We travelled to Trinidad via the Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron, where the famous attempt to overthrow the revolution took place. We had a quick swim in a watering hole and the sea which was beautifully clear before doing a circuit of the museum to get to grips with the very poorly translated story. We've decided that after our two museum experiences we are more confused than before about the revolution and Cuban history...partly due to the majority of information being in Spanish but also due to the clearly one sided information we are presented with.

We were dropped off in Trinidad at our Casa Particulares which is essentially a B&B. Chris and Mairead (the couple from Darlington) were our cohabitees. Our room was basic but comfortable with frilly bits everywhere, including over the toilet seat, cistern and toilet roll holder making any trip to the loo a bit of an adventure. Fortunately we had air conditioning which, although very noisy, was very effective.

That evening we had dinner in a hidden away restaurant, based around a pirate theme, with added atmosphere due to a power cut. We're not entirely sure what we ate, or what it looked like but it tasted rather delicious. We were sat next to Tony (Dad of the family), an ex-law lecturer now enjoying retirement where he spends most days tasting a variety of alcohols. He turned out to be hilarious and set himself off in a fit of giggles trying to tell us a story, unable to stop laughing, we had to sit with him for some time after dinner before we could get on our coach back to bed.

We woke the next day with very dry, stinging throats and noses from the air conditioning. Keen to explore, we set off on our group walking tour. Trinidad is a quaint town with cobbled streets and brightly coloured houses. Taxis are in the form of horse drawn carts and old men sit in doorways smoking cigars, it felt like the real Cuba. On the tour we went past a 'coupon shop'. All Cubans are given coupons each month for food that can only be spent in these shops, on dried and canned foods. If there's a shortage of one of the foods, everyone gets a bit less. It was a shock to us that lots of Cubans are essentially living off rations. After about an hour the heat was getting a little too much and our interest in the 'museums' was somewhat dwindling, luckily we were taken to a local bar for yet another free rum based cocktail, his one had honey and it was delicious. It was after this that the rather loud American girl, aptly named Hilary, decided she hadn't received enough attention and appeared to play dead for a while in a travel agency, multiple people noticed, no one gave her any attention. Apparently she was too hot and 'was dying'. Unfortunately it was then time for our midday salsa lesson, outside.

We were taught the basic steps on a small dance floor under a canopy. Our group was quite large so the space was not optimal, the midday heat also presented a challenge. However we threw ourselves into it and had soon mastered the basics. We were then all paired up with a young Cuban man or woman. There were not enough men to go around all the ladies and so Claire had to share her man. It was great fun as the instructor added more and more moves into the little routine we had learnt. Greg thought he was really getting the hang of it and was feeling the rhythm when Claire pointed out he flamboyantly moved his shoulders in what she called 'a very gay way'. Rather than discourage Greg this simply spurred him on to perfect what he now calls his George Michael shoulders.

The following day we went on a half day walk to a waterfall with our guide pointing out the local flora and fauna. After much searching Greg managed to see a woodpecker in action. At the waterfall we took a cooling dip in the plunge pool before heading back. The afternoon was spent on a local beach - white sands, warm sunshine and piña coladas delivered to your deckchair...we could get used to this. That night we had an evening meal in our casa with Chris and Mairead before heading to a local bar to practice our new salsa skills. It was an excellent evening with plenty of rum and laughs, possibly too much laughter as we were told off by an angry German man for being too loud. Oops! Still, our salsa moves must have made up for any social indiscretions.