Cuba - Lonely Planet [237]
TRUCKS & TAXIS
Trucks to Trinidad, Jatibonico and elsewhere depart from the bus station. A state taxi to Trinidad will cost you around CUC$35.
Getting Around
Horse carts on Carretera Central, opposite the bus station, run to Parque Serafín Sánchez when full (one peso). Bici-taxis gather at the corner of Laborni and Céspedes Norte. There is a Cubacar ( 32-85-33) booth on the northeast corner of Parque Serafín Sánchez; prices for daily car hire start at around CUC$70. The Servi-Cupet gas station (Carretera Central) is 1.5km north of Villa Los Laureles, on the Carretera Central toward Santa Clara. Parking in Parque Serafín Sánchez is relatively safe. Ask in hotels Rijo and Plaza and they will often find a man to stand guard overnight for CUC$1.
Return to beginning of chapter
TRINIDAD
pop 52,896
Trinidad is special; a perfectly preserved Spanish colonial settlement where the clocks stopped ticking in 1850 and – bar the odd gaggle of tourists – have yet to restart. Built on huge sugar fortunes amassed in the adjacent Valle de Ingenios during the early 19th century, the riches of the town’s pre–War of Independence heyday are still very much in evidence in illustrious colonial-style mansions bedecked with Italian frescoes, Wedgewood china, Spanish furniture and French chandeliers.
* * *
VíAZUL DEPARTURES
* * *
* * *
THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
To the experienced motorist, Cuba’s arterial Autopista is no ordinary freeway. Home to vintage Buicks, grazing cattle, onion sellers, hitchhikers, hovering vultures and the odd runaway steam train or two, the road – originally designated to stretch from Pinar del Río in the west to Guantánamo in the east – comes to an abrupt halt at Jatibonico in Sancti Spíritus province after 650km of badly paved purgatory.
Financed with Soviet money during the 1980s, construction of the island’s ambitiously planned Autopista Nacional barely got beyond the halfway stage thanks to the ignominious fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1991 and the resulting demise of Cuba’s once-illustrious superpower patron.
Indeed, so sudden was the Soviet pullout that, even today, lane markings remain unpainted, slip roads end in sugarcane fields and an odd assortment of half-finished bridges dangle like crumbling beacons above the surreally deserted eight-lane highway.
* * *
Declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1988, Trinidad’s secrets quickly became public property and it wasn’t long before busloads of visitors started arriving to sample the beauty of Cuba’s oldest and most enchanting ‘outdoor museum.’ Yet tourism has done little to deaden Trinidad’s gentle southern sheen. The town retains a quiet, almost soporific air in its rambling cobbled streets replete with leather-faced guajiros (country folk), snorting donkeys and melodic guitar-wielding troubadours.
But, ringed by sparkling natural attractions, Trinidad is more than just a potential PhD thesis for history buffs. Twelve kilometers to the south lies platinum-blond Ancón, the south coast’s best beach, while, looming 18km to the north, the purple-hued shadows of the Sierra del Escambray offer a lush adventure playground.
With its Unesco price tag and a steady stream of overseas visitors, Trinidad, not surprisingly, has an above-average quota of prowling jineteros, though mostly they’re more annoying than aggressive. If you get worn down by the constant unwanted attention, head for a friendly casa particular in the small town of La Boca, 5km to the south, and bike or hike back in for the day-time and evening attractions.
History
In 1514 pioneering conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded La Villa de la Santísima Trinidad on Cuba’s south coast, the island’s third settlement, after Baracoa and Bayamo. Legend has it that erstwhile ‘Apostle of the Indians’ Fray Bartolomé de las Casas held Trinidad’s first Mass under a Calabash tree in present-day Plazuela Real del Jigúe. In 1518 Velázquez