Cuba Day 4 - Nicho Waterfalls and Trinidad

Before heading further east to Trinidad, we toured the further reaches of Cienfuegos.  Below are two U.S. Mafia homes from the 50's. 

We passed some Russian era apartment buildings.  Just gray cement.

Here is a sample of the "new" style apartment buildings.  Still made out of cement, but some decoration and balconies.

Our last stop in Cienfuegos was at the Tomas Acca Cemetery. 

The entry gate is a replica of one in New York City per our guide.

The cemetery was created to bury and honor those who died in the Revolution.

The two men buried in the tombs below were honored Cubans.

Then on to the country side!  This was one of Livan's favorite billboards.

No sign for this sheep crossing.  Even these animals look like goats they are short haired sheep.

Just in passing - local political signs.

These people are drying coffee on the side of the road.  You sweep it to get rid of the waste an to turn it over to dry on all sides.

Farms along the road while driving through the mountains of Escambray.

Elementary school.

Not all, but a lot of small towns have hot spots.  We stopped in this small village to catch up on the Internet.  Livan would create a hot spot on his phone which we could tap into without using the minutes on our cards.

Maybe if you ride a horse you are a big shot in a small village.

And then on to the Nicho Waterfalls.

We stopped for lunch at the Nicho Waterfalls restaurant - along with 4-5 bus loads of cruise tourists.  So we had to wait.  So I took photos of the local fauna.  Not sure the kind of flower - but very pretty.

There were a lot of philodendrons.  I have grown them myself in pots in the house.  Never have I achieved the size of these leaves.  These plants were wound all around this tree way up to the very top.

After our lunch - I had roast chicken - which was very good especially for a government restaurant - we had our Mojito demonstration.  Mint (not muddled), sugar, 3 year old rum and sparkling water.

We continued our drive through the mountains of  Topes de Collantes and ending in Trinidad.

We saw lots of these types of signs.  The whole country is voting on changes to the constitution.

Because we did not swim when we were at the Nicho Waterfalls, we arrived in Trinidad in plenty of time to take a walk around town before dinner

There was a "Cultural" event going on on one of the plaza's.  People selling cheap trinkets, food and alcohol abounded.  There was loud music from a local radio station.  Kids dancing below and trying to catch the bubbles the man in the plaid shirt is blowing.

This boy really got into the groove of the music.  He was up on a platform all by himself.  No one seemed to be watching, but he was having a good time.

Neighborhood kids.

So many countries we have visited have all the wiring going every which way.  But this has to be a new record for number of wires connected to the same junction.

These ladies are waitresses waiting for customers.  Livan told us the use of the bars on so many windows were relates back to the time when women were not allowed outside of the home.  They would sit in the front windows - not able to get out - but at least able to see what was going on.

Our home stay in Trinidad had a roof top terrace.  I will only post a few of the many pictures I took of the sun setting.

One side note about the frying of meat.  For one meal I asked for fried chicken.  I was thinking I would get chicken that was breaded and then fried in oil.  No - there is no breading here.  They just fry the raw chicken in oil.  It was pretty dry.  

We were to get one dinner from our host in Trinidad.  What do you want?  How about fried fish!  Apparently it was a major ordeal to find the fish in the market, but when he did, he bought about 10 fish for Mike and I.  And Wilfred fried them all while we watched.  Mike took pictures so you can go to his blog for food porn fotos.  Wilfred did a great job frying them - they were delicious.  But I only ate one and I think Mike ate 2.  I hope the family ate them instead of feeding them to the pigs!  But I got the impression that eating fried fish is just not done in Cuba.  I think Wilfred is a "wanna be" chef.  He made enough food for 20 people.  There were only three of us as Livan ate dinner with us.