Off to the airport in Havana tomorrow night

We had a big day yesterday as the accomadation we planned was closed down . So after 30 extra km we carried on to a beach on the north coast 60km out of Havana . 160km and didn't get there until 7pm , with a few stops. Matnanza was a cool city though. Like an undeveloped Havana with some nice beachs in town and cool old buildings.

Thanks Lorrin and Jon. Happy birthday to Dad on the 19th. It was Castro's birthday yesterday so the TV had specials on with our poor spanish we though he may have died for a minute.

Love to everyone and especially our familys. Lorrin , Matt, Liam and Fion ( and Leah). I miss you Fi and am looking forward to seeing you, sorry its another week away. I will phone from Chile,.

We will save the last of the card to check in tomorrow.

We got to share some nice soup with a large Cuban family while swiming in the bay and meet two nice guys from Holland over dinner. Also the basic acommodation had 3 rooms so we got seperate rooms for the first time.



Only an easy 40km along the coast today and we have checked into a flash hotel only 20km outside Havana . We will head in tomorrow and try and catch up with Freddy to get our packaging for the bikes and head to the airport about midnight. We will give him a $20 and some of our extra bike bits.


We have a bit of time on the new internet card. But Chris willtry to get some photos on in Chile and James at home.

We are happy to be finishing up and have mixed feelings about Cuba. Maybe when we are rested we will be more postive about the place and the people. They do a great job to enjoy themselves in what is a hard system. Having a beatiful climate and string culure holds them together. Its been good seeing them enjoying the beaches and evenings over the last of their summer holidays.

It seems that many only have to do their state employment about half of the time and get to try and make a bit extra though whatever means the rest of the time . About half seem to manage that well and have extra spending power. We don't understand it enough to know what life is like for everyone.

But they love having fun and are a very sexy people. that may sound odd but they are. We are relaxing a bit now butit will be good to get the bikes on the plane.
Love and bye for now

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