chemical fertilizers and bio-engineering. Rico the classic car driver can't wait for strong American cars to come back to Havana's streets (we didn't tell him they don't make cars quite like they did in the 50s). José Miguel thinks that when banking opens up, expat Cubans will buy up all the land. Nene the cigar salesman has wasted no time in bringing his Miami family down to visit.

And will Nene take his family to Trinidad? With more visitors in Cuba's future, will Trinidad become the next Wisconsin Dells? What we did instead of visit Trinidad was stay for 3 full days in Cienfuegos. There was plenty of time to put the guidebook away and sit on the rooftop, listening to the clip clop of horse carts and the beats of music playing down the street, the call of the bread man and the barking of street dogs. 

There weren't many famous sights in Cienfuegos to check off of a list. But that was ok with us.

This is Brian's iconic Cuba photo