Trinidad--prettiest city in Cuba

View across Trinidad to the mountains beyond

We arrived in Trinidad, another 500 year old colonial city, late in the afternoon, with light rain to cool us off a bit.  On our way, we visited Manaca Iznaga, an old sugar plantation in a valley that used to be filled with sugar plantations.  It is a big tourist stop now, so there are hordes of hawkers selling embroidered table cloths, cheap jewelry and photo opportunities with “baby” falcons.  It’s an interesting place whose prime attraction is a tall tower that was formerly used to keep track of the slaves who worked the plantation, especially those who might consider trying to escape to the mountains surrounding the valley and the city of Trinidad.

Manaca Iznaga tower

Cuba had 4 million slaves over the course of its colonial history.  Today, the culture throbs with African rhythms in its music and dance.  Drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments are key elements of the music.  The population is very diverse and the largest religion is Santeria, a melding of Catholicism and spirit worship the slaves brought from Africa.

Girls singing at Casa de Cultura

This morning as we walked the cobblestone streets of Trinidad, we stopped to listen to very talented children playing instruments, dancing and singing at the Casa de Cultura.  Every town has its Casa de Cultura, which provides music, dancing and art programs for the children.  Two young girls sang with beautiful voices that seemed way too powerful for their ages.  This is a regular Saturday activity for kids.  In the next room, an Afro-Cuban music and dance program was underway while a third room had children working hard on art projects.  Cuba’s culture is lively and exciting.  You hear music everywhere, with so many talented musicians.  Artists fill canvases and walls with brilliant colors and themes.  In Trinidad, there are lots of handicrafts for sale, far more than we’ve seen elsewhere.

child mesmerized by dancers

The tourist areas of Trinidad are clean and pretty with charming plazas full of flowers and trees and surrounded by shops and restaurants.  On a late afternoon walk, I found a still charming but less prosperous part of the town, where the plazas are dirt and rocks with perhaps a bedraggled tree in the middle.  Trash and manure from the many horses pulling carts covered the streets.  While most homes were tiny, dark and in poor condition, many had nice wooden furniture, courtyards behind the front rooms and flowers on tables next to the small TV sets showing Cuban government programs. 

horse and buggy in Trinidad

These areas, too, have shops and restaurants, but with fewer goods for sale and rudimentary menus.  They were busy, though, with Trinidadians enjoying beer along with black beans and rice, two staples.

Trinidad has one of the 2 best hotels in Cuba, a country with a real dearth of comfortable, much less luxurious, hotels.  The Iberostar in Trinidad is beautiful and small, providing good service and food.  But, the Iberostar is an outlier in a country where little has been invested in a tourist infrastructure and the demand for hotels is very high.  Most hotels are very basic and often not as clean we we’d like, so go with the expectation of seeing a beautiful country with a lively cultural life, but not much in the way of amenities for anyone, Cubans and tourists alike.

Plaza Mayor with church

The area around Trinidad was a major sugar-producing region until the fall of the Soviet Union, when the major market for Cuban sugar, particularly given the US trade embargo, disappeared.  Venezuela took up a bit of the slack, but not nearly enough.  This period was called the “special time”, one of great hardship and even starvation for Cubans.  Venezuela bought much of the sugar-processing equipment, leaving Cuba with little ability to rebuild its sugar industry.  Today, there are still large fields of sugar cane, but much more acreage dedicated to cattle and fallow fields.

Trinidad has become a day trip for tourists staying in Havana, though a long one.  While tourism certainly has not replaced the sugar industry, it has provided jobs and opportunities for local citizens. We think this is a "must" visit when you come to Cuba.

one of Trinidad's cobblestone streets

kids dancing at Casa de Cultura

food cart on Trinidad street