Cuba - Trinidad - Part 3

I spent my final day in Trinidad horse riding to the Valle de los Ingenios. The recommendation in the Lonely Planet was Julio at Casa Muñoz, but he only cares for the horses; the actual people who organises the tours are at Yoel casa. They charged $26 in total, which was about $10 more than the touts at Plaza Mayor, but I was happy to pay that little bit more for a helmet (none of the other tour groups had one) and for good care of the horses.

And it was actually really fun. I've never ridden before and it took some getting used to. For most of the 4 hours my horse Apache seemed to just decide to speed up when he felt like it, without any warning. It turned out he and the other fellow horses (there were 3 other girls in my tour group) were quite competitive and when one goes the others will follow, without any input from the riders. Having a backpack with me didn't help either. At one point when Apache was racing the others I thought I was going to fall off. I held on to my dear life, and was extremely thankful for paying the extra for the helmet.

Then we had a stretch of clear road before we got to the waterfall and we all galloped - it was incredibly exhilarating. It was also much more rhythmic and easier to ride than when he was just trotting along. Absolutely loved it. 

The waterfall was really crowded so we decided to only stay a little while to give more riding time.

I spent the afternoon in the Museo Histórico Municipal, now that it had been fumigated. The rain didn't come that afternoon but from the top of the tower of the museum you could already see a torrential downpour from a towering raincloud coming in from the coast. The sun happened to be setting next to the tower. It was an incredible sunset. Wished you were here :)

Verdict

For me Trinidad was full of opposites.

The romance of the pre-19th Century cobbled streets; and the streams full of horse shit and whatever else running through them.

The tranquility of the colonial town centre and Plaza Mayor at sunrise; and the deafening noises of the tour buses, the tourists they carry, and the touts that prey on them.

The proud casa owners who earn $25 per room per night from their inherited beautiful neo-classical French architecture in the centre of town; and the old people who live on their own in their dilapidated poverty-strucken houses and take only $10 in monthly pension, sometimes only two blocks away.

For me Trinidad has lost its authenticity; or perhaps everything I saw was actually at its most authentic. But it wasn't how I imagined Cuba. The hassle one gets from touts offering casas, taxis, horses, tours -the list goes on - was incredible, and more than anywhere else I've experienced in Cuba, including Havana. If flocks of tourists and equally numerous touts are not your idea of fun, then don't bother with Trinidad. That said, there are plenty of variety of things to do here to keep you busy for at least 3 days.