cuba: valle de los ingenios and playa ancon

There are several reasons Trinidad is one of the more popular cities for foreigners to visit in Cuba. One of them is because it isn't too far from the capital city of Havana. Another reason is because the city center is Unesco designated. A third reason is because it is surrounded by other areas visitors want to see.

The third reason was the most important reason to me. I wanted to visit two areas near Trinidad: the Valle de los Ingenios, and Playa Ancon.

I showed up at the tour office in Trinidad to meet up with others in my tour of the nearby Valle de los Ingenios. 

As it was a small group, we were all put into a van. The driver had the aircon on full blast, which felt amazing to all of us.

The van took off a few minutes late, a little after 9am; the guide gave us the basic overview of what we would see on the tour. She also told us a brief history of the area.

The Valle de los Ingenios is the reason Cuba had wealthy people for quite a while. The name translates to Valley of the Sugar Mills. The sugar industry brought a lot of money to the country, especially to the people that owned the plantations and slaves.

The first stop of our tour was at a place where the tour company hoped we'd spend a bit more money. No one in my group did so, I think we were all backpackers. If we'd wanted to do so, we could've ridden a zip line with a lovely view over part of the valley. I like zip lines, but I'm always amazed at how much they cost.

A bit further down the road was our second stop: a former plantation. San Isidro de los Destilerodos is no longer a functioning sugar distillery, but the hacienda (master house) is being rebuilt. I'm not sure how I feel about rebuilding a place that has fallen into ruin, but its never my decision to make. We walked through the house, there is nothing in there right now except the clothes of the workers. Even though it was the home of a wealthy family there wasn't a lot of space, not a lot of privacy. I hope they had some sort of air circulation back in the day, because that house would've been crazy hot without it. The slaves had horrid living and working conditions, I don't know how they survived. 

This plantation would've been worked by slaves, who lived in housing on the property. We saw the ruins of the slave housing, each family was in a rather small room. The foundation stones are all that are left of the slave quarters, I don't know if those will be rebuilt as well.

In the middle of the property is a tall bell tower. We were told that the overseers would climb up the tower to keep watch over the slaves as they worked. We didn't get to climb up the tower on this plantation, I don't know if it is allowed.

Our guide pointed out a big tree in the middle of the property, it was used in religious practices for the slaves. The roots were huge! 

Our guide also pointed out various ruins around the property; the distillery, a storage area, etc... Since all you see now are a few piles of bricks, it's hard to imagine what used to be there.

Our next stop was FULL of tourists. Called Manaca Iznaga, it was another sugar plantation. This one was bigger than the first one we visited, the main house is now a restaurant. It's possible to have lunch as part of the tour, but no one in my group chose to do so. (Again, we were all backpackers, and not keen to spend money on things we didn't want or need.)

To get to the sight itself you have to walk through a gauntlet of vendors, many of them selling various pieces of embroidery. I really wonder how many people buy from these vendors, as I found walking through it all rather uncomfortable. Each person was trying to catch my attention, to get me to buy something.

There is a trapiche out behind the house, it can still be used. It isn't used to produce something, but does give visitors an idea of how some of the work on a sugar plantation is done. Slaves or horses walked in circles to keep it going.

The bell/overseer tower on this plantation was also bigger than the first one we'd seen. This one was open for visitors to climb, it's about five stories tall. Each flight of stairs to get up was rather narrow, not allowing people to go up and down at the same time. In other words, each person got stuck waiting a couple times while the stairs cleared of people going the other way. At the very top the view is really nice, over quite a bit of land.

The last stop of our tour was back in Trinidad. In addition to the wealth of the sugar plantations, this area is supposed to be known for ceramics.

We stopped to visit the gallery of a well known family in the industry. We got to watch the head of the family make a clay pot, it was neat to see how fast and how well he did it. There were plenty of objects to buy, but no one in my group bought anything here either.

After this last stop our van brought us back to where we'd started in the morning.

I liked my tour, though I wish we'd seen more former plantations in the area, and stopped in a couple more places for general views of the valley. I didn't like the stops that seemed geared toward getting us to spend money. I hate those kinds of stops on a tour.

The next morning I was up early again, I packed up my bags and moved everything back to Suzanna's house. It kinda felt like I was coming home, since I knew her already.

After dropping my bags, I walked to a certain intersection, where I waited for a bus. It's a tourist bus to take people to a beach not too far from Trinidad. Playa Ancon has a couple of resorts along the beach, but many people choose to stay in Trinidad and come as a day trip. I might've stayed in one of the hotels on the beach, but they were far too expensive. Plus, there isn't anything else to do in the area, I would've been bored.

The bus was a double decker, of course I climbed up to the top. As the bus went along, we all had to duck a little each time we went under one of the electric wires going across the street. As we went along I noticed the exhaust coming out of the back of the bus. It was not nice, to say the least. It was the kind of smell that makes everyone hold their nose and close their eyes for a minute, waiting for it to go away. I noticed it when the bus stopped, not at all when we were moving.

The ride to the beach wasn't very long, maybe 30 minutes. I enjoyed the wind in my face (with my hair going every which way, despite being tied back) and the views of the area.

The bus dropped us at one end of the beach, we all rushed off the bus and pretty much ran for the beach. I was happy to get there in time to snag a chair for myself. I could've laid out on the sand, but that would've been even hotter than it was. Cuba in August is hot hot hot, and being on the chair gave me at least a little bit of a breeze.

I laid my stuff on the chair, grabbed my camera, and took a few photos of the area. The beach itself was nice but not great. The water was the same, nice but not great. Since this was my first beach day of this trip, I was thrilled anywho. I didn't notice any vendors coming through, which made this a fantastic beach as far as I was concerned.

My bus arrived on the beach around 0945, I caught the 1230 bus back to Trinidad. I did a pretty good job of soaking up some sun without getting totally roasted. (That came later in the trip.)

I'm not sure I'd come back to this beach in particular, but this was a relaxing morning, and much appreciated at this point in the trip.