Hotel Club Amigo Costa Sur Trinidad

We arrived in Trinidad and were driving around looking for a place to stay when a young guy came up on a bike and told us his mother had a casa. We asked how much per night and decided to take a chance and go with him, although we later discovered that it wasn't his mother, he was just a scout looking for business and the rooms were actually 5 pesos more than he said. But they were lovely and had a rooftop view as well so ...

... 25. Now the challenge is to pack it without it turning into klibutz. For the uniformed, klibutz is what happens when you put 10 pounds of **** into a 5 pound bag. I keep forgetting to put my pen in my pants pocket because when it is my shirt pocket someone is always approaching me to have it for their kids. Unfortunately my gold and silver Parker set me back too much to give away. Next time I'll bring a pack of Bics for the kids. Incidently, my Bic lighter attracts quite a ...

... it was shifty Aunt Jemima that made me want to move on to La Boca. So I've decided that I'll cut my stay here in Playa La Boca by a day and spent 3 or 4 days in Trinidad leaving 2 nights for Havana. It turns out that the owner of Casa Jenna, the place I will be staying in Trinidad, speaks English and has family that live in Lancaster. She says that the family come to visit her occasionally so I have found a way to get needed parts to Julio when Jenna's family comes to visit ...

... districts. Though superficially interesting, it's more naïve than art, especially if they think I'll buy it, analogous to the street musicians here who can't play their instruments and the poseurs with their cigars and heads full of flowers posing for tips. I suspect mass-production and the hiring of 'local color' to peddle it. They're parasites on the true musicians and artists who deserve to be seen and heard. So there, I said it. Hopefully I'm wrong.

... 71 cigars and about a $100 later we were ready to leave with our newly acquired purchases in hand. Kisses all round to seal the deal as though we'd all been friends for YEARS!!! Shady toothless lady also managed to wangle one of my hooded tracksuit tops out of me (I couldn't understand why you'd want that in this heat and humidity so wasn't too sad to see it go). She was ecstatic about it, so at least she scored something out of the deal. More space in my backpack for the newly acquired goods.<br>

... 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 ...

... that we are interested in Arthur Askey and Charles Haughtry by issuing a series of NHS spectacle retospective postage stamps, then when all are looking the other way, we will unveil the Theatro Tomas Terry upon an unsuspecting world, affirming our rights over one ...

Met two nice english gals on the bus who fed us and we talked into coming to trinidad. Arriving in Trinidad we were ambushed by casa owners, so assuming there'd be no problem gettin a casa we fought our way through and went in search, actually we sat on the road while 4-5 guys went running making phonecalls and such! Eventually a really sound rasta called "America" sorted us out with a casa for 15cuc (about $15USD) per room for all of us. The casas were nice and to sweeten the deal ...

... for the birthday of Jose Marti. Instead of school, all the kids in town don costumes -- elaborate South American dresses, military greens (complete with drawn on moustaches) -- and march through the streets to Parque Cespedes for chanting, speeches and games. I knew nothing about Marti before this event, but his life is fascinating: a Cuban nationalist exiled for most of his life, a writer of kids books and political theory, a critic of both Spanish rule and ...

... hike to a waterfall, Salto del Caburni, which was pretty cool, but none of us were game enough to go for a swim. We got absolutely drenched on the hike back. The heavens opened and there was no hiding! When we made it back to the town we started from, the clouds had lifted to reveal a macabre ghost down. There were about fifty identical houses, painted in different colours. It had an Edward Scissorhands feel to it! Later on I finally managed to score my percussion lesson, which was great.