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Departing Habana just after 8am we arrived in Trinidad at 1.30pm where our hosts: Mariella and Sergio (M&S) were waiting for us at the bus station. Cary had telephoned ahead to let them know that we were on our way - they're part of the "network". M&S are a young married couple, about our own age, M is a dentist in a country hospital and S a waiter at a tourist restaurant in the mountains. Having hooked up outside the bus station we walked back to theur neat house near the centre of town. Once we'd settled in we walked back to the main plaza to explore the very scenic town with colonial buildings and cobbled streets.
A few individuals in Trinidad made their wealth from their sugar plantations and built themselves grand houses to reflect their status. We visited one of the plantation houses which has now been converted into a museuam and climbed its tower to admire the view over Trinidad to the Carribean Sea and the mountains behind. The whole area has a tropical feel but is thankfully cooler than Habana. The house belonged to a German owner who it is alleged poisoned the original owner, married the widow and then dealt her a similar fate.
In the early evening we headed back to the casa for dinner and met some friends of M&S who are also staying in the area: Paul (from Belgium) and Omara (from Cuba). They are in the process of setting up a catamaran sailing and diving business in the Trinidad, unfortunately they're having a few problems with Cuban "red tape". They both speak perfect English and Paul speaks good Spanish, so the evening was spent chatting, drinking beer and rum and at around midnight the dominoes were brought out - we watched learnt and went to bed early to avoid certain defeat.
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