TRINIDAD, Cuba – At certain corners of Trinidad, the most authentic colonial city in Cuba, time appears to have stopped. The shadows of the Spanish conquistadors of the early 16th century and the wealthy sugar plantation owners of the 19th century attract tourists from all over the world.
About five decades before dying on 1864, Jose Mariano Borrell built the Brunet palace. It is now the Museo Romantico. Franciscan monks built a Roman Catholic convent about 1813. It now houses the Museo de Lucha Contra Bandidos, which showcases a history that favors Fidel Castro's revolution.
Despite the "anti-imperialism" spirit of the tourist site, Raul Castro's economic reforms have prompted Cuban entrepreneurs to give the foreigners a warm welcome. Apo Buran said he can feel their hospitality. He traveled to Trinidad all the way from Turkey.
"They are from the heart," Buran said. "They're very gentle. They're very lovely."
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Jesus Calunga and Yoelsy Ramirez are some of the hundreds of Cubans living in Trinidad, who are doing their best to get a cut out of the thriving tourism industry.
Calunga lives in one of the 1,216 authentic colonial homes with terra cotta clay-tiled roofs. He is at one of the ancient cobbled streets that meet at the plaza Mayor de Trinidad. Two years ago, he started to rent a room on the second floor for $30 to $40 a night. There are at least 800 homes that have opened their doors to foreigners.
"It's a good business, and it's a beautiful business," Calunga said.
He added that "private homes are of great importance to the hospitality industry, which is the most important in the country."
Calunga sells breakfast to foreigners who stay at his home, but tourists also have access to about 100 "paladares," which are licensed family-owned restaurants. There are also art galleries and hundreds of street vendors.
Ramirez is one of the many women who sell handmade jewelry made out of seeds and seashells. She is a "cuentapropista," a licensed freelance worker, and like Calunga, her income depends on the seasonal tourism industry. She pays the government a monthly registration fee.
"For me, it would be impossible to say that this year I'm going to work and I am going to buy a motorcycle," said Ramirez, a mother of two.
Ramirez added that although she wishes that her income would increase, she has no aspirations of "becoming a millionaire."
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