Wednesday January 7, 2015

We were served a very large breakfast this morning, which consisted mainly of fried food – fried eggs, fried bacon, fried French toast – I am really getting fed up of everything fried. We did get a nice plate of fruit and some bread. Fortunately we still have peanut butter which I spread on the bread and it tasted really good. Because it was a short ride I knew I could survive on the fruit and the peanut butter for todays ride.

We left the casa at 8:00 am and headed up through the Zapata National Park to Jaguey Grande.

We passed the crocodile breeding farm and spotted about four crocs, inside the fence I am pleased to say. It was a very swampy area for about 20 kms, I kept my eyes open for crocs, as I wasn’t sure how secure the breeding area was and there might have been a few crocs swimming around the swamp.

Along this road there were memorials to the fallen soldiers of the Bay of Pigs failed invasion. We stopped in Australia to see the Museum but it was closed due to the building falling down. No hurricane damage, due to old age and poor maintenance. We couldn’t find out any more of the history of the Bay of Pigs which was a bit of a shame.

As we were looking for the museum in Australia (the name of the Town) a young man (Kenny) asked if we needed help, Kenny spoke very good English. We told him we were looking for the museum, he asked where we were headed after that. We told him it was a short day for us and we were planning on staying in Jaguey Grande. He asked if we had a casa and if not he had an Aunt who had a casa and he would take us. We were only three kms from Jaguey so we said he could take us to the casa.

When we got to the casa, his Aunt wasn’t there so we cycled into the downtown for a coffee. While we were in the downtown area Kenny’s Aunt came up to us. She was heading back to the casa so we followed her and Kenny home. While she prepared the room we chatted with Kenny. He had just finished University, studying languages, and was working at the hotel as a guide on a 6 month contract. He said the hotel wasn’t very busy and sometimes he was able to get additional work as a guide for independent tourists. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do after his contract was up. We said there wasn’t much work in Cuba, we had seen a lot of unemployment. He said that there was a lot of work available in Cuba, especially in the countryside on farms, but in his opinion Cubans were lazy and didn’t want to work on farms, they wanted to make easy money. He said that he had gone to University to study and wanted to get a good job, but after the contract was finished he might have to work in a bar or as a waiter.

I felt very sorry for him as I felt he had a lot of potential, but nowhere to go with it.

After he had left we settled into the casa, usual routine of showering, garmins, rinsing cycling gear etc we then took a bici taxi the 2 kms back into the downtown at a cost of 10 pesos (.30 cents) to have lunch. We had a really good pizza.

I am trying to get flights booked to the US and I am working with Flight Centre in Barrie to book flights from Cuba with the bikes. I had to email the casa in Havana for the dimensions of the boxes, then email Flight Centre again. Now I have to wait for there response, as to how much the bikes will cost on two different flights. One of the options includes flying to Toronto and then onto to Tampa, the other option is to fly to Grand Cayman and then onto Tampa. It all depends on the costs of the bikes as to which works out cheaper. At the moment it is looking like the Grand Cayman flight is the best option.

We will be staying a few nights with Gail and Bob at their winter place in Florida. I used to work with Gail at Meridian, I am really looking forward to seeing her and having a good chat.

Dinner was at the casa as it was too far to go back into the downtown area to find a restaurant. It was very good and not too much.

Early night as we have a long day tomorrow.