Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Prarie Fire That Wanders About- Sufjan Stevens

So this past weekend we went to Cienfuegos and Trinidad. Our last trip to Matanzas was so awful that I couldn't even blog about it, so we were all a little hesitant about it. Also, 5 hour bus rides are usually not fun.
Meg, Steph and I chatted on the bus ride through the beautiful country side. I always forget that Cuba has mountains. We get to our hotel right at dinner time (dinner at the hotel was pretty delicious), so Thursday night was just some food and some T.V.
Friday morning we got up earlyyyy and got on the bus to go to Palmira, a town about an hour away. Palmira is a center for santería in the western part of the country. Now, considering all of my classes talk about religion and santería and orishas and all of that, I had no desire to go to all of these cabildos (secret societies) and museums about santería, but apparently there were other plans. All morning we went from place to place and they were all fairly similar (read: boring). Then we had lunch and spent the afternoon on our own in the city of Cienfugos.


Don't we all look so excited? Foto de Honorio.

Cienfuegos was fun, we went into all the little stores, did some shopping, had some rum boxes, and then sat on the pier. The weather was beautiful and we all had fun hanging out.


I know I look really sleep and kind of angry, but I wasn't! I promise! Sitting on the pier. Foto de Meg.

Saturday we went to Trinidad, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. It's an old colonial town that's been preserved pretty well. The whole town made me sad because it is one big tourist site and not "authentically Cuban" as my film professor put it. But whatev, Sonya, Emma, and I walked all around the city, up these little residential seats. We ended up on the top of this big hill where you could look out over the whole city and see the ocean in the distance. Very pretty.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Valle de los Ingenios, where a lot of the old sugar plantations were. We had lunch on an old ingenio (plantation) which consisted of not very delicious ropa vieja. My mama makes better. Next to where we ate lunch there was a big tower with very scary steps/ladders all the way up (Whitney told me there were 108 steps in total). I don't know what the purpose of this tower was, but you could see the whole valley from the top and it was beautiful. After this, we took a drive throught the valley and went back to the hotel.


The contraption that they used to squeeze the sugar cane to get the juice in the olden days. Notice Honorio in the backround, so exhausted from squeezing the cane. Foto de Danny.


Valle de los Ingenios. Foto de Meg.

Sunday was a lazy day: sleeping in, some beach, some lunch, and then the long ride back to Havana. I love getting out of the city to see the rest of the country, but I always love coming back to the residencia. Maria, Milady and Chino are always waiting for us with hugs. It's so nice.
All in all, a good trip.
Sunday was also Daylight Saving Time! It's so nice because its still very light out after dinner, until around 8! I love it. Sorry Boston, but I do NOT miss your weather.

No comments:

Post a Comment