Photos of Trinidad, Cuba, Founded in 1514

Published January 11, 2016 | By Elizabeth Weintraub

Woman at Taberna La Canchanchara in Trinidad, Cuba

Along the 4-hour drive from Havana to Trinidad, Cuba, I asked our guide Sergio where the prisons are. Primarily because I had asked if a bus that passed by was carting prisoners but it turned out to be public transportation. That got me to thinking about prisons in Cuba. Oh, they are everywhere, he said. In their cars, walking along the road. What? Cuba lets its prisoners roam free without being locked up? After a bit of confusion, it turned out he thought I had asked where the persons are. And yes, there are prisons.

Sergio speaks excellent English, much better than we can even attempt to speak Spanish. There is not a lot to see along the road to Trinidad, at least not until you get a couple of hours away from Havana. Mostly sugar cane fields, and there is a shrimp farm, as evidenced by a large shrimp at the entrance. When you order shrimp in a restaurant, they are called “shrimps.” Which makes sense because although giant shrimp might be an oxymoron, hardly anybody eats just one.

The streets in Trinidad are mostly cobblestone, and most of the renovated buildings are in the public square. It’s a Spanish city, nestled between the Escambray mountains and Caribbean Sea, (discovery credited in 1514 by Conquistador Diego Velazquez de Cuellar).

Trinidad is home to the National Museum of the Struggle Against Bandits, which is a little creepy as an American when you realize that the bandits are the CIA-sponsored counter-revolutionaries. The woman inside the museum spoke limited English, but she was very clear about what happened to many of the people noted in the exhibits when she raised one finger to her throat and quickly sliced through the air, sporting a glint in her eye.

My favorite bar in Trinidad is the only one we stopped at to enjoy a drink. The drink is called Canchanchara, with the accent on the second syllable. Go ahead and try to say it very fast 3 times. It’s served in a clay cup and made with lemon juice, honey, soda water and aguardiente — which is a raw rum, like moonshine is to whiskey. A group of teenage girls were trying to drink it without stirring up the honey and making all sorts of sour faces, so my husband shot a few photos of them, only to be followed outside by the father and interrogated about intentions.

Below is a video of that tourist group leader (we think that’s who he is) who grabbed the stage to perform a song we all know in Spanish, remember the movie Arthur? Part of the appeal of this video is the organ player’s cringing facial expressions watching this guy sing:

Followed by another video of musicians who had planted themselves under a shade tree in Trinidad’s public square: