After a long and relaxing night’s rest, we woke up ready to see one of the most beautiful cities in Cuba- Trinidad!  We woke up at 8:00 a.m. so that we would have time to shower and eat before meeting our group and loading ourselves back into the van.

We ate breakfast with our new found Swiss friend.  Breakfast started with a refreshing glass of guava juice.

A small cup of funky tasting coffee and milk..

For my main course, I opted for the tortilla, a.k.a an omelet with nothing in it.  The menu was as follows:

• Tortilla
• Tortilla with cheese
• Tortilla with ham
• Tortilla with cheese and ham
• Guava
• Guava with cheese
• Mango
• Mango with cheese
• Bread
• Bread with cheese
• Bread with ham
• Bread with ham and cheese

I thought that was amusing, but hey, I was happy to have a break from oatmeal!

Look at the baby dollop of ketchup!  I think ketchup is hard to find in Cuba.

When we finished eating, we headed back to the room to collect our bags. Before loading into the van, we made sure to snap a photo of our group!

We meandered our way through a couple more hours of Cuban country side, making a quick stop at a pottery store with really beautiful work.  The people who owned it had their house literally attached to it and we could see right inside.  During our trip, I was continuously amazed by the way that the Cuban people do creative things to earn some money and to be able to survive.  We saw one man in La Habana Vieja that was using strips of palm leaves and weaving them into hats and other figures.  He gave me a cricket 🙂

Check out the car they had stored in one of the rooms!  The cars in Cuba are old, but this one is ancient!

We eventually arrived in Trinidad!  Before we did any exploring on our own, we each had a canchanchara!  Try saying that five times fast!  A canchanchara is made with water, ice, lemon, honey and raw rum.  Mom and I opted to have ours without rum.  It was too early for that!

I want to try making those at home.  In the restaurant, there was a band and a man making Cuban cigars.

Once we finished our drinks, we were given an hour to explore the city and take in the sights!  We enjoyed walking around, stepping inside the beautifully designed buildings and taking photos.  We spent most of our time exploring Plaza Mayor, the town’s peaceful main square.  The square is surrounded by a number of impressive buildings, many of them are museums.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Poor piggy!  And poor man that stood there for hours, rotating that poor pig.

Once our hour was up, we reunited with the group and headed to lunch at a very pleasant, open-air restaurant.  The food was good, they had a Cuban band playing and the ice cream was incredible, but there were a lot of flies flying around us.  Lunch started with chopped lettuce, tomatoes peas, and corn.  I was happy to see green vegetables!

For my entree, I ordered the grilled fish, which came with a boiled potato, more salad and rice.  Everything was great, besides the one shrimp on the plate.

The best part about the meal was the mango ice cream!  It wasn’t like any ice cream I’ve had in Cuba.  It wasn’t icy and tasted like real mango.  Two bonuses. I scraped every last bit out of the bowl.

Once lunch was finished, we said our goodbyes to Trinidad and made the four hour drive back to Havana.  The city is beautiful, but the journey was brutal!

A few shots from the ride home…

For entertainment, I took photo shoot (and a video!) of my mom sleeping because I thought it was hilarious.  I think she would be angry if I posted those…

The van driver drove us all the way to Yolanda’s, even though he only needed to drive us to the Capitol.  People in Cuba are so friendly!  We returned home around 6:00, right in time for dinner with Pepe and Yolanda.

The usual- Rice, beans, chicken, and salad.

Ice cream and “cake” for dessert.

The perfect ending to a wonderful trip.  I fell asleep right around 9:00 that night, but happy at the thought of spending our last three days with Pepe and Yolanda and staying right around “home”.