Cuba Day 6 Cienfuegos, Trinidad, and Sanctus Spiriti
Day 6, Monday. This is mostly a travel day. No lifers today and few birds at all aside from caged Bullfinches and Mockingbirds. We first stop for an hour in Cienfuegos so the driver can get gas. While he does that, I explore town and encounter my first hustlers and beggars. I also find the first non-tourist shops where regular Cubans shop with pesos instead of CUCs.
Then it’s on to Trinidad for lunch and a little sightseeing in the city, which is the prettiest city we’ve seen so far. After a rum drink I really shouldn’t have had, and then some ice cream helped along by the inhibition suppressing affects of the rum (low carb in Cuba is not easy), we decamp for Sanctus Spiriti.
In Sanctus Spiriti we have an interesting meeting with Abel Hernandez, the director of the Alberto Nunez Jimenez Foundation at the Museo del Natural History.
Then it’s off to our hotel, the Hotel Los Laureles, for the evening. As we’re sitting down to a nice buffet dinner, a Quincenara kicks off at the Karaoke disco next door. I’ll say this for the Cubans: they sure know how to throw a party.
Despite the lack of birds, it’s an interesting day overall–I’m glad I got to see Cienfuegos, Trinidad, and the Museo del Natural History; but the overnight in Sanctus Spiriti is wasted time. We should have driven on straight through to Camaguey, which instead we won’t reach until tomorrow afternoon.
