Christmas Day in Cuba, is like any other day.  The shops are open, the internet office is open.

Ralf and I wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.  We thank-you all for your comments throughout our year on the bike and we hope you have enjoyed following us on our Grand Adventure.  For all of our new friends, that we have met along the way – it has been great meeting you and we hope that when we get back to Canada, you will come and visit us.

Merry Christmas

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.

Tuesday December 23, 2014

A really early start this morning, we had an excellent breakfast and headed out on the road with Eddie cycling with us.

We were surprised to see a cycle lane leaving Manzanillo. At one point a truck driver shouted at me to get on the cycle lane. It was a nice cool morning about 17 degrees and I, as usual lead for the first 20 minutes, once I had got my rhythm Ralf took the lead and we continued to switch every 10 minutes as is our usual routine. At one point Eddie commented on what a strong cyclist I am. I should be after one year of cycling. Both Ralf and I were feeling good, and we cycled at a steady 21 – 24kph. Eddie took the lead and our average dropped to 18-21kph. We continued to switch between the three of us for almost an hour and then Eddie dropped back. We slowed down and we told him we would be stopping in ten minutes for our hourly break. He said he needed to slow down, so we wished him well and carried on. We thought he might catch up to us again, but we didn’t see him again.

We stopped to watch a field of sugar cane being cut by hand. There were about a dozen men hacking away at the cane. They chopped the outer leaves away and then stacked the remaining cane stalk in rows. It looked like back-breaking work.

The other interesting thing we saw today was a fella making clay bricks. He makes about 30 an hour. The clay comes from the property and he was making the bricks to rebuild the kiln. He seemed to be making more than 30 an hour but that is what he said he did. He dumped the wet clay into forms, pushed the extra clay away and then carried the form to the ground where the bricks would be left to dry in the sun. Once they had dried sufficiently they were stacked in a wall, where they would then go into the kiln. This really looked like hard work.

As we were cycling along we came through a village where a woman was on the phone. Ralf laughed as she was on the phone and shouting at a guy down the street. \”Why does she need a phone?\” he said. It is one of the things that we have noticed about the Cubans they shout a lot. Usually to get someone’s attention and then they continue to shout at each other. For Ralf and I, who like our peace and quiet and don’t like people shouting it can be a bit annoying.

Then it happened – Ralf became Cuban. We had arrived at the Casa and were sitting on the balcony when Ralf spotted Eddie cycling into the square. All of a sudden Ralf leaps up and shouts over the balcony – “Eddie”, “Eddie”. I couldn’t believe my quiet husband yawping like a Cuban over the balcony – I couldn’t stop laughing at him.

After our shower we had our usual walk around the Town. Bayamo is a lovely Town, clean and not one person asked us for money. Bayamo was the second city to be founded in Cuba by the Spanish in 1513.

As we walked the back streets back to the casa, Ralf spotted this lovely old fella. Ralf will often take photos of these people when they are not looking. However, he didn’t want to offend this old fella and asked for permission. He said yes, but then instead of getting the fella as he had first spotted him, the old fella got quite chatty and asked where we were from and said that Canada was a good place but very cold. He got quite animated, which isn’t the photo that Ralf wanted but he did have a lovely face.

We ate dinner at the casa and then chatted to the other tourist who was from Norway.

Monday December 22, 2014

A very quick ride today, it was relatively flat and not much of a headwind, our average speed was 18.5 kms. The road was good up until the last 10kms coming into Manzanillo and then it felt as if we were cycling on an old washboard.

As we left Media Luna we passed some quite intensive farming (for Cuba), we saw the first irrigation sprinkler system since we have been cycling around Cuba and of course lots of sugar cane fields. The farming was mainly vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and smaller fields of corn.

We also left the clean air of the Sierra Maestras and the beautiful coastal road and headed back into a more industrialized area and pollution from the cars, trucks and burning of the fields.

We arrived in Manzanillo at 10:45 and cycled into the historic downtown area.

As usual a fella came up to us and asked if we needed a casa. We said we had one reserved and showed him the address. He said he would take us to the casa. When we got to the casa we knew it wasn’t the one Umberto had told us about, it wasn’t even on the same street. I had a look at the room anyway, standard casa room, bed, old air-conditioning unit, and a small bathroom. The guys that come up to us and take us to casas will get a few pesos from the casa owner for getting him the business. On this occasion we had a casa and just needed to find it.

As I was looking at the casa Ruben came past on his bike, and spoke to Ralf introducing himself as the casa owner that Umberto had told us about. Fortunately, Ruben spotted Ralf and the bikes and brought us to his casa which is lovely. Very clean, big room and nice shower. We have a terrace that we can sit out on and a kitchen area with a fridge.

Ruben was expecting us to arrive later as Tamara the casa owner in Media Luna had called him and told him we were on our way and our estimated time of arrival was about 11:30 +/-. Reuben was going to wait for us at the entrance to the Town so that he could guide us to his casa.

Once we had settled in I asked about laundry facilities, Reuben’s wife said she would do the laundry for us. It was on the line drying as we left to go for our walk around the Town.

First we had to find something to eat, I wanted spaghetti, but apparently it is in short supply, no spaghetti. We settled for a pizza which was quite good, the pizzas here have a thick doughy base, sometimes they are good other times the dough is a little undercooked. After we had eaten Ralf and I separated, I went to update the blog and check email etc. Ralf went to the bank and had a wander around.

He walked up the steps from the centre of Town and watched some young boys playing baseball on a hill. It isn’t the same as street hockey or football, when you shout car – to stop the game, you shout horse and cart and let that go around you before you restart the game.

As he went up the steps he noticed the tile work and murals of sunflowers. We are not sure of the significance of sunflowers as we have only seen one field of sunflowers today.

I love sunflowers.

Ralf went down one of the back streets and spotted this odd construction and the boys asked for a photograph.

After I had updated the blog we wandered back to the casa.

We met up with the Swiss cyclist (Eddie) again at this casa, he cycled from Pilon today and is heading to Bayamo tomorrow. We chatted to him again and he asked if we were going into the town tonight, we declined.

Manzanillo and Bayamo had an important part to play in the War of Independence. Eight kilometres outside of Manzanillo at the former Demajagua sugar mill Carlos Manuel de Cespedes began Cuba’s first war of independence. Bayamo was proclaimed the capital of the Republic in Arms in 1868. The national anthem was sung for the first time in Bayamo in 1868 and in January 1869, the citizens of Bayamo set fire to the city to prevent the Spaniards taking back the city.

Sunday December 21, 2014

After a lovely breakfast, we were on the road by 8:15 am. A short ride today from Pilon to Media Luna, we didn’t want to cycle the 90 kms to Manzanillo in one go. Umberto had called a friend in Media Luna and gave us her address plus a couple of extra addresses for Casas in Manzanillo and Bayamo.

Umberto said it wasn’t going to be a hilly ride, but the German ladies we spoke to said they had to cross the Sierra Maestras and it was hilly. At about the 2 km mark I said to Ralf I had no legs, he said I would get my second breath and would be fine. After going slightly uphill for 4 kms I saw my least favorite road sign warning of wiggly roads for the next 2 kms. As soon as I see a wiggly road sign, I know that means we are going uphill, and we did – 2 kms of winding uphill, climbing to a height of 286 metres, not very high, but with no legs I struggled, but didn’t get off. As soon as we crested the hill we had another 6 to 8 kms of rolling hills then we headed downhill all the way into Media Luna.

We stopped in one village for a rest and some nuts. We watched a granddad play baseball with his two grandkids. The old guy could really swing a bat and the kids were running after the balls and catching them like little pros.

We are back into sugar cane country and they have started the harvest. It was interesting to watch them, I have never seen sugar cane being harvested, I thought it would be similar to cotton or corn. It is similar, but they start at the edge of the field and work their way across.

We arrived at Media Luna at 10:45, we stopped to get our bearings and check the address, a young man on a bike stopped and asked if we were Ralf and Jacqueline and took us straight to the casa. I am glad he did because there is no official casa sign on the house. It is a nice casa and the host is very nice, she made us sandwiches and juice and then we settled into our room. She is hoping to extend the house upwards to have more rooms. From the roof we spotted three rusted trikes and a go-kart of some kind. I would clean and paint them and put them in my garden with flowers in them. Oops I don’t have a garden any more.

After a lukewarm shower we headed out to explore Media Luna. It is not a very inspiring town, by the time we were walking through the town at 12:30 most of the men were drunk or well on the way. We have noticed this a lot in towns and villages as we cycle through. There are a lot of drunks in Cuba, mostly because they do not have work so they drink. Rum is incredibly cheap and can be bought by the shot at little roadside cafés. Rum is cheaper than water and beer.

The museum across the road from the casa is under renovation and was the home of Cecila Sanchez, one of Castros closest friends and compatriots during the revolution. In the central park is a fountain and statue of Cecila to commemorate her involvement during the revolution.

The house is an old wooden structure, but quite nice.

Saturday December 20, 2014

We left the campismo at 8:20 after an awful breakfast. Fortunately we still had bananas and nuts to eat on the road.

Once again today’s ride was along the beautiful coastal road – I am referring to the scenery not the state of the road.

The road was bad, but we knew it would be, very similar to yesterday’s bad roads but today we had hills and quite a few of them. The disadvantage of hills on a bad road is that you very rarely get the rewards of a good downhill, because you are watching for the potholes and non-existent paving.

That being said it was an awesome ride. After about 37 kms (half way) I wasn’t sure we were going to make Pilon it seemed to be taking forever. It was very hot 34 degrees but not humid, which made it easier to ride. After about the 50 km mark the roads improved slightly and there were no more big hills to climb just rollers.

There were some interesting parts to the coastal road, including the tunnels which didn’t seem to go straight through the mountain. We were not sure if they were used during the revolution (1956) but they seemed to modern for that, or were run-offs, or perhaps were tunnels but had caved in. This truck needed to follow the same route as we did along the very rough road, so didn’t use the tunnel.

We met two female touring cyclists who had cycled from Pilon we compared notes and they told us about the casa that they stayed in the previous night, Casa Umberto. They gave us directions to the casa and we found it quite easily. We told Umberto who had recommended his casa and he was very pleased.

After rinsing out our cycling gear, we went for a walk around the grand metropolis of Pilon. We spotted a guy roasting a big pig. We stopped at a little cafeteria where we asked if they had cheese sandwiches. No, now they had bread and they had cheese to put on the spaghetti but they couldn’t make cheese sandwiches. I commented on this fact to Ralf, I am guessing the lady understood some English because she said she would look to see if she had enough cheese. She did and we got our cheese sandwiches. She then offered us the spaghetti with cheese, and as we were both hungry we ate that as well.

Umberto’s mom is making dinner and we will have breakfast here as well.

Friday December 19, 2014

We left the resort at 8:45, a little later than we should have done but it was good to be back on the road again.

The sun was out as we cycled away from the resort on a nice paved road, but we knew that wasn’t going to last. The paved road that is. We got to the small town of Chivirico and about 7 kms past the town the paved road petered out to hard-packed gravel, then it changed to rough road to a bit of paved road and alternated between rough and bad for the next 35 kms. We had a good tail wind today and only a few hills to climb.

This coastal road is very beautiful and if it wasn’t for the poor state of the roads, I would class as it as one of the best coastal routes in the world. The road from Moa to Manzanillo is approximately 500 kms long and would be an excellent scenic drive. But the roads have to be seen to be believed.

Part of todays route, some of the bridges had collapsed, due to the hurricane a few years ago, and have not been repaired yet. Parts of the road had collapsed into the sea, very precarious.

What makes this route so beautiful is the way the mountains hug the coastal road and the colour of the sea changes from turquoise to a deep blue. There are little bays where you could stop for a swim and small villages some of them in the hills.

As we came through the small town of Uvero, we encountered a large group of school children celebrating the release of three of the Cuban “spies”. They were cheering and chanting vive cuba, vive cinco.

We got to the campismo at about 12:30. A campismo is similar to a campsite – but campismos have cabins, not tent pitches. Our room is small with two single beds and an ensuite bathroom. No hot water except what has been heated by the sun, it was pleasantly warm when we had our showers. We pushed the two beds together so that we could get both bikes in the room.

We had some lunch, and a beer and chatted to a fellow touring cyclists that is heading in the same direction as us until Manzanillo then he is heading back towards Bayamo and Baracoa. I have given him some of the casa addresses that we stayed at. Another couple of touring cyclists came in while we were chatting to the Swiss cyclist – they are heading in the opposite direction heading towards Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa, encountering headwinds all the way. They cycled from Pilon this morning which is our destination tomorrow – 73kms.

We had a little wander around the campismo, it is on a rocky beach and has several cabins ranging from 2 per room to 6 per room. There are a lot of young Cubans here. There is also a little bit of wildlife in the way of a small herd of goats, chickens and some really noisy birds. I am guessing we will have to have our earplugs in tonight.

When we got back to our room the power went out, there seems to be quite a few power outages on this side of the island. We took advantage of no electricity and had an afternoon siesta.

Sunday December 14, 2014 to Thursday December 18, 2014

An average day at a resort hotel in Cuba: shower, eat, read, eat, read and relax by the pool, swim a little, eat, drink and watch the show and sleep.

Sunday morning there was an extra show put on by a troupe from Santiago de Cuba. They were really, really good most of the music was Michael Jackson’s and they called themselves the Jackson Company (no copyright rules in cuba!). The amazing thing was that most of the troupe were under 18.

Monday December 15, 2014

We had a little wander around the resort this morning.

Tuesday December 16, 2014

The hotel still does not have internet cards, I took a taxi to Chivrico to update the blog. I shared the taxi with other tourists from this hotel who wanted to visit the “sister” hotel – Los Galleonos. It is a smaller hotel for adults only, it sits atop a hill overlooking the ocean. It used to be the hospital in Chivrico. There was only one computer at the telepunto office. I felt bad using it for an hour but, Cubans are used to waiting for everything.

Wednesday December 17, 2014

Today is Janet Burrel’s birthday (80^th). I worked with Janet in England and she was one of the best bosses I have ever worked with. She was strict, generous, kind, funny and very caring. She encouraged me to follow my dreams and travel when I first left England in 1983. I hope you had a great surprise birthday party Janet, I wish I could have been there.

Thursday December 18, 2014

Our last day of our week off the bike. I think we are both ready to get back on the bikes and finish this leg of the Grand Adventure. The weather this week has been sunny in the mornings and overcast most afternoons. Great weather for a week relaxing.It has been lovely to be able to relax and read. The hotel has lots of English books in the “library”so I read five books, just “holiday” reads, but it was still nice to read. Ralf got through two books and started the third. I have one confession about the library – the books that are left were English, French and German and were all over the place. I had to organize it – I only sorted them in languages (all the German together etc.)

We have been able to catch up on the news, as the television has a Canadian channel. We heard about the exchange of prisoners between Cuba and the US and renewed relationships between the two countries.

It was nice to have different food choices. Now we know where all the chicken breasts go to. While we have been on the road in Cuba, we haven’t had any chicken breast – only legs. The resorts get the breasts, I am serious. We also had a choice of vegetables and fruit. Most mornings we had cereal, which is very expensive in the stores here and yogurt. That made a nice change too.

This resort is primarily Canadian tourists some have been coming back every year for 15 years. It is a nice resort, but not worth visiting twice a year for 15 years.

Saturday December 13, 2014

Tough day at the beach, but someone has to do it. Had a nice lie-in and went for breakfast, we decided to give eggs a miss this week, as we have been eating eggs everyday for the past 7 weeks. There is cereal and lots of fresh fruit, that should keep us going until lunchtime.

Ralf helped finish the jigsaw puzzle while I rinsed a few clothes out. Apparently one of the regular guests started the jigsaw puzzle many years ago and she brings a new one each time she comes. Guest services keep them in a cupboard and puts another one out every time one has been completed. We read our books in the lobby and then had lunch.

Today was a little overcast, but still warm about 25 degrees. In the afternoon we sat by the pool and read some more. We are putting lots of suncream on, even though it is overcast. Out bodies are very white, except our arms and legs which are very brown, we look very odd next to the regularly tanned people.

I couldn’t get on the internet to update the blog. Something about only the cards sold at the hotel work on the hotel computers! Of course the hotel didn’t have any cards available. I think I will take a trip into Chivrico on Monday to use the computers at the telepunto office. There is a free shuttle that leaves the resort at 9:30 everyday.

Tonight we didn’t watch the show we relaxed in the lobby with a drink and chatted and watched people.

Friday December 12, 2014

I had a good nights sleep and woke up ready for a 70 km day (turned out to be 61.1) but I was ready to go the distance. We were on the road by 7:25 am with the usual directions from the casa owner, “Turn left at the end of the street, turn right at the traffic lights and carry along that road straight” Of course there are usually a few more extra turns to take before we can go straight, but we managed to find our way out of the city quite easily and get onto the road that would lead us to the hotel and our week off.

The wind was a bit of a pain today. It alternated between a tail wind, a side wind, and a head wind. The route was rolling hills with a couple of steeper climbs to go over, we are now heading into the Sierra Maestra Mountain range. There were some lovely little bays, with small cafeterias and beach huts. At one of hourly stops we stopped close to one of the beaches and a fella walked across the road and asked us if we would like to eat in his restaurant – “fish, lobster, shrimp, chicken – good food” Ralf looked at the time it was 9:30 in the morning. He said” I don’t think I will be eating fish and lobster at 9:30 in the morning”. The fella shrugged and walked away.

I felt great, my legs were strong and my tummy wasn’t doing cartwheels. I was even singing along the way – the Sound of Music, of course. Ralf on the other hand didn’t have the legs, the rhythm nor could he get the gearing right as he climbed the hills. To indicate how bad he was feeling I beat him up three of the hills and left him standing whenever I took the lead. I had to wait for him to catch up quite a few times. Now this is going to sound really mean, but it felt good to be stronger than Ralf for a change. Usually he is as strong as an Ox and loves hills.

We arrived at the hotel at 11:30 and were able to check in early. After settling in to our room, we had a wander around the resort to recce the place and then had lunch. It has internet, but the computer is old I am not sure I can use my USB stick to update the blog.

After lunch I picked a book from the “library” and we sat by the pool, relaxing. Tough life, but someone has to do it.

Dinner was good with a wide variety of choices and vegetables. We watched the show, they were as bad as I remember them.

One of the interesting things at this resort is a large jigsaw puzzle in the lobby. Everyone gathers around it and adds a piece of two to it. You get chatting to your fellow guests and it is quite an ice-breaker. We are not sure if a guest has bought them, or the hotel puts them there.