Valley of the Sugar Cane

Today we had a trip booked to the Valle de Los Ingenios, the centre of the sugar industry in this part of Cuba for two hundred years until the government closed it down in 2005. To our surprise we were the only ones on this particular trip. There was just us, our guide and driver sharing a taxi. First we had to wait for a driver to appear, then we had to go by our guide's house so she could change her shoes. She had not expected to be leading this particular tour today.

First we stopped at Plaza Santa Ana, a quiet square in a corner of the town we had not previously scene, to see the town residence of the family who had controlled the sugar industry in the 19th century, and some buildings associated with the slave trade including the former jail. Then we headed out of town and stopped at a mirador which gave a fine view over the valley we were to visit. The Spanish wanted to extract the syrup from the sugar cane and developed a device like a mangle to extract it.

We heard from our guide that although the tour we went on yesterday descended 500 metres to see a waterfall, there was another tour which descended nearly 3 Kim's. Thank goodness we didn't book that by mistake.

Our next stop was a house which was currently being restored and the archaeological remains of the slave quarters, the production processes, water storage etc were gradually being dug up. The process started with extracting the syrup, then turning it into molasses and finally they processed the sugar till it was like we know it today.

A completely restored house had a grim looking owner and a history plus legends to match. There were stories of gold hidden in the fields by slaves who were then killed so many people had tried to find the treasure, now using metal detectors but so far nothing of value has been found though plenty of interesting historical artefacts.

Our last mirador was now a restaurant with a tower built to keep an eye on the slaves. It was a popular tourist spot with local embroideries hanging up and blowing in the breeze.

Lunch followed in a small family farm/restaurant, chicken with rice and a guava fruit ice. Our last stop was a family pottery where we bought a wind chime as we have in our Casa. We couldn't believe how cheap they were. Maybe we can sit out front at Whitecraigs in our rocking chairs listening to our wind chimes.

A popular song here is "Guantanamero", the chorus remembered well from our youth. It does refer to what we know as Guatanamo Bay and the people who came from there but not in the recent past.

We decided to have a lazy afternoon before our long bus ride to Havana tomorrow, though we spent time finding out exactly where our bus was to leave from in the morning. The travel agent said "Don't worry be happy".

After a fish dinner with soup, salad, potatoes, fruit and a huge slice of maize cake we set off for Playa Mayor, finding a seat on the steps with a good view of the band and some very nifty dancing - a fitting end to our stay in Trinidad.