3/31/2016
Cobblestone roads blocked off to cars, streets full of souvenir vendors, houses full of artwork—Trinidad was quite the experience today. Awfully hot and awfully dusty, we spent a few hours mid-day roaming from the central square (Plaza Mayor) outwards, along quiet streets interrupted by the occasional horse-drawn carriage. An old, two floor colonial building on the southeastern edge of Plaza Mayor houses a Galería de Arte, our first stop. High ceilings on the second floor provide ample wall space for artwork to be hung, and a walk along the wrap-around balcony provides a bird’s eye view down several cobblestone streets, and a great view of Plaza Mayor’s signature sight: el Iglesia Parroquial de la Santisima Trinidad (Trinidad’s signature church).
From this view over the plaza we spotted out next destination: a high yellow building topped with a bell tower jutting out above the old, flat rooftops around it. We went for the view and found a museum—el Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos, which displayed info and memorabilia from the counter-revolutionary forces that had tried to organize in the Sierra del Escambray (mountains) in the 60’s. A climb up this old building’s bell tower here gave us a grand view of the entire city, flanked by shadows of those same mountains all along its west side and the Caribbean Sea lining its southern border off in the distance.
Soon it was time to go. Cienfuegos is about two hours west along the coast from Trinidad, and the road skirts right along the Caribbean Sea. Where the road stays straight and the coast bends inward, long tall bridges take you right over the sandy beaches kissed by waves of crystal clear water. To the North is the Sierra del Escambray, making for perhaps the most beautiful drive I’ve ever been on. We stopped in the middle of nowhere for the best lunch of the trip (fresh fish!), and after the next bridge we passed over we pulled off the road and down the path–towards a beachside bar and a little under-the-bridge slab of Caribbean beach paradise. We sipped on pina coladas as we dried off from a swim in the salty sea. Spring Break isn’t so bad.
3/30/2016
On Christopher Columbus’s 2nd trip to the New World he “discovered” what today is called the Bahia de Cienfuegos—the Bay of Cienfuegos. After a home cooked breakfast of delicious fruit (pineapple, guava, papaya, bananas), bread, eggs cooked however we liked, delicious fruit juice and (of course) coffee, we put on our bathing suits and lathered up in sunscreen. A one-minute trip down the road got us to a dock and soon enough we were filing onto a boat that perfectly fit our group of 14—all ready to sail out onto the Bahia de Cienfuegos–Cuba’s third largest bay.
The sky and water mirrored each other with their vibrant shades of blue as we chugged along across the bay. There was no clear skyline in the distance, but rather the blue skies melted to grey as they blended towards the forest line. As this haze thinned out the mountaintops hidden beneath appeared, and could be seen creating a long, jagged boarder between the ground and the sky. We stopped at an inlet where a couple natural springs trickled into the water—the perfect place to swim because the jellyfish keep away from the fresh cool water that enters the bay here.
Jumping right off the boat (docked basically on top of a mangrove patch) we explored the shorelines a bit. Undeveloped, like most of bay’s border, there was hardly a meter or two of rocky sand separating the water from the lush, deserted forest around it. Swimming out deep and taking this entire inlet in was a surreal experience. Facing the shore, I was in the inlet’s center, floating in calm, cool water. Vibrant green filled my vison looking forward and to my left and right; behind me was an almost endless stretch of calm water reflecting the lazy, white clouds above it, with the royal blue silhouettes of the mountains far off but ever-present in the distance.
If only I could take a little slice of this place with me wherever I go. For now, just the memory of the tranquility and clarity of these floating moments will have to suffice.
