Cuba Now: 1st Surprising Cienfuegos & Trinidad
- 9 years ago
This is part one of our February 2015 “Cuba Face–To-Face Cultural” tour of Cuba. 1080 HD video, stills and sound were captured on location in Trinidad and Cienfuegos Cuba.
After flying into Cienfuegos from Miami the night before, on Saturday February 14th we are driven by tour bus to the Cienfuegos Botanical Gardens. The Gardens feature an excellent selection of cared for indigenous and transplanted trees and plants preserved in as close to a natural environment as possible. Our guide at the Gardens is Hildi, a biologist trained at the University of Havana. Afterwards we re-board our bus and head about 50km further west along Cuba’s southern. i.e., “Caribbean coast” to Trinidad. Trinidad is said to be the finest colonial town on the island. In the early 1800s Trinidad had 56 sugar mills and was the greatest producer of refined sugar in the world. Its rich merchant family competed and built impressive homes and public buildings, most of which still stand though they are owned by the government. Today, like Cuba, Trinidad’s first “industry” is tourism. We visit Trinidad’s cathedral. Then we have very good lunch and more music at a privately operated restaurant (called a Paladar). We get back on the bus and head back to Cienfuegos’ shopping district in time to join the “parade” promenading on Saturday afternoon. We go into a well stocked store accepting both tourist currency, “CUCs” and Cuban pasos and purchase a bottle of rum. An explanation of Cuban’s duel currencies is given.
We would be pleased to respond to comments or questions to the best of our ability. Best way to reach us is via our email regular email: tony@guidaproductions.com.
More of our videos are on this channel. They can also be found at our creative website: www.guidaproductions.com. There you will also find some of our poetry, art, fiction and more.
After flying into Cienfuegos from Miami the night before, on Saturday February 14th we are driven by tour bus to the Cienfuegos Botanical Gardens. The Gardens feature an excellent selection of cared for indigenous and transplanted trees and plants preserved in as close to a natural environment as possible. Our guide at the Gardens is Hildi, a biologist trained at the University of Havana. Afterwards we re-board our bus and head about 50km further west along Cuba’s southern. i.e., “Caribbean coast” to Trinidad. Trinidad is said to be the finest colonial town on the island. In the early 1800s Trinidad had 56 sugar mills and was the greatest producer of refined sugar in the world. Its rich merchant family competed and built impressive homes and public buildings, most of which still stand though they are owned by the government. Today, like Cuba, Trinidad’s first “industry” is tourism. We visit Trinidad’s cathedral. Then we have very good lunch and more music at a privately operated restaurant (called a Paladar). We get back on the bus and head back to Cienfuegos’ shopping district in time to join the “parade” promenading on Saturday afternoon. We go into a well stocked store accepting both tourist currency, “CUCs” and Cuban pasos and purchase a bottle of rum. An explanation of Cuban’s duel currencies is given.
We would be pleased to respond to comments or questions to the best of our ability. Best way to reach us is via our email regular email: tony@guidaproductions.com.
More of our videos are on this channel. They can also be found at our creative website: www.guidaproductions.com. There you will also find some of our poetry, art, fiction and more.