Cienfuegos y Trinidad

If you’ll remember, the last weekend trip we went on to Matanzas ended up being agonizing, to say the least. Thus, with great apprehension we boarded the bus on Thursday afternoon to head for Cienfuegos and Trinidad. It was a long bus ride (about 5 hours), so Thursday ended with dinner and some Arrested Development.

Friday morning we boarded the bus early to head for Palmira, a center of santeria activity here in the country. We were dragged to god knows how many different cabildos, or societies, for different orisha-saints (here's Saint Barbara to Catholics, or Chango to Santeria creyentes). As not much was said, and they were all fairly siminlar, this was not an auspicious start to the weekend. Once we finally hit lunchtime, things improved greatly. The afternoon we had free in the city of Cienfuegos, and instead of doing a lot of tourist-like activities, we basically just milled around in one of the markets and then sat down on a pier to gossip about the boys. It made it quite an enjoyable day. My camera wasn't working well, so I have no pictures to show from Cienfuegos.

Saturday, though, was my favorite. We started out for Trinidad, which I was really excited to visit- it’s a UNESCO world heritage site, and we all know I’m a history nerd. Trinidad was gorgeous, it’s on a hill and you can see all the way down to the sea. All the buildings are quaint and old and painted in such Caribbean colors, and if you look behind the city you can see the mountain ranges. The only thing I must say against it is that there’s still a lot of disrepair; it’s a little like a poor man’s Santo Domingo- it has the potential to have that same level, only it’s not kept up as much. The other thing I wish I could show you in pictures was some reconstruction that I saw happening- only the material they used to brace the external structure wasn’t even cut wood; they were using actual trees. Granted they had hewn off the leaves, but it was the still-barky trunk of a tree holding up the restoration of an old church. Oh, Cuba.

So as soon as we arrived in Trinidad we basically had free time to do what we wanted. After spending time in an artisan fair, we then went to try the famous drink of the region, a canchacharra. Made of honey, water, and aguardiente, it is potent and dangerous. And so delicious. After three of those, well, we can just say the rest of the day was lots of fun. Our lunching spot had a huge tower that we were able to climb to see the countryside, which was more or less part of the Valle de los Ingenios, or the Valley of the Sugar Mills- an area where a lot of the old sugar plantations were concentrated. Following the tower excursion we made one more stop at a lookout point over the valley. It was beautiful. I keep looking at the photos I took and thinking that it is so perfect in a way that it looks fake. Interesting contrast considering the history that occurred there was so ugly. I’m a little disappointed; I thought we were going to visit an old plantation and talk more in depth about what actually happened, but I guess that wasn’t to be. All in all, though, it was a really fun and interesting day.

Hilarious Update: I did forget to share one fun moment of the trip, which was me poppin' a squat by the side of the road on the way home from Cienfuegos. Apparently we were over 70 kilometers away from the next rest stop...good times. So I hiked up over the bank by the side of the road and tried to hunch down behind a little hill, much to the amusement of the rest of the group, who was watching me from the van. So much fun.

Reflection of the Day: One of the Northeastern questions that we are supposed to answer is regarding advice to future students. Mine? If you come here, you’re going to feel guilty. All the time. Because of the advantages in life that you have that people here don’t and won’t, at least for a while. And if you don’t feel guilty here (even though you are conscious on another level that you’ve done nothing wrong), you are the coldest person ever.