Wednesday December 24, 2015

Again we had an early start today. We find it much better to start early (7:30) when we can have a couple of hours cycling in cooler temperatures. We were told todays route was flat and it was. For the first 25 kms we were actually going downhill, a very slight downhill, we had a slight tail wind and the road surface was good, this culminated in a very fast ride. We cycled 80 ks in less than four hours.

The route was not very exciting today, more sugar cane fields and very few villages of any note. We did see one pig being transported on the back of a bike, he didn’t look very happy.

Today is Christmas Eve but it is like any other day in Cuba, the shops are open, the restaurants will be open tonight. Of course there will be a church service at the local churches for those who are Christians.

The big celebration here is New Year’s and not Christmas. The pigs have been fattened and now a lot of them are going to the slaughter houses or local butcher to be killed and they will be cooked on a spit on New Years Eve.

We are now on the return journey towards Havana. The next week we will be retracing our steps along the Central Carrereta. At Ciego de Alvia we will head south again towards Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad and Cienfuegos. We hope to be staying at the same casas as on the outward journey. Today in Las Tunas we were welcomed back like long lost family, hugs and kisses all around. We chatted about the hills to Baracoa and laughed about 30 kms of uphill and 12 kms of speeding down the other side.

We hope to be in Trinidad by New Years Eve and may partake in some pig.

We had a lovely meal in the same restaurant we ate at last time. Then we decided to go to the church service at 10:00pm. I haven’t been to a Christmas church service in years, but I felt that this year I wanted to go. So many people had been praying for Joy’s recovery, I felt the need to say thank you.

The service started with the children performing the nativity, it was really nice, only one king forgot his lines. There was not much singing which is the part I really enjoy, and we couldn’t understand the sermon, but they are all generally the same I think. Be good to your neighbours and kind to strangers. The church was full, standing room at the back.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Schone Weihnachten and Happy Hannukah.