Training Day

Today we rode a hundred year old steam train that once served the vast sugar plantations spread around the countryside.
It was quite an experience that included an impromptu tour aboard the giant steam engine itself (we'd haplessly turned up at the train yard early, wandering blinding past the station on our way).
When the train and ourselves pulled up at the platform, there were only four other people waiting, so we had to pay a little extra (fifteen instead of ten dollars) but the lack of other passengers was a real bonus. By the time the trip was over though, I would have paid ten times the asking price.

We rolled at a snails pace through the beautiful Valles de los Ingenios, over rickety old bridges, past banana plantations, through villages, fields and farms.
We stopped off in a tiny town at the site of Manaca Iznaga an estate owned three hundred years ago by the evil-sounding Pedro Iznaga, who became one of Cuba's wealthiest men off the back of the unscrupulous slave trade that boomed in Cuba at the time. In the grounds stood a forty four metre high tower that was all too leany and a bit on the crumbly side. Lucy wisely passed on the climb to the top, I made it to the penultimate tier before legs of jelly confirmed that that was high enough for me.

We chugged on again through the mesmerising countryside (I seem to use the word 'mesmerising' often in Cuba) before stopping again at a house that's remained virtually untouched inside and out for centuries.
There was a small ranch and horses too, and despite the fact we had no cash on us the young lad said it was fine if Lucy wanted to try. She never has before and so jumped at the chance, and after an early altercation between her head and some tree branches she took to it like a natural.
After, we gave the boy what pesos we could scrape together, and when we found out he was desperate to learn some English but had no access to textbooks, we took down his address and promised to send him some.
We said goodbye and boarded the train, stopping just once more to pick up some wood, plus a Mother and son we'd dropped off earlier. Then we rolled back through the greenery to Trinidad, and our steamy adventure was over.

Choosing just one picture from today was difficult. Us standing on the front of the train, Lucy's horsing around, even a litter of five day old puppies, not to mention the glorious countryside.

The one I've used though really sums up the day. A split second freeze frame of genuine joy.