On Tuesday morning we had breakfast with Fiona and the new couple from NYC who were on their way home. Eric and I felt as if we've seen most of Trinidad so we asked Fiona for some ideas on what to do. She advised us to hire a car to take us to a couple places outside the city. But before that she said there was a cool abandoned church we hadn't yet seen, so we started walking that direction.
Of course I had to take photos of the "hustle and bustle" of the streets of Trinidad along our walk!
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| Curbside shoeshine |
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| The color of the uniforms indicate what grade the students are in |
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| Veggie bike |
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| May I come inside? |
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| Cuban Elvis! |
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| We found this BEAUTIFUL ceramics shop. I meant to go back the next day to buy some stuff but forgot! |
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| Keeping it colorful |
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| Buying tortillas |
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| Beer delivery |
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| There was always water in the streets and women were constantly pushing it out of their homefront with a broom |
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| Cigarette factory - and it smelled SO awful! |
Then we found the church that Fiona had told us about. It was really pretty - I love crumbling architecture. And there was a horse tied up out back as well.
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| Church from the plaza |
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| Horse on the left |
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| I love the cutouts on each side |
At this point Eric and I hired a taxi to drive us to
Valle de los Ingenios, or Valley of the Sugar Mills. Our first stop was Mirador del Valle.
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| Up the stairs to a gorgeous view |
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| Puppies and chickens |
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| View of the Valley |
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| Sugar cane press | |
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| Sugar cane |
Interesting note, at this point I was used to bathrooms with no seats and little to no toilet paper; but this one had them all beat! There was no handle to
flush the toilet!
After I squatted and drip-dried! Yeah, I was pretty happy to get to a US airport toilet! LOL
Our next stop was Sitio Arqueologico San Isidro de los Destilades, which was a former sugar mill and distillery.
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| Old Baobab tree |
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| Our guide mentioned a man living in the tower and then this little guy popped up! LOL |
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| Original tower clock |
Our driver next took us to Manaca Iznaga, another former sugar mill plantation with an even more impressive tower still standing.
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| The Iznaga Tower, built in 1816 |
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| Linens for sale along the walk to the tower |
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| View as we climbed to the top |
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| View of the Valle de los Ingenios |
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| Looking down |
Once we had explored the Valle de los Ingenios, our driver took us back into Trinidad where we spent the remainder of the afternoon just walking around and having mojito's and cervezas.
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| We stopped at another cigar shop and may or may not have purchased more cigars! |
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| Dominos |
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| Hood ornament |
We found ourselves at
Bistro Trinidad which had a rooftop terrace. We ordered a light snack and Eric smoked a cigar - it was a perfect afternoon.
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| We had the rooftop to ourselves |
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| So, this lady was hanging her laundry on her rooftop... |
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| To get up there, she climbed the ladder behind the red clothing, sat her laundry basket on the small tin roof, got on the rooftop, and grabbed her basket. |
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| Cigars, bruschetta, cerveza, and rum ~ Cuba! |
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| In the neighbor's yard |
Next we walked to Casa de la Musica where I found some curly-tailed lizards playing!
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| People listening to some live music |
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| Fun band |
We then walked back to Casa los Mangos to get changed for dinner. Puppy was still waiting to be let inside!
As we set back out for dinner we had a beautiful sunset.
We went to the most popular restaurant in Trinidad,
La Reduccion, where we had obtained a reservation the night before.
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| Artwork in the front entry |
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| They had the biggest bathroom! WITH toilet paper! |
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| And a tub/shower! |
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| Fiona assured me this was the best Pina Colada ever - and she was SOOO right! |
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| Appetizer of bean dip, hummus, and tomatoes |
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| Eric got the lamb burger |
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| I got the seafood risotto |
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| And then there was dessert! | | | |
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We had plans to go to the beach the following day - our last day. And Fiona and Ossiel were cooking a big dinner tomorrow night. So we knew this was likely our last time in the city. It was a great ending to a wonderful day exploring Trinidad.
“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck
“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid
the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
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