Everyone thinks we´re German...

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We´re now in Holguin the 3rd largest city and near the birthplace of Fidel. We arrived after a grueling 40 mile ride with 20mph headwinds. Happy to be here!

We spent 2 nights in the Sierra Maestra national park and hiked to the Commandancia de la Plata, where Fidel, Che, et al (kinda Valley Forge or Gettysburg - Cuba style) managed the revolution in 1959, we saw the huts they lived in saw the location of Radio Rebelde. It was a great hike in wonderful scenery with great history. Our guide was wonderful. He was probably in his mid-thirties and had lived in the village of Santo Domingo (pop 600) all his life, the furthest from Santo Domingo he has travelled was to Maceo Bartolome, 50 miles away. Yet he speaks the best english of any Cuban we´ve met and has not taken a proper english class, he has learned from clients he has guided. Since he lives so high up in the Sierras his radio can get Miami rock stations that get past the Cuban governments jamming eqipment, so he likes modern music like Eminem, Three Doors Down, REM, Dido, Def Leppard. He and his buddy download music at the public library then burn it on to CD´s not an easy thing to do here in Cuba!

Santo Domingo is on the steepest road - we had to walk our bikes up the incline out of the village...

...running out of internet time here, but a great traveler coincidence happened last night.

I ran into a lady in the town of Bayamo last night, she was on a bike tour with Canadian company, who I had hung out with in a hut along the Kepler Track on the South Island Of New Zealand a yeAR Ago!

All THE BEst.

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