Trinidad, Cuba

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World Heritage Site
Trinidad - a fine, half-preserved town on the south Cribbean coast. Not sure what I was expecting, but this was a surprise; small, immensely peaceful and virtually no tourists...there are beautiful, ornate Portuguese-style houses, surrounded by wrought-iron grilles, sitting quietly on sunny empty streets.
Walk past an open window and you'll see a still-life: an old rocker, wood smoothed over decades and decades of use, waiting for someone to warm it...a tiny market full of lace and cobbled streets full of people who smile rather than talk - none of the hustle and stridency of markets the world over...

It was founded in 1514 by Valazquez and the architecture is a strange - but wonderful - mix of Moorish and Baroque (if that doesn't sound too bizarre!) a town of teracotta roofs and shaded arches. But its history belies the stillness: built on the sugar trade and slavery, in places, it's an evocative echo...

Since I got back, Trinidad flashes through my head - living in London, I would probably choose to re-live turquoise seas and white beaches if I could, but instead, it's the grocery shop with packed shelves and jars of bright vegetables and the mustachioed man behind the counter in his long white coat I remember, or the lazy, tinny trickle of water that dropped into the bowl of a stone fountain in an almost empty courtyard...what a place...

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Photos

Fantastic building
...on the corner - one of many in the town. I love it

Old Ranchero again
He didn't seem to be going anywhere and would have been quite happy to pose all afternoon....

Plazuela del Jigue
The site of the first Mass ever held in the town. There is normally a tree here, which was being replaced.