A Night Out in Trinidad

Last night we arranged to meet Dave and Diane at their Casa in Trinidad at 6.30 and go for a few drinks and a meal. We first met Dave and Diane in Havana on our first morning and we've traveled a similar route around Cuba, bumping into one another and having the occasional evening together. They are from London but regularly visit the Island and are well travelled.

We thought we'd get a taxi fairly quickly in La Boca for the ten minute ride to Trinidad and eventually found a beauty - a big old convertible Oldsmobile. He just had to drop of the couple in the car and he'd be back, well that's what it sounded like. So we hung around for awhile, and awhile longer and then a wreck of a local bus pulled up next to us and local Cubans seemed to appear out of nowhere and started boarding the bus. Come on, they beckoned, "One CUC!" "Trinidad?" I asked, "Si, si. One CUC!" So we got on, gave the driver two CUCs and we were on our way with the Saturday night crowd to Trinidad.

Street band - Trinidad

The bus was in party mood with bottles of rum passing back and forth and loads of banter. It stopped for ten minutes while the driver got off to chat to the local policeman and then he disappeared into a house, reappearing a few minutes later with . . . a bottle of rum. People got on and off, one with a good sized ladder which fitted nicely down the aisle, and so we bounced, lurched and rocked our way for a night out in Trinidad.