La Boca (Trinidad), Cuba

(I took this photo on the beach in Ancon near Trinidad)



Day 5 in Cuba


TAD and I were both sleeping horrible. The beds here pretty much all suck and the pillows are pretty bad too. I’m not used to “roughing it”. Our casa owners were great though. Nelson and Narcisa were great people. Narcisa was a great cook and her meals were the best food in Cuba. We never had a bad meal in her house. Anyone that is in Trinidad should at least eat dinner/breakfast everyday there.

We decided to go to Ancon early since it was sunny. The beaches are pretty good there. There were no Cubans there except some selling Pizzas on the beach and the one’s working at the hotel. Tad took a brief Salsa lesson. After a few hours we ran into HHG. She seemed to be everywhere we were. Trinidad is small so you can expect to bump into people you see. I guess she shared a ride to Ancon with some other backpacker types to save on taxi fare. She said taxi fare from Trinidad to Ancon was $8. We thought about avoiding HHG but I had a plan to use her to help us tonight with hooking up with girls again. It’s easy for a female to talk to the locals but problematic for the male tourist. HHG wanted to bum a ride back to town.

Tad and I planned to shower then head to Topes de Collantes for a side day trip. We heard good things about it. HHG asked if she could go with us. Sure. Why not? The road there was dangerously curvy but not too bad. We did see one car that went over the cliff and an ambulance was at the side of the road. There is a little rest stop on the way to Topes. Definitely stop here and walk up the stairs. There is an area where you can see the entire area. It had breathtaking views. We arrived at Topes and most of the hiking trails were closed since it was getting dark. I noticed the general population here was ligher skinned and more European looking. There were tons of kids walking home from school. Everyone looked happy.

We headed back to Trinidad. That night Tad and I had the best dinners of our trip. The dessert was fabulous too. We headed to Casa de la Musica to listen to the live music and scope out the scene. There were a lot more tourists out since it was a little warmer. The girls really didn’t do too much for me. A few cuties but few and far between. Tad spotted a cute blonde with a great body. Tad made eye contact with her but then she danced with someone. Tad and I were wondering if girls just come here to dance. The answer is no. The majority of the girls that are here are here to work. It might not be obvious and you may even think for sure a girl isn’t working. Some have good covers. One girl that was there said she was a professional dancer. She was an awesome dancer and in fact might have been. She was there with her “brother” who also danced. She was here every night and he always escorted her. We always would see them come and go and then later saw them in Fresca Chocolate looking for tourists. Just make eye contact with a girl and motion for her to follow you and you’ll be set. I was hoping to just meet some normal local girls but there were none.

TAD’s blondie was dancing and TAD and I decided to just walk around. Before you knew it the blonde was behind us a few blocks down. She was with a very ugly girl. The downside was we would often see a hot girl with an ugly girl. Many times they weren’t willing to separate. This was one of those cases. This girl made it clear that she“isn’t one of those type of girls” (i.e. prostitute -- which was fine by me). Then I asked her if she knew of a private place she and Tad could go to “talk”. She told me no. I made it clear that Tad wanted to see her but she kept trying to talk to me. She wouldn’t leave her ugly friend and Tad was getting frustrated and just wanted to leave. I was more patient and saw a more fruitful outcome.

I found a nice guy on the street and asked him if he knew of a private place to rent. He said yes. He was super cool and never asked for anything. The girl was still difficult and wouldn’t leave her friend. Finally Tad and I drove away. We went to Fresca Chocolate and when we came out she was there waiting with her friend. She was crying though. The Cuban guy helped us talk to her. The police came and parked right in front of the girls. I told the Cubano to tell the girls to meet us 2 blocks down around the corner. We waited and the blondie showed up. TAD was still frustrated but I told him we could make it work. There was no way I was going to leave with her ugly friend but I offered to hang out with them. We couldn’t bring the girls back to our casa so I suggested we just stop by our casa and grab some blankets and go to the beach. We went to the beach where I explained to the ugly friend that I wasn't interested in her but we should let our friends have fun.

The funny thing is TAD’s girl tried giving me a note with her full name, address, phone number, etc. I asked her why I needed this since my friend was the one interested in her. It was clear that she wanted to start some sort of long distance relationship with a tourist. The ugly girl was very offended that I shunned her. She wouldn’t even get out of the car. There was no way I was going to sit in the car with her so I grabbed my blanket and layed it on the beach and rested while Tad was with her new girlfriend. It was funny because Tad’s girl came over to me at first. I told her to go back over to Tad. I think she was a little frustrated that Tad couldn't speak Spanish.

I couldn’t fall asleep and the sad thing is that the rocky beach didn’t feel much different than my bed in my casa. It was awesome on the beach. It was so dark and the stars were so bright and you could hear the ocean waves crashing on the rocks. I was a real trooper. I waited until
Tad yelled that he was ready to leave. I think we were there over an hour or so. It was late by the time he was done. Maybe 3:30 AM. He called me over and I asked him if he was ok. At first he said, “not good”. Then he explained it was fine but that he couldn’t concentrate. I guess the girl he was with was lactating. She claimed to have a 2 year old but I guess she was still breast feeding. He said at first it was a novelty but it just kept gushing out and I think it freaked him out. He had milk all over him. I was dying laughing. We had to drive the girls back to the ugly girl’s house in Trinidad. It was funny because the girl now gave TAD the note with her info on it. I wondered to myself how many times she gave out this information. She never asked for any money or anything. I think she just wanted the chance to meet a nice guy. TAD gave her about $25 and she never even looked at it and sort of seemed surprised. She simply said for him to write her and she walked away. We were cracking up the whole way back to La Boca. I was calling him the Milk Man. The first thing Tad did when we got back home was take a shower.