Trinidad is a popular tourist spot in Cuba with many busloads of tourists coming on day trips from resorts and from Habana each day - it was low season for tourism in Cuba and, before Trinidad, I had barely seen any other tourists so it felt strange, quite different. Trinidad is very pretty - the streets are wide and paved with light-coloured cobble stones and many of the buildings are painted in bright colours. The Plaza Mayor main square is very elaborate with gardens and statues surrounded by a church and small museums.

For dinner the first night we went to the Plaza Mayor restaurant where I had a ridiculously huge 'surf and turf' style dish with chicken, pork, lobster and prawns with rice and beans and mashed potato, while being serenaded by a three-piece band. Afterwards we sat out on the steps in the centre of town where everyone was crowded - there was a live band playing and people dancing under the bright full moon.

The next morning Warren and I went snorkelling. On the way there we stopped briefly at the beautiful Playa Ancón beach, which is backed by a couple of huge hotels. A local guy named Pedro took tourists out on snorkelling and diving excursions nearby - he became a PADI qualified dive master by learning with foreign visitors from diving schools and he has amassed some equipment from tourists that bring their own - he takes their equipment in exchange for leading them on dives or sometimes buys it. Warren went diving with Pedro while I went snorkelling with Jerome, an American tourist who had been staying there for a week or so and been out in the water many times with Pedro so knew where to go. It was a tough spot to get in and out of the water - starting from spikey rocks along the shore with waves coming in and lots of sea urchins near the shore (agh!). Further out there was nice coral - fan-shaped coral that swayed to and fro with the current and little ones that looked like fingers and quivered in a cute fashion. There were some unusual fish and thousands of little jellyfish - everywhere I went I was surrounded by jellyfish, they were transparent, barely visible until the sun shone on them and then I could see shimmering stripes that ran down the sides of their bodies. They stung a little bit but weren't dangerous.

Afterwards we chatted to Pedro for a while, he was a very happy person, very content with the way things are in Cuba - he realised that the economic system wasn't perfect but he saw it as just an alternative option for running a country with pros and cons like every other - he liked the fact that he only had to work a few hours a day and that all his children would have free university education. He talked about his concerns about increased tourism (particularly if relations with the US improve) - creating pollution and making life more complicated. It was refreshing to hear his opinion - someone that didn't particularly want change.

The following day we went for a short trek through a forest. At the beginning of the walk there were some pictures depicting how, historically, African slaves had escaped from sugar factories in this area and run away across the island through the forests and mountains. Along the walk we saw many different types of bird, including the 'tocororo', the national bird of Cuba, which is beautiful - it is quite unusually coloured - black and the colours of the Cuban flag - red, blue and white. Apparently if they are caged they beat their breasts against the bars of the cage until they die therefore they cannot be kept in captivity! We also saw many lizards and a couple of big slugs. We walked to a waterfall area where we could swim in the cold river; behind the waterfall I swam into a cave with stalactites and bats flying around.

Back in town, I spent a lot of time wandering around the streets of Trinidad, checking out the many shops selling artworks and the little handicraft stalls. I bought a couple of small paintings and some souvenirs. There are several small museums in Trinidad - a few of them house extravagant furniture and household items from wealthy inhabitants during the 19th century. From the tower of Museo Histórico Municipal there was a lovely view over the town. There is also a museum dedicated to 'the struggle against counter-revolutionaries', which includes items like Che Guevara's hammock and Camilo Cienfuegos's shirt as well as a piece of an American spy plane that was shot down over Cuba.

In Trinidad we stayed at the lovely casa of Jesus and his family, which had a roof terrace with rocking chairs and hammocks. Two nights we had great dinners there and were entertained by Gilberto, a friend of the family and a talented singer/guitar player who had recorded an album with his band (which I ended up buying). Jesus's wife, who we nicknamed Shakira (though Jesus repeatedly pointed out that she was the size of two Shakiras!), also sang for us and the pair of them danced away - they were a lot of fun!

On our last day there was a terrible storm - when the rain started everyone disappeared off the streets - all the shops shut and all the market stalls were covered in plastic sheeting. I got caught out in the rain and was completely soaked!

Before we left we bought some pizza from one of the many hole-in-the-wall outlets which seem to be a national obsession - they sell freshly made individual pizzas very cheaply (in local currency) and in every town I saw many people walking around the streets eating them and schoolchildren queued up to buy them. I had a chorizo pizza which was not bad.