Thursday November 13, 2014

We had a mediocre breakfast, loaded the bikes and were on the road by 8:30. One of the good things about staying in casas or hotels, is that we can have a little bit of lie-in and still be on the road by 8:30.

The road again was a nice rural route with rolling hills. The farms seem to be bigger east of Havana and more tractors than oxen plowing the fields. Sugar canes dominate the landscape although there are some bananas and dairy production. We saw a large cattle farm (large at least by Cuban standards).

We cycled through a large town (Quemado de Guines) and stopped for lunch. We were going to sit down at a restaurant/café but as we were locking the bikes on the patio, the waitress came and told us we couldn’t leave the bikes on the patio. We said please as we need to be able to keep our eye on them. She shrugged her shoulders and said we could put them behind a wall, in full view of the street, but we wouldn’t be able to see the bikes from the cafe. That wasn’t going to happen. We told her we had to be able to see the bikes. Again a shrug, so we shrugged as well and left.

We found a hole in the wall pizza place and had street pizza. Mine had too much cheese on it, so was too greasy for me, I only managed half of it. I was hungry by the time we came into Saguay so I stopped next to guy who selling bananas and devoured two bananas. The Cuban bananas are small and really sweet. Good energy food.

As we cycled in to Saguay we spotted this grand entrance, to a primary school. Not sure who owned the building originally, but it looked as though it was a huge mansion 60 years ago. When we come into some of these big Towns we notice the colonial architecture that has often been left to rot. I think the regime can only afford to maintain some of these old buildings and has chosen the cities it wishes to maintain and encourages tourists to go to those areas (Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Santa Claraetc) and unfortunately the rest of these historic areas are left to their own devices.

We cycled along the main street and two streets to either side of the main street to see if we could find a casa, and could not see anything. I stopped at a little restaurant and asked the waitress if she knew of any casas in the neighbourhood. She directed us to two casas. The first one was a room to rent by the hour. The lady was very nice, but we couldn’t have the room until 4:00 as it was occupied from 2:00 to 4:00. It was going to be very cheap, only CUC6.00. We went to the other one and it was available, very clean and we have the whole of the second floor. I knocked him down from 25 to 20 CUC and we have breakfast tomorrow, but decided we would venture out for dinner.

We had a lovely meal at the Cuban restaurant where I had asked the waitress if she knew of any casas. She asked us if we had found the casas, and we told her we had and which one we were staying at.

The meal was incredibly cheap – we had 4 beers, salad, entrée and dessert and coffeeCUC 8.65 with tip CUC 10 – $10.00!!

As we were about to order the meal, the lights went out – power outage. The waitress flipped on a battery operated lamp and lit candles on all the tables (very romantic). The lights came back on after about 15 minutes. Ralf said “Just think, there is someone sitting in the dark in Canada right now, a power outage caused by a snowstorm and it won’t be back on in 15 minutes”

When we got back to the casa, we chatted to the owner about his antique clocks. He loves antique furniture and clocks. Ralf noticed his diploma on the wall – he is a Doctor (general practitioner). Could you imagine a Doctor in Canada or the US renting out rooms to supplement his income?

Ralf and I discussed today the chances of Cuba having a class system. We concluded that it probably already had to a degree. There are the high-ups in the government, they always have more perks than the average Joe. Then there are the people who have worked in the tourist industry for years who have made more money in tips in a week than the Doctor we are staying with makes in wages in a month. There are a growing number of ‘entrepreneurs’ – casa owners being one of them. Then there are the rural farmers, who make the bare minimum but are richer than some of the people on welfare in Canada. I quantify that statement by saying that they own their own house, free medical, free education and food provided for them. As I have said before you really see and feel a country when you are experiencing it from a bicycle.