Trinidad
Trinidad is not a touristy place. However, it has several nice museums. My favorite was Romantic museum, the former Palace of the Count Brunet who was a wealthy creole. The palace was built in 1808 and for some time it was considered to be the most beautiful in the Caribbean.
The hill overlooking Trinidad houses picturesque ruins of La Popa church and quite unexpectedly, an ultramodern hotel next to the ruins. The adjacent 17th-century Spanish hospital for the poor was closed after it was damaged by a hurricane.
I wanted to go to Santiago de Cuba next but there were no direct buses from Trinidad. I realized that getting there could take me 2 days one-way and God knows how long back to Havana. Cuba is a big island; the logistics of traveling from point A to point B are not straightforward. I decided against going that far east and instead booked a taxi colectivo to Varadero.
Reniér, the casa owner, said it was going to be $30 for a 3-hour ride. In the morning, a car came to pick me up; then we drove around Trinidad collecting other passengers to Varadero. They were a young British couple, a very silent German guy and an annoyingly talkative old Dane who appeared to be drunk.
When we all were sitting in the car ready to go, it was time to pay for the ride. Taxi colectivos is a well-run business in Trinidad. A man with a massive gold wristwatch looked like he was the boss. Everyone gave the money to him. I could not see how much money it was.
My turn came and he told me to pay 30 euros. I hardly had any euros left and did not want to part with them. No, I said, the quoted price was in dollars. Okay, said the man with the gold watch, it is $35 then. I would happily donate these $5 but the man with his gold watch and a heavy chain around the neck was not a good cause for that. So, I flatly refused. The boss gathered his gang around him and they held a quick meeting in Spanish after which it was decided that I should pay $30. I paid and we left.
The British went to Viñales that I initially planned to see too. They said it was a nice quiet place with little to do. They had high hopes for Varadero but I am afraid that Varadero disappointed them too.
The Dane was a regular visitor to Cuba. Women were cheap, so was beer. He preferred living in Cuba rather than in Denmark The British couple being good-mannered supported the conversation at first until they got tired of the Dane’s bubbling. They stopped talking and the Dane fell asleep in his back seat.
What a beautiful palace with nice delicate lazure painting on the columns! And so well-preserved too! The taxi ride sounds like a joke: “A drunken Dane, a British pair and an American are riding in a taxi”:)
Ha-ha, that would be very funny!