After a few days in Havana we hired a taxi to take us all to the town of Trinidad, which is about 5 hours east.  We were picked up by the oldest red Range Rover you’ve ever seen.  It was brilliant.  We all piled in, with our bags tied to the roof and set off on the road to Trinidad.  It was a beautiful drive, going through the country side and seeing animals hard at work in the fields.  However, about halfway there our range rover came to a halt.  Our driver pulled over, opened the hood, and all the boys gathered around to inspect and comment on what was wrong.  A rubber tube was produced in an attempt to make a temporary fix and after about an hour on the side of the road, which we did not mind at all, we were off again, but slowly.  We made it to a village a few kilometers away, where the correct part was found.  It was then a speedy and bumpy last few hours to Trinidad.

If we thought we were going back in time when we arrived in Havana, it was even more apparent when we arrived in Trinidad.  The white and colour washed buildings were beautiful, as were the cobble stoned streets.  Horses with carts were everywhere.  The Casa that we wanted to stay at did not have enough room, so we were sent to a family member.  At first things went well with our host, but took a downward turn when we wouldn’t use her taxi services (the price was ridiculously high!).  Note that our Spanish is not top notch so we were in a lot of confusion.  However, things seemed to mellow out eventually, but a big note to self to always check tripadviser before deciding to stay anywhere.  We still enjoyed our time in Trinidad and spent one of the days out at the beach, chilling under umbrellas, and eating really cheap pizza.

We also spent a day horse riding.  We were pretty excited to do this but were a bit disappointed when we saw the condition our horses were in.  So we kept them to a walk as much as possible, until our guide started whacking the slower ones to hurry them along.  We tried to tell him to stop, but unfortunately much was lost in translation.  It is clear that people in Cuba do not have the same respect for animals that we do at home.  It is a completely different culture, and animals are seen as workers, not pets.  However, we still managed to enjoy our day, it was very hot and we rode to a waterfall with a nice cool pool at the bottom of it.  It was great to swim and relax and to give the horses a bit of a rest.

A really fun thing to do in Trinidad is to visit Disco Ayala.  It is a night club in a cave!  The cave system that it is located in is amazing, so probably a club is not great for cave, but where else in the world can you party in a gorgeous cave?  We loved it.  Just ask anyone in Trinidad where it is and they will point you in the right direction, or just follow all the stalls selling mojitos!  A lot of salsa dancing was done all night.

The boys also managed to tee up a local game of football with some of the locals! Needless to say, they were definitely outclassed.

Our time in Trinidad had come to an end and it was time to hop into another vintage car to make our way to our next stop in Cuba.

Here is a breakdown of our costs for 3 days:

Budget = US$423 (NZ$600)

Accommodation – US$67.50

Activities – US$45

Food/Drink – US$138.50

Travel (incl. Taxis) – US$68

Total spent – US$319 (NZ$443)

So we were US$104 (NZ$145) under budget. Going out and drinking in Trinidad is much cheaper than Havana, and we also bought cheap bottles of rum to drink at our Casa, instead of ordering cocktails all night.