Last night we went out to the brewery to have something to eat which was really nice, although showing our age the music was quite loud! Today we planned to spend another day walking round Trinidad but first we needed to arrange our transfers with Juan Carlos who was scheduled to be in reception at 9:30, after we sat for a little while waiting for him we decided we would send him a note rather than spend the morning hoping he would arrive, as it turned out he had been to the hospital as he had some dental work done and according to his note later in the day he was still there this morning. We set off with map in hand and decided we would start by visiting the Museo Historico Municipal which is housed in a mansion belonging to Don Borrell y Padron who is part of the family who owned the sugar plantation we visited the other day but unfortunately it is only open Monday – Thursday so we missed the opportunity however by walking into town this way we did manage to find Plazuela del Jigue which is where an Arcadia tree once stood and is the site of the first mass celebrated in Trinidad by Father Bartholome de Las Casals in 1513, the city was founded a year later in 1514. We waked round a couple of the back streets then headed back to the square, we visited the Museo de la Lurcha contra Bandidos which tells the history of the revolution, it contains maps, weapons and objects relating to the struggle between 1960 – 65. It is actually housed in a convent which was built in 1813 by Franciscan monks but taken from them and used as a parish church in 1848. In 1895 the authorities transformed the building into a garrison for the Spanish army, then in 1922 the garrison and part of the church were demolished and only the bell Towers and the adjacent building were saved and they were used as a school until 1984 when the complex became a museum. We walked round the ground floor looking at the photographs depicting the revolutionary struggle then went up the tower to have a look at the surrounding countryside. I climbed the bell tower while Chris stayed down below as the staircase was a bit exposed, we then went for a walk around the roof which gave us a chance to look into the different buildings that surround the convent. From here we walked back to the town square and decided we would look at what the Blue building in the square was and it turned out that this was also the Colonial Architecture Museum which we had thought was the other side of the square, perhaps there are two parts to it! We went inside and although most of the exhibits were about various building techniques used it does contain a great collection of door locks and a bathroom that contains a 19th century shower with a network of pipes supplying hot and cold water, interestingly it also has a shower jet that points directly upwards form the floor! After walking round this house we decided to head off in search of the three churches which turned out to be three crosses – we really must work on our Spanish! They are basically just a landmark with no information about then on any of the maps! We walked back down a very colourful street where it looked like the houses had been recently painted, this brought us back to the square so we stopped for a drink before walking round the streets a bit more at which time it started raining so we decided to stop for lunch. We went back to El Jigue restaurant which had lovely painted tiles and had a really nice lunch, then having had far too much to drink we walked the streets a bit more but decided it was probably wise to head back to the hotel to relax before heading out tonight.
