Dec. 25-28, 2015; Trinidad Cuba
Trinidad was settled by the Spanish in the early 1500’s with a focus on gold and farming and later in the 1800’s it became a hub for tobacco and sugar. Though once sugar trade slowed, the town almost collapsed. Because of perseverance efforts it became a UNESCO World Heritage site in the late 1980’s. There are remnants of the early Spanish settlers in today’s Trinidad. The first thing we noticed as we pulled into town (in our 1950’s something station wagon, packed with 9 passengers and our driver) were that the streets were narrow and most are cobblestone.
It is much smaller than Havana, but larger than Viñales. Our Casa Particular was just blocks from Plaza Mayor. Surrounding the Plaza were many historic buildings, most hosting small art galleries and or stores with traditional Cuban items for sale. We read that in 2011 there were 4 restaurants in the area and now there are 90. Most have very similar menus, but we managed to find some unique places to eat.
We tried to buy tickets for the bus back to Havana however they were sold out. We then found a guy selling taxi rides to Havana (common) so we gave him our address and asked him for a pick up on the 28th at 8:30. All set, right? (there will be more to this story). We walked around town quite a bit and saw more of the beer carts in the local neighborhoods.
On our last day here we took the on/off bus to the beach arriving about 11:30 and staying until the 5:00 bus home. There were very few people in the water and not sure why but suspect 2 things, 1) water was dirty 2) jelly fish, we saw many folks running out of the water with big red blotches and needing vinegar to pour on the bites, hence we did not venture into the water, but the breeze felt good. 
The sunset our last night was beautiful and we watched it from the Plaza Mayor which was a perfect location! The Cuban music steaming from 5-7 different locations around the plaza added to the experience. Trinidad is a beautiful community full of life and history. I will remember most the cobble stone streets, the horse ‘taxi’s’ and carts and the beautiful sunsets.
On our departure day we were ready and on the porch of our casa by 8:15 and our ‘arranged’ taxi never showed. By 9:00 we headed over to the bus station and got accosted by folks as we walked with our backpacks asking if we needed a ride to Havana. We ultimately ended up in a comfortable 1980’s van with 9 other riders. (25CUC’s/pp), and arrived at our Havana casa about 3 p.m.
timistravels 
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Hi Timi-Your Cuba blog was really interesting! One of my co-workers just got back and had a lot of the same things to say. Sounds like a true adventure for you guys and Harry looked awesome smoking that cigar! HA! HA! Happy New Year you guys!
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