Thursday November 20, 2014

We had breakfast earlier today, as we knew it was going to be a hot and long ride. The breakfast was good and we were on the road at 7:45 am. Todays ride was absolutely bloody awful! The road was straight, it had two curves in it, it was flat and the road surface was appalling. The scenery was not very exciting and we had a head wind. Fifty kilometres of rough road, it is hard on the hands, the shoulders and butt. If we had taken the northern route the road may have been as bad, but at the very least we could decide which side of the road to ride on because the traffic would have been lighter. On the carrerrata, we had to cycle on the correct side, because the road was so busy. The bus drivers are the worst drivers, I had one close call, where I was calling him every bad word I could think of.

The frustrations of today included the route, and the annoying habits of some Cubans. I went into the hotel to see if they had room – this was all in Spanish:

Me:      Do you have a room for tonight?

Receptionist:   No

Me:      Do you know of any casa particulars in Town?

R:        Yes

Me:      Do you have an address or a card?

R:        Very slowly she went to a drawer, unlocked it and found a card for a casa.

It was like getting blood from a stone. We cycled to a major intersection and looked at the street name. We were stared at by the locals and then a young man came over. He asked in English, \”Do you need help\”? I showed him the card, another young man followed him and said that is my casa – he showed us the same card and said he would take us. We had assumed that the casa was his parents, he looked as if he was in his mid-twenties. As we were going down some back alleys and an area with very rough looking apartment buildings, we were both doubtful of the cleanliness of the casa and were ready to say no.

Neither of us felt endangered or threatened, our sixth sense was working. The casa was lovely and when we arrived we met two Canadians who were already staying there. One of them lived only 20 kms up the road from Barrie in Craighurst.

We had a good shower and tried to get out of the casa. The owner had thought we had left already and locked us in. It is a very safe and secure casa so much so we couldn’t get out. After about 30 minutes Gustavo came back and let us out. We wandered around the small town of Florida and had lunch, not a very exciting town, but a good place to stop when you are cycling. We had a lovely dinner in a nice restaurant and came back to the casa and chatted to Gustavo and Charel. Charel had decorated her Christmas tree and Gustavo and a friend talked to Ralf about music.

The ride was awful, but the day turned out to be good.

As I finished one of Anne Mustoe’s books the other day, she had written that at the end of a bad day cycling she would lie on her bed and think of 10 good things that happened to her during the day – she admitted it was sometimes hard but she would add having a nice cup of tea as a good thing.

Here are my 10 good things (not in any particular order):

1. Seeing floppy eared calves in the field – they made me laugh
2. Seeing a small purple flower fighting its way through the road surface
3. Having my hubby in front of me breaking the wind
4. Meeting the casa owner (Gustavo) at the central square who brought us to his very nice casa
5. Chatting to Gustavo – he has such grand dreams for the casa, including adding a garage, another room and a swimming pool at the back – he is 28 and has worked very hard to make the casa a good place to stay. Gustavo and his girlfriend Charel own the casa together although it is, of course, in Gustavo’s name.
6. Laughing with the other guests who are from Craighurst – 20 kms up the road from Barrie.
7. Being locked into the casa. One would think this was annoying, but it was so ridiculous it was funny.
8. Buying two buttons for 20 centavos (almost a cent) and Ralf waiting for the change from a Cuban peso (which is worth 24 cents Cdn).
9. Big Agnes has sent a new fly to Gail in Florida and she has received it already. Excellent company Big Agnes.
10. Good clean shower.