Costasur Trinidad

... nahegelegenen Strand machen. Nachts v**wandelt sich die Stadt dann in ein kleines Netz aus v**schiedenen Musikshows, und auch hi** koennen wir wied** die Meist** des Salsa beim Huefte-schwingen bewund**n. Durch die warmen Temp**aturen geht die Party unt** freiem Himmel bis spaet in die Nacht, und die Stimmung ist sup**.

Am letzten Tag machen wir uns auf zum Strand, d** kaum ...

... ended up in pretty long conversations with the artists regarding their work and their techniques. Not unlike the genius of the Cubans to keep things running forever, they use many natural sources of colour such as coffee and earth to paint with, not to mention the recycled beer cans and weather pitted boards carved into amazingly creative personas of the life here. Some are just beyond my budget at 1000CUC but many oils or acrylics are available for a reasonable price ...

... but for 1CUP, or less than a nickel, the locals are stopping for a quencher all day. I bumped into my Italians friends at the stand and bought them a glass since I had some moneda national. I met an older couple near the Guanabo stand with their touring bikes. They were from Holland and have been touring Cuba by bike/bus for the past month. They were very well equipped with an illegal GPS on the handlebars. They have been doing this for the past 15 years and told of their ...

... That food is subsidized by the government, which means the blood sweat and tears of the populace. But those high prices are made with subsidized food, too, remember, meaning everyone's subsidizing the new capitalists. Why not help the tourists a bit too? Good prices are a selling point. I decide here and now that if trade with Cuba is liberalized, I'll become a trade-show geek one more time just to promote their handicrafts... but I ...

... Additionally, we would hate to have bought these cigars in Cuba as gifts only to have them conviscated. Silly maybe, but I really wanted to buy Cuban cigars in Cuba. My concern wasn't really the risk of losing out on the money spent on them in the event customs decided to hold onto them. The solution to our problem, we thought, was to chat to someone with an unbiased opinion.

Though Carlos' opinion would've been great, the language barrier was somewhat of a problem so ...

... for, being served dinner and breakfast alone and treated like a king in her own home feels a little weird for me. I meet a dutch family on the street that I'd seen at the Inglaterra hotel and spend the following day riding horses around the valley with a Swiss family. Feeling part of the traveling community again, I have the courage that evening to go to the local bar alone and chat to people, which is where I meet Robbie and Noel from Ireland, my drinking friends for the night. I spend ...

... the most deviously Latin English comics of all time....') Unfortunately, there was no plot, only a Cuban industrialist called Tomas Terry, who had the theatre built. We drove on to Trinidad. The deeper we travelled into the heartland of Cuba, the more rural it all ...

... had to have dinner (which is where they make their cash!) we had to move around a bit but not too far and all nice. The first day n trinidad we went to the beach and went out on a catamarange (¿?) to go snorkeling on the coral reef, it was small but there were a huge amount of fish!! and was well worth the trip, later we drank more ron and went to the cave nightclub which looked cool but was a bit sleazy and we were wrecked! The next day started slow and was lost because we could ...

... site of today´s Marti celebrations) has its own slower, more typically Cuban pace. Even with the newly renovated Iberostar Grand Hotel along its north side, the place is nicely lacking in tourists like me. Several times over the week, I´ve come out of the modern, air-conned Etecsa Internet office and experienced a sudden jolt of displacement, stepping into a quietly bustling street of horsedrawn buggies and vendors, all kissed by the glow of a warm tropical evening ...

... like it would continue to improve.

I spent the afternoon wandering around the beautiful UNESCO town, taking some great photos. After dinner I met Lee and Pailin for a few beers at the Casa de la Musica. This soon turned into a MASSIVE night! After a while we found a guide in Pepe, who took us to a house party that had it all - Mojitos, a Salsa band, locals, and a chevy parked in the backyard! Fantastic! When this wound up we went to Palenque, another salsa bar in the centre ...