Trinidad: A Town Like Truman’s World

I shared a ride from Havana to Trinidad for $35. It was an air-conditioned minivan 🚗💨, not crowded at all. Along the highway, I saw quite a few people holding 1,000 CUP bills (around 20 RMB) trying to hitchhike, but the driver ignored them completely—after all, us tourists were paying over 200 RMB each 👋🚫. We stopped at a service area for half an hour, where there was grilled meat and hamburgers 🍔🥩. The weather was scorching ☀️🥵, the highway was simple with few cars, and we arrived in the small town of Trinidad around noon 🏘️. It was May 1st, Labor Day. Hundreds of people were gathered in the small square chatting, not sure what they were up to 👥🎉. I wandered through them with my big and small bags, curious, then moved on 🎒👀. I had lobster for lunch, $12 🦞. Couldn’t tell if it was good or not—back home, I can’t afford it, and most restaurants aren’t honest. Heard it’s cheap in Cuba, so I ate it every day. A skinny cat kept staring at me and meowing 🐱; I dropped a handful of shrimp, and it wolfed them down 😋🍤. The homestay was $10 a night, found by a friend 🏡💵. It was a two-story country house, with the host family and their little daughter living downstairs. The room was okay, but there were frequent power outages—at night, the room got stuffy, and I didn’t sleep well 🔌❌🌡️😴. I’ve read online that Trinidad is like a real European town: cobblestone streets with uneven surfaces, pitch-black alleys at night 🌙✨, old folks sitting at their doorsteps in the evening to cool off 👵, kids kicking a ball sewn from rags down the road 👶⚽… a town that feels like it’ll stay the same for another hundred years ⏳. Trinidad has a few quirks: frequent power cuts (over ten hours a day) 🔋❌, spotty cell service 📶📵, small but pretty touristy 🧳. There’s a tour where you ride horses into the mountains, with a cave pool to swim in 🐎🏞️. I went with two friends—$17 💸, round trip took two or three hours (sitting awkwardly left my butt sore for over a week 😣). After horseback riding, we took a taxi to the beach, ate lobster, and swam 🌊🏊‍♂️. The sea was so blue, just looking at it made life feel beautiful 🌅. After eating, I went into the water, but my wounds stung a bit 🩹😣. Cubans love putting wire mesh at their doorways, sitting inside (from the outside, it looks like they’re in a cell) 🔒🏠. They do business like that too—goods laid out inside, people sitting behind the mesh selling trinkets 🛍️. We met a 58-year-old German uncle along the way: he’d been a military instructor, traveled to 120 countries worldwide 🌍, even knew how to fly a small plane ✈️, and was the only one in his family who’d gone to college. Now he’s with an Italian partner and lives there. He said he’d been to Trinidad two years ago. That night, five of us had a lively chat in a restaurant for ages—he talked about how tough the military was, everyone shouting, how he was poor when young, and only started traveling in his 30s 🗣️🍻. We went to the cave bar at night. The road was pitch-black; we used flashlights to see 🔦. We walked through a run-down village—hard to believe such a trendy bar was there. Entry was 700 CUP ($2) 🍹💸. We arrived at 12:30, stayed till 1 AM. The bar was quiet, everyone was stiff, not a single person dancing 💃❌. We left 🚶‍♂️. #Travel #Cuba #Tourism #Photography #Life