This morning, we head to the breakfast buffet right as they open. It’s pretty well stocked – and there is an omelet station too. But it’s funny – the chef puts the eggs on the skillet and you tong in any fillings you want! Guess that saves them from any language barrier (because this place is full of Europeans, making language a little dangerous!). As we are sitting there our waitress (who brings us coffee and water and busses the table) brings me a cute little shell necklace and a pretty hibiscus flower. Aw….
…of course everyone gets one, but we don’t find that out until later, so we feel special!
Meet in the lobby, back on the bus. But today, we are taking a train ride up to the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the sugar cane growers). The train ride cost an extra 10 CUCs each, but all of us except the “Sisters” go for it! As we approach Trinidad, Julie gives us the history of the town. In 1840, there were 45 sugar mills around this area and the town thrived. The rich sugar plantation owners settled the town, but by 1890, only 4 sugar mills remained and the town stopped developing. It’s now called the Sleeping Beauty, and an UNESCO National Heritage site since 1988.
Trinidad is now a tourist hub, with only 45,000 residents, some of whom we’ll hopefully be meeting when we explore the town later this afternoon. For now – it’s to the train station where we will catch our steam engine train!
This is the train station! We’re all expecting some big old ornate Colonial building and a proper station, but no – here it is! Complete with the horse drawn carriages and horseback riders traversing the road.
Oh yeah, and the old cars….
And here’s Ed and the group in front of the bus – waiting for the train. Osmel wouldn’t leave us until we were physically on the train, the train was physically moving down the tracks and he could watch us wave goodbye to him! (Apparently, the train sometimes doesn’t go as scheduled!)
And here’s Robert up on the train platform….
He’s traveling with Sigrid – and at this point – the only 2 people we for sure know their names and don’t have any nicknames! Sad, but true!
Oh, and there’s the pig in the back of the cart that, well, he didn’t want to get into that cart. He knows where he’s going..this is a pork fat rules kind of place. Sorry Porky – it’s lunch or dinner for you!
As we wait on the platform, we end up talking to a Canadian couple who has been traversing the island for a week or so. They are staying in a Casa Particulare (bed and breakfast) in Trinidad and are loving it (including a new drink the owners of the B&B make for them: Canchanchara – Lime, Honey, Rum and Ice…hmmmm). They’ve been to Vinales (which is at the Western end of the island and supposed to be beautiful) and are traveling around everywhere by bus. It definitely makes us long to be able to travel freely here – so much to see and do – we would absolutely love to be able to come on our own. We can only hope that one day…..
After a pretty long wait – sort of like Island or Mexican Time – we finally troop off down the tracks (yeah, we’re not really using that platform there) to hop on our special train car!
This will be fun! Except – we’re not hooked up yet. Just sitting here – and there – next to us on a completely separate track is the steam engine…hmm….
…apparently they are having trouble with the steam engine, so we will get a regular diesel engine to take us up into the valley. Oh well. The saving grace is that we DO get the bar car! No malfunctions there!
We’re on our way – complete with music – of course! A guy and his guitar – oh and plastic eggs filled with sand that Maggi goes to town with!
The train ride takes maybe an hour or so – through incredibly beautiful, fertile country. Verdant fields, cattle and horses everywhere, and I mean everywhere, including on the track, next to the track – they are everywhere. Along with little villages that we ramble past on our way to the valley.
A couple of videos give you an idea of the fabulous scenery we enjoy as we make our way into the valley.
It’s a totally fun way to get to Manaca Iznaga, the restored sugar planation where we will be having lunch.
The tower is 45 metres high (148 feet) and was the tallest structure in all of Cuba until the Revolution Square monument was built. Of course we’re climbing! It’s only 1 CUC, and it’s not that tall, just maybe a little rickety. The the views are all the reward we need to make the climb up the steep ladder like staircases.
Back down from our climb, we exit the tower and I feel a splash. Darn! They are painting the tower and I’m splashed with paint. Yikes! Of course, all over my favorite pink shirt, my hair, my purse – I’m polka dotted! Oh well, what can you do? Fortunately though, it appears that it’s not oil based paint, but more a whitewash, because it comes off my purse pretty easily with a little water. Phew! Maybe my shirt will be saved!
Next of course, we’ll need to be saved from the vendors. Well, not really, they are pretty tame. We buy a bunch of those seed necklaces (10 for 1 CUC) and Ed gets his Guayabera ($10 CUCs). Yay!
Inside we go to the Mansion – for lunch outside on the back porch and it’s …. PORK! Finally! A pig roast!
I am in hog heaven (LOL)! The meal is awesome, cucumber and tomato salad to start, the pork (yummy) and then some odd candied fruit and cheese for dessert – the cheese was good – fruit – better left on the plate (at least for me!). Of course, the lunch is accompanied by a band and singing.
After lunch we all go outside for a picture on the porch. While we are waiting, a vendor asks Maggi for a cigarette. She gives him one and he gives her a little cricket, handmade from leaves. He also gives her one of his bracelets! Then he hands us a cricket too. The picture below (right) shows Steve organizing our photo with the cricket maker standing behind him, (left) the cricket. (PS – we don’t think he liked the cigarette very much, he threw it out after a couple puffs! Probably too light for him.)
Next our group picture…
Then back out past the pretty flowered bushes and on to the bus…
..my vendor lady is waiting for me past the bushes. “Do you remember me?” Of course! Follow me to the bus! She does, along the way telling me she needs the soap for her 2 boys, one is 8 years old, one is 18. They both play sports – and something about her oldest boy does something that has to do with ancient Greece. It’s all in Spanish, so I’m roughly translating here! At any rate, I give her soap and some toothbrushes and a pack of razors and we both go away happy.
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