January 1, 2009
The Bikes Come out of their "Shells": Assembly and the first little foray on the bikes
For some reason Marie-Anne's alarm went off at around 7:00 am. Then again at 7:10 am. Then 7:20 am. So, I was awake earlier than I had hoped.
I did not want to sit around so I went for a walk through the resort to check things out. Nelson was cooking the eggs in the buffet again, as efficiently as ever. Nobody else was wandering around, but me. The waves were coming up the beach. The sun came up over the mountain.
Once Marie-Anne was ready we went to the buffet to get our breakfast. After carrying 1.5 lb of Nutella for 2,500 km, Marie-Anne gave Nelson the jar for him and his family to enjoy... our packs begin to lighten.
Breakfast was as good as I remember - delicious tuna, bread and an omelette. Once we were ready to eat we sat out on the balcony where we chatted with Maria, who we had met here last year. She is doing well though the hurricane that hit a few months ago toppled their porch roof. Otherwise, the kids are good and all is well. When we asked where she lives she said that it is 45 km away in a village called Jaruco, in the direction of Santa Cruz, but past Hershey (Camilo Cienfuegos). Pretty tough on a bike, though she suggested we could do it on scooters - something I am not too comfortable with.We will have to give this more thought - I am a bit nervous for our safety on a scooter. Some things to consider, since she seemed pretty excited when she thought we might visit their home.
Both of us were tired from last night and yesterday so we had a snooze in the room after which I put her bike together. Not sure where to go first, we decided to take the gifts from Rene and Roza to Ismael's family. All I had to work with was the image in my mind of the photos of their house that Rene had e-mailed to me. That with his name and their photo. As we climbed the hill from the hotel a certain grouping of houses looked familiar. Then I could see the pink shorts of his wife, just like in the photo from Rene. To make sure, I asked where his house was and she said she was his wife. I told them we had gifts from Rene and Roza so they invited us up to their home. We met them, the kids, their parents, siblings - all but Ismael himself who was still at work.
The family was very gracious and generous, offering us a number of guavas from their trees, then had us go up the hill behind their homes to see the New Year's pig roast. I took a photograph of the roast, but there was a bed of coals on the ground in a pit, and the pig was split down the middle and spread out on a steel mesh. The pig was covered with a palm frond and lowered down over the coals. It smelled and looked delicious. The family was very proud and wanted us to take a photograph to send to Rene and Roza.
After our thank yous and farewells we rolled back down to the resort then right along to the campismos. Unlike last year when they were almost totally deserted save for the security guards, there were many Cuban vacationers for the New Year's holiday. Most kept a curious eye on us as we cycled past. At the end of the road, we took a few photographs as we did the past two years, as well. Along the lower path we noticed a lot more debris onshore so we thought that the hurricanes must have blown or washed this all ashore, or maybe even blown down a few palms.
It was interesting that each time at our hotel the guards kept an eye on us, wondering if we were guests of the hotel. After a refreshing drink we rolled back down to our room to put the bikes away then went to sit in the main building under the canopy with a drink. We gave thought to tomorrow's agenda - I think I'll do an early morning ride before Marie-Anne gets up, then maybe we can head to Canasi with some of our gifts (regalos).
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Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 10 km (6 miles)
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