Never say never. 

We went to see the waterfalls at Leaping Caburní. Mode of transportation? Horse. Now listen, I’ve never been on a horse and never thought in a million years that I would be. But I did it. And it was cool, although my whole body was aching terribly afterwards. I’m not gonna lie though, I felt like the horse was tired of carrying my little ass along with my backpack and hefty ass camera. I just wanted to give little Negrito a break (that was his name, it means ‘bold’ in Spanish). I felt so bad after we were already hours into our journey. All I could think about was how did they train these horses to be so obedient and calm at the luxuries of tourists who come to the town to ride them? How come they have numbers branded on their bodies? Eh, something about it just didn’t sit right with me. No shade to Trinidad though. 

So after that long, hot, exhausting journey, we returned back to the airbnb. It began raining, thundering and lightning. We had made plans to go to a place called Casa De La Musica until boom! The lights go out. Not just the lights in our airbnb but the whole damn village! I’m talking pitch black. All the neighbors’ dogs went to barking in distress. All commotion lasted for about 5 minutes. Know why? Because they all quickly adapted. Just that easily. And leave it to us spoiled Americans, we thought the generators were going to kick in. But they never did, because they are nonexistent here. Here’s to humbling experience #3.  

Not that there was much internet access before; we definitely didn’t have access to it now. We were forced to be detached from our phones (aside from recording the experience) and were left with the option to communicate with… (wait for the kicker)… EACH OTHER. That’s unheard of in this day and age with the ever-so-booming advances of technology back in the first world. But guess what - we made do! Break out those uno cards (thank God we brought them with us) and come see me, bro! After two or three rounds of uno, I made the suggestion that each of us write 5 questions on a piece of paper, rip them up, and put them in a hat. We each had to answer those questions truthfully, no matter how bizarre, deep, or personal they got. And trust me when I say, it did! Lol 

Uno

it was a different version of uno so we had to read the directions lol

throwing questions in a hat

For the next hour or so, we got really wrapped up into “the question game” until voilà! the power came back on. What did we do? We continued to play that damn game! The power ended up going out again for what was probably another half hour. We played the game until all the questions were asked and answered, then to bed we went.

This experience alone was the most humbling and I’m sincerely grateful that it happened. It needed to. It forced us to come together and bond. Though it lasted for approximately 2 hours, it forced us to be stripped of our normal first world luxuries where things happen for us at the click of a button! For the few hours we were without lights, in a town where we did not speak the native language, or know our right from left, we had to make do. That’s the theme of Cuban culture, period. They just make do! And I think as visitors, we did a damn good job of doing the do too. 

Once we got settled into our airbnb in Trinidad, one of the host’s walked us around town and showed us to a great restaurant where we were greeted by yet another exceptional english-speaking Cuban man who said his name was Jamie Foxx. Lol, in case you were wondering why…

Therrrrreee’s Jamie

Later that night we met up with our host Yanier and his crew of friends to party at a place called Disco Ayala otherwise known as a nightclub in a cave. Where they do that at?! Cuba obviously. We descended into a cave filled with neon LED lights, a disco ball, and four huge projector screens displaying the music videos of the song that was currently playing. I’d never seen anything like it! Yanier and his friends showed us a great time and they literally did not stop dancing. Not once. I’d never seen any man’s hips gyrate as much as theirs did, but I digress. I learned a bit of salsa and I also instantly forgot how to. We were drenched in sweat and my feet were on fire. Our first night in Trinidad turned out to be a good one!

Our next stop was Trinidad (a town in the province of sancti spiritus, central cuba). 

We got us a taxi which would take us 4 hours to reach town.  I don’t have many exciting stories about the car ride there, but I managed to get some pictures as we passed through Old Havana on the way.  A lot of them were taken from inside the car so excuse their blurriness. 

So 4 hours and few pit stops later, we arrived in Trinidad - the complete opposite of the vibrant city that was Havana. You should have seen our faces as we rolled into the town and witnessed the unpaved dirt roads, roosters running amuck, and houses so close together you could arm wrestle with your neighbor. Not only were we not in Kansas anymore, we were now in the country honey and what felt like the “middle-of-nowhere.” Here were 5 city girls unbeknownst to how we were going to manage in this rural setting for 3 whole days. My phone didn’t even have service when we first got there, Jesus take the wheel! (or in this case, take the horse’s reins). 

As the saying goes, though: NEVER EVER judge a book by it’s cover. Our stay in Trinidad would be the BEST and most fulfilling out of all our airbnb experiences in Cuba and I’m the most grateful that we all got to face it…together. 

More fun details on Trinidad in future posts…