Trinidad

Last weekend I took my first trip out of the Havana province with my friends Joe, Jon, and Kelly. We ended up having a driver take us in his van to Trinidad, a town about 5-6 hours away on the southern coast of Cuba. The ride may not have been the method most suggested to tourists, but I wouldn’t say it is uncommon in Cuba and worked very nicely for us. And driving through the countryside we were all very excited. There is really one main road that goes all the way across Cuba, so we also got to drive through some other major areas. At one point three of us were all trying to take photos from the car of tractors driving by, or people on bikes or horse drawn carts or bus stops full of people. I now have over a hundred photos of blurry scenery or objects outside the car, but just the challenge of getting the photo is exciting. At one point I was just so excited that the sky was the blue a sky should be, and the dirt was the red/brown/orange dirt should be and the greens tied the landscape together perfectly.

My one major comment on the trip was about the amount of cows vs. pigs we saw. Now there are a lot of cows in this country, that I have now seen journeying. I did not see a single pig, however, now with my deductive reasoning skills, I do not understand why it seems that there is only ever pork or ham to eat…

A tree we passed in a field also stood out to me. At first glace there was no way this tree was alive, as it was practically parallel to the ground. It almost looked like it should be some kind of important crooked staff with really cool grayish bark. A good deal of the root system was also showing, but some of it must have still been working, because the end of the tree was starting to grow toward the sky again and had young bright green leaves starting to open on it. I also have taken this tree that looked like it shouldn’t have been alive, yet beautifully was, for a metaphor.

In Trinidad, we ended changing the Casa Particular we were staying in, but it went relatively smoothly and oddly enough the owners of the house we were leaving seemed more friendly as we were departing for a different house, than when we had arrived there. Trinidad is a beautiful city, with houses full of color and cobblestone street, this may be due to the fact it is extremely touristy.

After settling in we walked back into the historic district and climbed a tour to see the late afternoon light over the city. From the tour you can also see the water that is about 15-20 km outside the city. Again I was in photo heaven and we spent the rest of dust walking around the town and listening to wonderful music performed on the street. In a lot of ways it was the romanticized Cuba that was always in the back on my mind when preparing for the trip. We had a lovely dinner in the back courtyard of a home, at a Paldare (Paldares are restraunts run out of peoples homes, some are run illegally). It was a lovely spot and great meal.

The evening was filled with music. As it turns out one of my best friends here, Jon, happens to know a ton about Cuban music and Santeria and Santeria music. All of this knowledge came in handy to the group as we starting the evening with an Afro-Cuban music show and we discussed the traditional influences and Santeria influences in the music. (Santeria is an Afro-Cuban religion, that was begun by slaves desiring to practice their native religion under a Catholic Spanish colony rule, and they incorporated their Gods with Catholic saints to make it acceptable. That is really way too brief of a summary, but hopefully it will do for now.)

After the first show we walked halfway down the block to the main steps of the plaza and heard another show outside the Casa de Musica of Trinidad. The last song they played was actually about six of the Santeria Gods and they had dancers for each part of the song. The actually ceremony process goes through more of the Gods in greater detail both musically and in dance, but as it was a show- it was in no way the religious ceremony. I have mixed feelings on using a sacred ritual to entertain tourists, but this happens to many traditions throughout the world.

Then we ended the evening at a Trovas bar about a block away that played traditional Cuban and traditional folk Cuban music. The music was absolutely wonderful, but I think the highlight was watching the dancing, most notably the 8-month pregnant woman dancing at one in the morning with the skill of everyone else on the dance floor and beautiful grace. She was absolutely stunning and probably the best dressed of the evening, again at 8 months pregnant in the middle of the night.

The next day we went to the craft market, where I still did not buy anything, but tried to help talk through with the guys good gift ideas for their girl friends. (We are also returning to Trinidad with the whole group and our culture professors for Easter weekend, so I knew I would be back if I really wanted something and it was something I could actually try to get home.) And we went to a Santeria house/temple to Yemaya (Goddess of water).

After the sunset in the city the night before we decided to go to the beach in the late afternoon and stay till sunset. If Trinidad had not already felt like a vacation, the beach definitely sealed the deal. And we ended the day at a club inside a cave. Not only was this an experience, because we were inside a cave, but also because the music would shift from English to Spanish songs and from salsa to techno and some stuff in between on about a 6 song rotation. Meaning the group of good dancers would change depending on the song. I however looked at many people’s feet and realized there was no way my feet could do all of that, without being brought up in Cuba.

Trinidad truly was a vacation from Havana, with tremendously less people and the historic part is walking only. Unfortunately one of my friends got sick early the next morning and we had to figure out a plan of how to find him some Dramamine and find our driver in the morning to make the ride back. We were a very good team and he was trooper along the bumpy Cuban roads all the way back. (He is now doing better and has been to the doctor) Unfortunately in terms of sickness one of my other friends from UNC who stayed in Havana broke her foot this weekend, or really if she puts any weight on her foot is in danger of breaking it. For the time being she can’t leave her bed until the next check up in two weeks and only people that live in her residence have the access to the rooms. For now she is being very strong, but in about two weeks she has to decide whether she has to go home or can stay her to heal. Hopefully we will find a way for the AU students to be able to go upstairs in their residence and see her. If not I need to start writing her so very funny jokes.

All in all Trinidad were great and this weekend we have a day trip to Las Terrasas. Also we are supposed to meet with the head of the US Interest Section on Friday. And tomorrow we start a music unit in our Culture class, not that three weeks on architecture wasn’t great. Actually there are some good stories from architecture classes, so maybe I will sit down to write about classes soon.

Hope you are all well! And don’t worry Cuba celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8th.