Cocktails and salsa in Trinidad

Even though you're travelling, sometimes you crave a lazy day. Today was one of those days, as we didn’t put an alarm and woke up when we felt like it. There was no need to hurry, we didn’t have to go anywhere or arrange anything. We stayed in our beautiful guesthouse all day, where we would successively learn how to make Cuban cocktails and improve our salsa dancing skills.

Cocktail class

We hung out on the courtyard and on the rooftop terrace of Casa de Norge until it was time for our cocktail class. Norge had decked the table with a large number of liquors, rum bottles and fresh fruit. We were about to learn how to make the classic Cuban cocktails: piña colada, mojito, cancánchara and daiquiri!

Norge handed us a booklet to take notes, then started giving his demonstration. For every cocktail, he showed us how to do it, after which it was up to us to do the same. When we finished, cocktail master Norge evaluated the result and gave us recommendations on how to improve the drink.

Making cocktails (and drinking them) was such a fun activity. Back home we can prepare the same cocktails and think back about our trip through Cuba. We've actually planned a Carrabean-themed party to do just that.

When the other guests arrived in the guesthouse, they obviously wanted a cocktail too. In the end, we spent the rest of the evening in the courtyard socializing with the other guests while enjoying more cocktails.

Note: the special cancánchara cups are a fun souvenir to take home. There’s a shop in Trinidad that sells them (I think it was called Taller Alfarero), you can ask Norge for the details.

Salsa class

When the dance teacher arrived, we moved the large table aside and the dance floor appeared!

There is no better way to make a shy dancer move than by dispensing him (or her) some cocktails. It even worked on Bart who felt up for some salsa dancing. The teacher went over the basic salsa steps with us, but thanks to the introduction salsa class we had taken in Havana, we could move on a bit faster. The perks of a private teacher ;-) As opposed to the Havana salsa class where we each learnt our steps individually, this time we could practice our steps together and attune to each other. The dance teacher taught us a combination of six steps, which enabled us to partake in the dancing on the next salsa party. (Or at least pretend we could.)

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