Trinidad has elegant palaces and an old town with a labyrinth of stairs, patios, and plazas, all paved with cobblestones. Trinidad is the colorful colonial town that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site as early as 1988.

First, we climb yet another tower at the Museum de la Lucha Contra Bandidos (Monastery of San Francisco de Asis), which houses an exhibition on the counter-revolution and has an exciting observation tower. We stroll on to the main square, Plaza Mayor, with its royal palms and wrought-iron benches where tourists are already gathering. Here we visit the church Iglesia Parrochial Mayor de la Santisima Trinidad. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in Cuba with a wooden altar - donations welcome!

Next, we visit the Palacio Cantero (Museo Historico Municipal). This is the city museum with an exhibition on the era of the sugar barons, about the slaves and the first war of independence. Particularly impressive are the luxurious furniture, the patio with its columns, the frescoes, the brass bed and the overall furnishing of the palace. Here you can climb the next tower, which is quite adventurous as it's narrow and even narrower when there's oncoming traffic! But the 360-degree panoramic view makes up for it.

Unfortunately, the Palacio Brunet (also known as Museo Romantico) right on the Plaza Mayor was closed. Here you can see how the former sugar barons lived. In the Romantic Museum, housed in a former mansion, you can visit 14 former living rooms, which are said to be very lavishly furnished.

Otherwise, there's really so much to see in Trinidad, especially the restaurants which are wonderfully and lovingly restored and furnished. We were impressed by the Restaurant Museo - we couldn't eat here, but the tables were set with historic glass, porcelain and cutlery - beautiful.

Now we continue towards Cienfuegos, reaching the city in the afternoon after an adventurous drive through torrential rain and through a "river" that had formed across the road. Along the way lies the Jardin Botanico Soledad, a botanical garden with a palm grove and reportedly 2,000 plant species from around the world. Since it's raining, we skip the garden.

Arriving in Cienfuegos, our GPS (Garmin) unfortunately fails for the first time, but we still find the main square, Parque Marti. The most beautiful building on this square is in our opinion the Teatro Tomas Terry; also located here is the Palacio Ferrer (with changing cultural events) and the Catedral de la Purisima Concepcion. The tourist office is also on the square, where a Cuban woman explains to us in German where the car rental drop-off is and of course our Marina Marlin, as today we're heading to our next stage on the catamaran. We take a quick coffee break and then head to the marina.

We arrive at the marina around 5 PM, where they're already waiting for us in the shop. Our fellow travelers Timo and Katharina are already shopping, as unlike the catamaran trip through the Bahamas, here we're responsible for the food, cooking and shopping ourselves. However, you need to know that in this shop and in Cuba in general, not everything your heart desires or needs is available. So we stock up on almost everything the shop has to offer: eggs, rum, water, beer, juice, pasta, ketchup, mayo, cheese, chorizo, tomato sauce, oil, toilet paper, cleaning supplies - the rest we're supposed to buy at a market tomorrow. Now it's time to move into our accommodation for the next week. It's a bit shocking, having been spoiled by the Bahamas vacation. The catamaran is over 10 years old, looks grimy and is overall very dirty. The toilet light doesn't work and everything has been patched up - that's Cuba, and we think you should know and be prepared for this.

So we spend our first evening after a shower (in the dirty facilities of the marina) with some mosquitoes on board, after managing to grab a sandwich at El Rapido (the Cuban McDonald's) late at night.