Cuba - Lonely Planet [241]
Paradiso has incorporated a number of interesting courses into its cultural program including Cuban architecture (CUC$20), Afro-Cuban culture (CUC$30), artes plásticas (visual arts; CUC$30) and popular music (CUC$30). These courses last four hours and are taught by cultural specialists. They require a minimum number of six to 10 people to take place, but you can always negotiate. At the same venue there are guitar lessons for CUC$5 an hour and courses in Spanish language/Cuban culture for CUC$8 an hour.
Tours
With its sketchy public transport and steep road gradients (making cycling arduous), it’s easiest to visit Topes de Collantes via a day tour. A tour to Topes de Collantes by state taxi shouldn’t cost more than CUC$25 with the wait time; bargain hard. Cubatur ( 99-63-14; Antonio Maceo No 447; 9am-8pm), just outside the casco histórico, organizes a variety of hiking/nature trips from between CUC$23 and CUC$43 per person depending on the excursion. Also available are horseback-riding tours to Ranchón El Cubano.
Paradiso has the best-value day tour to the Valle de los Ingenios, for CUC$9 per person, and an artist-studio tour in Trinidad for CUC$10 per person.
If you’re staying in a private house, your hosts will usually know someone renting horses. Julio Muñoz, proprietor of Casa Muñoz
Click here, is a horse whisperer who specializes in the humane treatment of animals.
For diving, fishing, sailing and snorkeling tours, see Playa Ancón, Click here; any of Trinidad’s agencies Click here can organize the same excursions.
Festivals & Events
The three-day Fiestas Sanjuaneras in the last weekend in June is a local Carnaval where rum-fuelled horsemen gallop through the streets: take cover. The Semana de la Cultura Trinitaria (Trinidad Culture Week) is during the second week in January to coincide with the city’s anniversary. Semana Santa is also important in Trinidad and on Good Friday thousands of people form a procession.
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ASK A LOCAL
If you choose to go horseback riding around Trinidad, be sure to check the condition of your horse and equipment first. Some of the illegal guides offer horses in a poor state of health, which is not only cruel for the horses, but dangerous for the rider too.
Julio, Trinidad
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Sleeping
Trinidad has approximately 400 casas particulares and competition is hot: arriving by bus or walking the streets with luggage, you’ll be besieged by hustlers working for commissions or by the casa owners themselves. With so many beautiful homes and hospitable families renting, there’s no reason to be rushed. Take your time to shop around.
IN TOWN
Casas Particulares
Mireya Medina Rodríguez ( 99-39-94; miretrini@yahoo.es; Antonio Maceo No 472 btwn Simón Bolívar & Zerquera; r CUC$20-25; ) Right in the center of things, Mireya is a popular dance teacher who rents out one room with private bath in her well-kept colonial house. Expect excellent dinners, hospitable service and plenty of salsa in the front room.
Casa Muñoz – Julio & Rosa ( 99-36-73; www.trinidadphoto.com; José Martí No 401; r CUC$25; ) Julio is an accomplished published photographer who runs workshops and courses out of his stunning colonial home (which has been featured in National Geographic). He’s also a horse whisperer – his beautiful mare lives out back next to a slightly less attractive Russian Moskvich. There are two huge rooms here, but book early, it’s insanely popular.
Casa de Victor ( 99-64-44; Maceo btwn Piro Guinart & P Pichs Girón; r CUC$20-25; ) If Casa Muñoz is full you can keep it in the family down the road at Victor’s place, where two self-contained upstairs rooms share a couple of spacious salas, a balcony overlooking the street, and a fine terraza decorated rather ingeniously with recycled ceramic pots.
Odalis Valdivia González ( 99-33-09; Callejón Smith