...this is the part of the trip when our bikes rust!

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so says drew during an epic ride along the carribean coast as our chains start creaking as we crank away...

I am not really sure when our last update was...so i will give a quick update since leaving havana for the second time...and this time i am able to write a bit more because we finally stopped being cheap and paid for a full hour of internet....EACH!

about a week or so ago we left havana on an overnight bus to Santiago...13 hours to be exact..with nothing more than REMIX cookies...they are like cream filled cookies...but better! we´ve eaten over 200 cookies thus far....and i am finally starting to get sick of cookies!

Upon arriving in Santiago at 6 am with our bikes (and it´s still dark) we jumped on and went to find a house to crash at....with luck we were sleeping soon but still with hungry bellies because in cuba....usually NO HAY (which we hear alot....it means...there are none). It´s incredible how many restauarants have servers that say to us...no hay!

So we spent 2 days in Santiago...cuba´s second largest city...here we entertained ourselves with a Salsa lesson, en la casa de jorge....our favorite cuban yet....and by conquering a HUGE climb...LA GRAN PIEDRA...about 8 miles of climbing to reach about 1200m...and the search for food before heading out to a more rural area of cuba along the carribean coast....heading west....

Some highlights from this trip include...but are certainly not limited to....

...arriving at the only lodging in many many miles along the coast to find it full of telephone workers...so we went home with the cook to her house...a small rural home with all kinds of rural fun....including a pig they named...esperanza (hope). This lovely cuban woman put us up in her home and cooked us a hot meal. She lived there with her two beautiful children and of course....esperanza the pìg...who would run into the house and steal plantains and the go outside and well.....eat like a pig! It was a true cuban experience...

...an epic ride to PUNTA PIEDRA...why epic you ask? well, after coming around a turn in the nearly washed out road (from hurricane dennis) we met the cuban headwind....8 days later....we are very well aquainted with mr. cuban headwind!

...meeting a lovely, and bright, canadian couple at PUNTA PIEDRA...they have been the topic of conversation often as they brought PEANUT BUTTER with them and shared it with us. eventhough i finished the peanut butter yesterday...we still think of them and hope their trip has continued to keep them safe and happy!

...Passing a sunday afternoon baseball game in a rural community....we stopped to give them a new baseball and what do you know...the game stops and drew is up at bat....i´m out in the field!

Time is running out...as i am sure i say that every entry....

Our plan is to continue crossing the width of cuba tomorrow and spend 2 days at the beach...we call it our vacation from vacation...before heading to trinidad. In trinidad we will cycle through the escambray mountains for 3 days and visit one more beach before returning to havana and trying to figure out what to do with our bikes..

Oh, for those of you following us on a map we traveled from Santiago west along the coast to punta piedra and then out to niquero with a day trip to las coloradas...where the granma landed. From Niquero we traveled north to manzanillo and then into the Sierra Maestras (where castro ran the revolution from...incredible and beautiful) the town there...santo domingo...from there to bayamo and now we are in holguin....leaving tomorrowo NW to playa las bocas....

hope everyone is well and happy...JZ..I have flossed everyday but one!
kristin

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