Mission: Wee-Fee

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I was excited to be on our way to Trinidad. Everyone I know who had been to Cuba raves about this town. The journey to Trinidad took about 1.5 hours. We arrived around 1pm and we had lunch on the terrace of a family home in town. After lunch, Tony took us to our guesthouse, where we were shown into a large, garish bright pink room. The room was very comfortable, and that made up for the pepto bismol decor.

After a quick rest, we met Tony for a walk around Trinidad. This is a pretty town. It is more gentrified than Cienfuegos, and, like Vinales, quite a few houses double as guesthouses. Unlike Vinales, though, quite a few residences also double as restaurants or souvenir shops. During our walk along the cobblestoned streets, we visited craft stalls, climbed a bell tower at the Plaza Mayor, and visited a Santeria shrine. The Santeria shrine was the most interesting part of our afternoon. It was dedicated to Yemalla, a deity of the sea. Santeria is such a poorly understood religious practice, and I was glad I got a chance to attain at least a superficial understanding of it.

When we departed Cienfuegos, little did we suspect that it would be our last reliable internet connection. As I had previously mentioned in my Havana blog, the sim cards we purchased were pretty much useless (mine worked better than Jeff's, and only in Havana and Vinales; Jeff's didn't download anything despite having a 3G connection). There isn't a meaningful data network in Cuba, and the best way to connect is to purchase CUC 1.50 cards that each buy you one hour of wifi (pronounced "wee-fee" in Cuba) at a hotspot. After the walking tour, we had some free time. Jeff and I headed to one of the two wifi hotspots in town - the one at Parque Central - to try and get online with our wifi cards. Jeff got online but I didn’t. There were quite a few wifi zombies at the hotspot, so I guess the hotspot was overloaded. Interestingly, neither Jeff nor I noticed that our access to news sites was curtailed whenever we got onto the wifi networks. But then, we weren't searching for articles on Cuba.

After that frustrating experience, we headed out to dinner at a very good restaurant called San Jose. My seafood paella was extraordinary and it more than made up for the bland and underwhelming vegetable paella I ordered the night before at Cienfuegos. After dinner, four of us went to the wifi hotspot at Plaza Mayor, but none of us could get online, probably due to the sheer volume of people at the hotspot. We then made our way down to the Parque Central hotspot and we all got online with some effort, but with varying degrees of success as three of us got kicked off the wifi several times. I gave up after a while and amused myself by strolling around the square, looking at all the wifi zombies, and watching in amusement as a male dog kept harassing a female dog into mating. We named them Harvey and Ashley, after the headline of the day (as in Weinstein and Judd... too soon?). Ashley was having none of it. She was more interested in chasing cars and she ran after every car that passed the square. Poor Harvey didn't know whether to join in the car chasing fun or keep trying to seduce her.

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The next day, we hiked for an hour out to a waterfall at Parque Cubano Natural Park. The payoff at the end of the hike was a 15 foot waterfall. We enjoyed swimming at the swimming hole at the waterfall. Jeff swam into a cave with stalagmites and stalactites and bats living in it. I gave that cave a miss because I'm not a strong enough swimmer to battle the currents coming from the waterfall. Jeff went off to look for places to jump. He disappeared for a while and caused Tony a bit of worry. Tony looked at me and saw I wasn't concerned, but he still went looking after Jeff.

After the hike, we had lunch in town and rendezvoused with Jeff Sr. and Peggy (they skipped the hike) to go to Playa Ancon. Playa Ancon is a very pretty white sand beach. The water was warm and clear. Good thing the water was clear, as I managed to check myself before nearly stepping on a stingray. It would not have been a good thing if I had stepped on it. Jeff tried to find snorkel gear to rent, but to no avail. He thought the water salinity was high because he usually sinks when trying to float, but not in this body of water.

After the beach, we went back to freshen up before heading out to dinner at a local house owned by an Australian woman and her Cuban husband. It was interesting to chat with Fiona to get her perspective on life in Cuba as an outsider. The night sky was clear, and I really enjoyed staring at the many stars in the sky. We don't get to see that many stars in Honolulu because of light pollution.

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Photos

Bell Tower
View of Trinidad and the surrounding hills from the bell tower.

Typical Trinidad Street Scene
This is Calle Colon, looking uphill from our guesthouse.

Parque Central
Wifi zombies trying to shield themselves from the afternoon heat. After dark, many more come out.

Parque Cubano Natural Park
Jeff diving at the waterfall.
Photo credit: C. Wireman.

Typical Chairs in Cuba
Almost all the chairs I saw were made of cowhide. I took this photo at the home-based restaurant we ate lunch at when we arrived in Trinidad. The proprietors looked on amused as I photographed their chairs.

Pottery Workshop
A 1914 car at the workshop.

Our Guesthouse
I wasn't joking when I said that the rooms were very pink.

Our Guesthouse
Our handsome canine host. I cannot even begin to imagine how hot he must feel all the time. We witnessed him humping a tiny dog.

Our Guesthouse
Looking downhill. Our guesthouse is the pink one on the right. Other members of our party stayed in the green one adjacent to it.

Trinidad Street Scenes
This residence doubled as a handicraft/souvenir store.

Trinidad Street Scenes
Craft and souvenir market.

Plaza Mayor
Note the hardy wifi zombies braving the midday heat.

Comments

[RENanDREW]

Wee-Fee
I'm glad you explained what Wee-Fee was, as I assumed it had something to do with paid public toilets! We almost take wi-fi for granted when we travel now, as even the most out of the way places seem to be able to offer it in some form; but I guess this is a whole different sort of country. Trinidad is so picturesque! Love the colourful streets.

[Siewch]

Wee-Fee=Paid Public Toilets
Haha good one! We’ve gotten too used to staying connected while traveling, for sure.

[alex waring]

Mission Wee-Fee!
Lol, I guessed what the title of this blog entry would be referring to! I have often been on a "Mission Wee-Fee" in some far-flung destinations! I don't think I've been quite so unsuccessful as you guys have been in Cuba though, sounds tough!