Tuesday December 30, 2014

A new route for us heading west towards Sancti Spiritus and then Trinidad for New Years Eve and a couple of days off. We have decided to stay three nights in Trinidad because of the New Years celebrations.

The wind wasn’t exactly behind us today and I felt as if we weren’t going as fast as the last couple of days, but after checking the Garmin we still made good time.

The route was rolling hills and for the first 40 kms the scenery was sugar cane and cattle farms. The traffic appeared to be playing a game of chicken today. Not with us but with each other, trucks passing in crazy places, cars seeming to want to run head on into trucks and cutting in front of other cars at the last minute it was crazy.

Then we entered the lake district area of Zaza, which was very pretty and we could see the mountains of the Guamuhaya ahead of us.

We will be going through the mountains tomorrow towards Trinidad.

Cycling down towards the city of Sancti Spiritus, we spotted this fellow carrying some turkeys.

Sancti Spiritus is another old Spanish Colonial City it celebrated its 500 year anniversary this year.

It has some lovely old buildings and seems quite prosperous. After we had settled into the casa we headed back into the city centre and square.

The Town Hall has a nice staircase leading up to the main door.

Later in the day we spotted a young boy using the marble side of the stairs as a slide.

We spotted two touring cyclists who had just arrived and we chatted to them for a while. They have done a lot of touring and Peter suggested we get a coffee and chat. I suggested that they get themselves settled into their casa and we would meet later for a drink which is what we did. Peter and Lillian use a trailer and a couple of panniers to carry their gear. I asked Lillian how they liked the trailer and she laughed saying she liked it very much. I then noticed that all she was carrying on her bike was a handlebar bag. Peter carried all the gear in the trailer and two rear panniers. I laughed and suggested to Ralf that it seemed like a very good idea. He emphatically disagreed, it would never happen. Peter said that he did it because he was a stronger cyclist and this way he didn’t have to wait for Lillian to catch up with him. I guess we are fortunate that Ralf and I are equally strong cyclists, although Ralf is still stronger than me on hills, but he only has to wait a couple of minutes for me to catch up.

Ralf and I continued our exploration of the city and went into the church.

We noticed a sign that said you could climb the bell tower for 1 CUC. Up we went and Ralf got some great shots of the city from the top.

It was a hot afternoon, and after a couple of hours we headed back to the casa for a siesta.

At 5:00 we met Peter and Lillian (the Dutch touring cyclists). They are a really nice couple and we shared stories of New Zealand, Australia and Cuba. They are heading to Costa Rica in January for five weeks. We chatted about cycling in Thailand and they really enjoy cycling there. I am thinking we will be there in November 2016to carry on the Grand Adventure, part two.

We had a lovely meal at the casa and an early night. Tomorrow we have some climbing to do before we get to Trinidad.