Six o’clock is probably a little early to be up and dressed on holiday but it’s not every day you get the chance to swim with dolphins.

Ahead of us was a three hour journey across and down the country to Cienfuegos travelling through a very different landscape in what seemed to be the coldest coach in Cuba. Perhaps that’s why they asked us to bring towels and more and more people used them to wrap up against the chill.

Outside the fields rolled by filled with sisal plants (brought here by the Mexicans who thought they were the plants from which tequila could be made - clearly a bad mistake); orange groves and rice paddys.

The stop over at a roadside cafe has no live band but the toilets are a little better quality and the second half of the trip features the bizarre sight of a new, large bridge which is built with no way up to it and no way down, “We call it the bridge to nowhere”, says the guide rather proudly.

I have to confess I was a little cautious about this trip when I heard the word Dolphinarium being used. In the 1970s I was a member of the London Dolphinarium, a converted a theatre at 65 Oxford Street, where Pleasurama opened it as an up-market striptease revue featuring dancing “aquamaids” and several dolphins confined to a tank 3m deep, 14m long and 5m wide. Fortunately it closed in 1973 but even in those days I was conscious of how bad conditions were (but ignorant of the strippers).

Fortunately and thankfully things were very different in Cuba. Large salt water lagoons next to the sea held the dolphins and the owners were very careful to protect them insisting that all jewelery was removed and people showered before getting into the water. Being up close to one of these animals is an amazing experience. From the different textures of the skin (the softness of the belly to the hard sleek edges of the fins) to the way they behaved around people and, oddly, the look in their eyes I can see why people want to do this and why they believe it helps the sick and dying.

In my group was a little girl who just got past the age restricts at seven years old. The piece de resistance of the dolphins act was to either push or pull us down the length of the lagoon making people rise up out of the water and appear to stand on their beaks or a more leisurely drag down the water. The little girl wanted to be pulled but couldn’t get hold of the dorsal fins. Both dolphins waited patiently until she had a good grip then pulled her gently back to the trainers. Someone else in our group we learned over lunch was so scared of water that she couldn’t put her head under the shower. Somehow she managed to summon the courage to get into the water and she said that it seemed like the dolphins knew she was scared and spent more time with her to make sure she was settled and happy.Whatever is the case I was really glad we did this and the memory of it will stay with me for a very long time.

Lunch was at the newly renovated yacht club in Cienfuegos which had managed to keep all the old trophies and pictures of regattas from before the revolution. Next was some free time to wander around Cienfuegos and pick up the pictures that had been taken at the dolphinarium.

Cienfuegos is the capital of the province of the same name and it settled by French immigrants from Bordeaux and Louisiana, led by Don Louis D’Clouet, on April 22 1819. The city was subsequently named Cienfuegos, sharing the name with Cienfuegos, a capitán general (Spanish governor) in this time, in the island. Cienfuegos literally translates to “Hundred fires”.

Two things happened to Cienfuegos in 2005. The good news was that UNESCO inscribed the Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos on the World Heritage List, citing Cienfuegos as the best extant example of the 19th-century early Spanish Enlightenment implementation in urban planning. The bad news was Hurricane Dennis made its second landfall near Cienfuegos at about 1:00PM AST (17:00 UTC) with winds of 232km/h (144 MPH), and gusts reaching 285 km/h (177 MPH).

Luckily no long term damage was done and Cienfuegos today was a pleasant surprise after Havana. The streets were wider, the architecture looked more like a European town and the atmosphere very laid back and friendly.

In the center of Cienfuegos is Parque Marti which holds the central point of the town. A former parade ground it is now a national monument because of the surroundings business and its historic importance. To one side on Calle Bouyon stands the only triumphal arch in Cuba commissioned in 1902 to celebrate the inauguration of the Republic of Cuba. One either side fo the square is dominated by the Placio del Ayuntamiento which houses the provincial government assembly and is supposedly modeled on the Capitolio in Havana.

All around the city centre music and entertainment have featured in the towns history. Benny Moré was one of the citys most famous inhabitants and with a wish in his last will and testament Tomas Terry Adams, an unscrupulous sugar factory owner who became rich through the slave trade, built the Teatro Tomas Terry. Completed in 1889 many famous figures from the 1900s came here to perform including Enrico Caruso and Sarah Bernhardt.

If, like me you have become amazed by dolphins you can learn more about them at the official Year of the Dolphin website.