Yesterday was quite tough. We climbed up towards San Gottardo pass in the Swizz alps. Some days ago we sent 10kg of stuff we can do without, to Sweden, to lighten up before the climb. But it was still heavy. In the end of the 40 km and 600 m of elevation gain, it felt as if even a small downhill was going uphill. So today we took a rest day at a small cute campground, Gottardo, perched on a mountainside. We did laundry, bike maintenance and swam in the pool. Andreas and the kids went for a walk. I was beyond tired, only edelweiss and apricot ice cream could bring me back to life. Tomorrow will be uphill only. When Andreas and the kids got groceries yesterday, I went back to memories from Cuba. An older man had just given Alma and Arthur a coin each, with a big smile on his face, and it reminded me how the people on Cuba adored the kids. People often sat on their porches and looked surprised and happy when they saw us bike by. Arthur shouted Hola! or Adios! and they got even more excited exclaiming aahhh lindo!, meaning “cute”. When they had the chance, they’d come up to touch their blond hair or even kiss them on the head. It was not just fun, it was a great advantage to travel with kids. Some travellers we met felt duped in various ways, we rarely did, probably thanks to Alma and Arthur. People just didn’t want to destroy for kids in any way, it seemed. Another interesting thing is, we always felt very safe letting the kids play outside with local children. It was obvious that communities were tightly knit and “everyone” looked after “everyone’s” kids. Older children looked after younger. At home we don’t even let them play at the playground alone, in the town of Sandino we took a nap while they played with a group of kids on the street. Even Cubans explained to us that Cuba is very safe for children, few cars and no “bad” people. That is probably a modified truth, but we felt very safe nevertheless. Some Cubans were quite worried that we took the kids out biking in traffic, urging us to be careful of all the "crazy" drivers. With a few exceptions, we found drivers very considerate and some days we did not see more than 10 or so cars. The fewer cars, the more horse or ox drawn “vehicles” on the road. Havana was a different story of course but we did bike there, without any incidents. Adding to the safety, Cubans don’t carry or possess guns, and even if rum is available everywhere very cheaply, we only saw one drunk, and that guy was considered “whacko” and told off by a 10 year old girl to stay off her mom’s ice cream parlour! Drugs are banned and we never saw any addicts either. Thus, fear not to travel around Cuba, especially not with children! Back now to the town Viñales. There we discovered how poor the Cuban wi-fi was. Almost every plaza had it, and to use it you bought a card with an access code. It was hard to connect to and many sites and apps were blocked. Alma’s disappointment knew no end when we couldn’t chat with her friend Hazel. Except for occasional banking and emails, we got a much needed e-detox. Viñales restaurants offered a break in the food monotony. It wad a bit costlier than we were used to, but so worth it. The town was touristy, but in the valley it was very quiet and beautiful, pictures describe it best. We did a daytrip to a cave that had a natural pool several 100 meters in. A “guide” followed those who wanted to go inside, in exchange for 2 CUC. It was an eerie place. Another day we took a super touristy horse ride through the valley, with the mandatory stops at a coffee plantation and artificial lake, we managed to escape the tobacco farm. Tobacco leaves do smell lovely when it dries on the fields though. The weather turned hot while we were there, and when we left, we reached the more authentic life of the valley. It was a beautiful, long 80 km day through tobacco fields and the mogotes, the typical mountains. We did not find anywhere to stay that night, and not much food, all we found was a small store that had crackers, canned tuna and water. In addition a woman gave us a bag full of mangoes from her tree. That night we pitched out tent a few hundred meters from the road, in the edge of the jungle, and had mangos and crackers for dinner. It was comforting to know that there are no dangerous animals on Cuba, except for the mosquitoes, they carry the Zika virus. There are also lots of annoying ants and on the friendlier side, green fire flies, I think they were actually beetles, very cool creatures that lit up the pitch black night. The heat continued, it was above 30 and we could not wait to get to the ocean. We had been in Cuba for over two weeks and not even been close to a beach! We chose to go to the Westernmost point accessible by road, Maria la Gorda, known for it’s clear waters. We had not been warned that that part of Cuba, at that time of year, gets a crab invasion of insane proportions. It started gradually with a few crabs crossing the road, tripping sideways, and ended with thousands, creating a rattling sound and covering roads, walls, even caused a restaurant to close. We spent a couple of days in a casa in La Bajida, among the crabs, to snorkel in the clear waters. We met a Swedish couple in Maria La Gorda and had a nice time chatting. When we left the crab place after a few days, the rain was pouring down and the road was transformed to stinky crab soup. Poor crabs, we could not avoid to crush them, but at least we did not get any punctures.
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Remember the cyclist how helped us find a room our first day on the road? The next morning, after our hosts prepared breakfast, told us about their lives, and gave us a few wonderful blooms of Cuba’s national flower Mariposa, we met the boy again. He biked with us for several kilometers, showed us the way out of town and onto the autopista. Unfortunately our poor Spanish made conversation difficult. That evening we arrived in Las Terazzas, a community up in the hills, surrounded by old coffee plantations and forested areas. We stayed there two nights, exploring the surroundings by bike. The casa family had a few pigs and one had new piglets in the morning. The kids were so excited. The piglets were cute, but I preferred the sunrise and the fruit filled breakfast served on the veranda. Beautiful jungle and serious climbs on the day we left the village. The weather was considered "cool" at 25 C or so. It was also dry as the rainier season had not started. However, we were not used to our new bikes yet. Andreas bike, loaded with all bags and with the trailer (Chariot) attached weighed about 85 kg. On top of that a 15 or 20kg child in the Chariot. Irene’s equipage, with the trailer bike attached, weighed 50 kg. Andreas had to walk his bike for the first time in his life, on one particularly steep section. In San Cristobal we let us be led by a local to a small hotel outside of town. Arthur turned 4 the next day, so after we spent several hours to find a bank and get more cash (we saw very few places that accepted credit card) we bought cake very similar to the Swedish “Rulltårta”. In the end of an afternoon of biking though the country side we reached the old “spa” town of San Diego de los Baños and found accommodation in what appeared to be the only casa in town. Various body parts needed a rest, so we stayed two nights despite the mediocre food; the elderly couple running the place might have done their best, but really, mouldy preserves?! How did those new top quality saddles treat us? Female version, not so well. Male, a bit better. But we had not reached the 400 km break-in distance so a bit soreness was expected. Almas main complaint was not physical, but the home sickness and longing for her dear friend Hazel. Many times per day she cried "I want Hazel!" or "I want to go home" or "why are we on this stupid trip". It appeared as if she was really suffering, and this was not easy to handle. Anyways, in this once probably pretty town, now run down, we met a man who was a geography and English teacher. He showed us his office/school library. We made a 20 CUC donation to the school, aware it might end up in his own pocket, boosting his monthly salary of 30 CUC (approximately what we paid per night for a room). At least he spent many hours sharing his points of view and showing us around. The following day, when we biked to Viñales, was a good example of what an average day was like: after breakfast, sun lotion and loading the bikes, Arthur jumped on the trailer bike and Alma in the Chariot. After about 15km, or 1 hour, we had a break, adjusted the saddle on the trailer bike and switched kids. The beauty of this order was that Arthur often fell asleep in the Chariot. We would start looking for a place to have lunch around mid-day. Then a switch of kids again. Quite often we stopped short after lunch for a siesta, sometimes in the shade of mango trees, which also gave us a free snack. When no shade to be found we used a light weight tarp to create some. The kids got some play time, their imagination turned coconuts, large legume pods, or whatever they found, into whatever suited the play. Then we had one or two biking sessions left before we looked for accommodation. In Viñales there were over 1000 casas!! We had heard about the tranquility of this place, but the town itself was very busy. And the weather turned hot. More about our adventures in beautiful Viñales Valley in the next post.
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AuthorWelcome to our family's 2017 bike touring blog! Who's going? Archives
October 2017
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