Trinidad, Cuba - A Colonial Gem
Plaza Mayor Trinidad, Cuba, is one of the oldest cities in the Americas. That made taking the tour offered by Viking Cruise Lines one of our priorities. So, our first afternoon in Cuba, shortly after arriving at the Bahía de Cienfuegos, we boarded the tenders and then transferred to the buses for the two-hour ride to this beautiful old city. The city of Trinidad was founded in 1514 by Diego Velázquez de Cúellar , a Spanish conquistador. It was built about two miles in from the coast, to help protect from pirate raids. It quickly became the center of sugar trade for Cuba. By the late 1700’s the surrounding Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills) was home to tens of thousands of acres of sugar plantations, fifty sugar mills and over 30,000 enslaved Africans. Trinidad was home to the plantation owners and those whose work benefited from the industry. There was a lot of wealth in the city by that time and the owners of the plantations built many fine houses for thei...