Friday November 14, 2014

A lovely breakfast to start our day, served on the best china. We were on the road at 8:30 after saying goodbye to the Doctor and his wife. I feel as if I have a cold coming on, or it could just be a reaction to the diesel fumes I am breathing in everyday.

Often as we are cycling we are in our own thoughts. I was thinking that rural Cuba is much like rural Indiana – instead of miles and miles of corn fields it is miles and miles of sugar cane. Corn fields and sugar cane can get a bit boring after a while.

Ralf was thinking about the public transportation system. At every village there is a bus stop/transit hub, where there are a group of people waiting for the various buses that pass by. These buses range from dilapidated local buses, old buses that used to be used for tourists and are now used for the locals and the open back truck, and lets not forget the horse drawn carriages. Ralf’s comment as we passed one of these “transit hubs” “I wonder how long it will be before these folks can dial into their cell phones and find out when the next bus is going to arrive”. I almost fell of my bike laughing, after all we only got that system in Barrie 18 months ago.

We arrived in Santa Clara at about noon time. We cycled into the historic square and found the hotel, which again was only 28 CUC per night. It is a hideous green building of about 10 storeys.

As we were discussing whether to stay at the hotel a fella came up to us and said he knew of a casa just outside the downtown core, he could take us. We decided to check it out and if we didn’t like it we could come back to the hotel. The first casa was full, so we went around the corner to another one. We would have to carry our bikes up a flight of stairs. Ralf checked out the room and said it was clean, he was willing to carry the bikes up, after all he carried them up 4 flights of stairs in the hostel in Scotland.

After settling in, we went for a walk around Santa Clara. I needed to confirm that we are allowed to stay three months without renewing the visa at a police station. Yes we are – Canadians are automatically allowed to stay three months. Europeans are allowed 30 days with one extension of 30 days, that is what it says on the back of our entry visa, because we arrived from Spain. Not to worry we are allowed 3 months, lots of time to enjoy the cycling.

I chatted to a young man outside of the Immigration Police office, he was applying for a passport so that he could join his mother and sister in Florida. It was going to cost CUC 1,000.00 including his visa to leave.

I also had the time to do some administrative stuff on the computer. I was trying to access the American Adventure Cyclists Association so that I could get the maps for the southern tier. I could view the first page, but then couldn’t click on any other page. I will try again today. It could be a blocked site.

After sorting all the boring stuff out we sat at a bar and watched people. We joined a young guy at his table, who spoke good English. He had taught himself English by watching American movie channels on TV – they are not dubbed here, they have Spanish subtitles. He also bought a language course and over a 4 month period he learnt English.

He said he enjoyed life in Cuba, especially now as they have more freedom of movement within the country. He said he would like to do something like we are doing, but maybe not cycling. He wants to go in to the Sierra Maestramountains and spend a couple of weeks walking and sleeping under the stars. As we left him Ralf reminded him to do it now, as you never know what is around the corner.

We went to a very nice restaurant for dinner and blew the budget! Ralf had lobster and I had chicken, it included appetizer, soup, main and dessert – the cost was CUC22 for the meal. The drinks added another CUC 14.00 – we did have a cocktail and 2 glasses of wine each.

When we got back to the casa we went up on the roof. It was dark and we couldn’t see, there are no railings, so we came back to the patio area and sat and chatted about our trip, the highs and the lows. The highs being New Zealand and Australia, tough act to follow. The low was having to cut short Europe. We are both still enjoying the cycling, but the logistics of the trip can sometimes be a downer.