Sancti Spiritus Cuba was founded in the same year (1514) as Trinidad, by the same explorer (Diego Velasquez). Although we only drove through and made a couple photo stops in the city, it is a gem with which even our guide was not particularly familiar. The most historic site is the Yayobo bridge, a three-arch, terra cotta bridge that is unique in the country.

Although we weren’t especially impressed with the bridge, we were impressed by the center city around Serafin Sanchez Park. This lovely, open square is surrounded by a number of beautiful, immaculately restored, mid-19^th century buildings including the main library, two of the city’s primary hotels and a number of pretty smaller buildings.

Although the park is the city’s primary showplace, it is by no means the only one. The Greater Parish Church, which is the oldest of the city’s major buildings, built in 1680, is much larger and impressive than the image conjured by the term “parish church”. It is also, at 20 meters, the tallest building in the city.

Similarly impressive is the pretty Calle Indepencia, a pedestrian street lined with lovely buildings and studded with bronze statues of famous artists and musicians. And speaking of famous local musicians, every local musician who was anybody has played at the local Casa de la Troya, a local music club that opens onto a small, but pretty garden that, the Sunday afternoon we visited, was filled with appreciative fans who were grooving (not to speak of dancing) to the music.

Just outside of town, pineapple farms (the region’s most important crop) some sugar cane fields and one of the few remaining large mills in the area. And as we have seen in many of the country’s small towns and rural roads, as many horses, donkey-, horse- and ox carts (for transporting both people and goods), bicycles, pedicabs, motorbikes and sidecars (on both motorcycles and bicycles) as we saw cars. Work, meanwhile, was largely manual. Although some large plots of farmland use semi-modern equipment, smaller plots rely largely on oxen pulling basic plows. Grass along the side of the streets is trimmed by men using sickles and scythes.