February 13, 2019 to February 14, 2019
Expect the Unexpected
After a good night’s sleep we got up a little early to finish packing and then enjoy our last breakfast here – best Casa breakfast ever!
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One of the things we love about Mari and Noel is how much of a team they are. They seem to share the duties of raising their son and of running the casa. Mari’s work is in commerce and they are both very supportive of each other. Much too soon it was time to say our goodbyes and climb out way out of Matanzas.
The hill leaving town was not nearly as long and hard as we were anticipating. We were happy to have some cloud cover to keep the heat down, but did notice an increase in the humidity in the air today. We did seem to have a nice little tailwind going as we moved along enjoying the scenery from this point of view. At about the halfway point we came to the “tallest bridge in Cuba” and this time, we pulled off to stop at the tourist place there. We needed to get a picture and sample their Piña Colada’s as we have heard they are wonderful. Of course, as this was a tourist stop, we were charged $2.00 to park the bikes – oh well, at least they guy said he would watch them for us! Coming up to the terrace, which was crowded with tourists from the bus parked outside, we lined up for our drinks. Now, by this time it was 11:00, a little early for us, but we promised our daughter, Katie, that we would try them so here we were. They were served in hollowed out pineapples, and there was a bottle of rum on the counter so you could add as much as you wanted to your drink. Perhaps this adds to their appeal, but we had been spoiled by the Piña Coladas we had enjoyed up in Vinales and so, unfortunately, could not give these our seal of “Best Piña Coladas Ever” – that one belongs to the Three J’s bar in Vinales. Since we had a choice, we didn’t add a whole lot of rum to our drinks, obviously as we had some cycling yet to do. We did take a few more pics before taking our leave. If you do come here, I would give the drinks a pass and just get some pics of the view, which is pretty impressive.
Heading back out, we couldn’t help but notice that the clouds were starting to look a little ominous and that the wind had come around to become a headwind – hey! What’s with that???? We pushed through but eventually, with raindrops starting to fall, we took shelter in a bus stop for a break. Good thing too as we weren’t in there for more than a minute or two when the rain began to fall in earnest. We enjoyed a little snack (leftovers from breakfast) and the extra juice that Mari had so kindly provided and then just sat and watched the rain. A young man also came into the shelter but didn’t seem inclined to talk so we all waited in silence.
After about 20 minutes it looked like there was a break in the weather and we too the opportunity to make the final 20km dash to our destination of El Fraile, getting a little wet along the way but missing most of the wet. Unfortunately, when we finally pulled in, it was to find that the casa was totallly full for the night. Danyela was very disappointed in not being able to help us but directed us to another casa to check out. Sadly, they were also full and the third one we checked had no one home. We decided that we needed to head back to Villa Loma to hopefully stay in one of their cliff top rooms. The wind was picking up again as we pulled in, and we were beginning to seriously wonder if our luck with rooms had finally run out, but no, after a bit of messing about, the woman at the desk managed to find us a room – actually, its more like a tiny house! We have 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and bathroom as well as a dining room/living room. So much room! So many chairs!!! We felt a little lost as we looked through, but happily so! And all of this for $50, which includes breakfast, so really only another $10 from our casa!
As we settled in, the wind outside was really kicking up. We had intended to ride back to the restaurant for dinner (and flan) tonight, but as things became worse and worse, we knew that would not be happening. Instead, we sat at the window and watched the crazy storm blow outside. The waves were just huge – bigger than anything we have seen so far and the trees were being battered by the unrelenting wind. When I went out to see the waves I was soaked within 30 seconds. It felt like I was one of those reporters reporting on a hurricane – what a scene! Rain actually started coming in the door so we had to put towels down to keep the tile floor from becoming dangerously wet. We watched the storm for quite a while from the safety of our little living room before heading over to the restaurant a short distance from our room for dinner. Thankfully by then the winds had calmed somewhat and the rain was not quite as intense so we weren’t completely soaked on the 2 minute walk over. Dinner was…..well, ok. This is a government run hotel, the same chain we have stayed in before, so we didn’t have high expectations and they managed to deliver an edible meal. There were only two other tables of diners there – a group of girls from Quebec, I am guessing from their French, and 4 folks from Winnipeg. We chatted briefly with them before settling down to enjoy(?) our meal.
Back in our room we played cards while listening to the continuing storm outside until it was time for bed. We are thinking that we should try to stay put tomorrow, given the weather, so hopefully that won’t be a problem.
Feb 14 – Love Day
Our friend, Danyela, yesterday told us the restaurant would be very busy today because it is “love day”, otherwise known as Valentine’s Day. Who knew? This is a BIG deal in Cuba! When we stopped in this morning to pay for another night (thankfully not a problem), we noticed they had posted their menu for the special dinner tonight - $40 per person!!!! Oh boy! We were not interested in that at all, especially given their track record, so decided that we would cycle over to El Relincho for lunch and then order something to take away for dinner. That way we could have our flan and eat it too! Decision made, we walked down to the water to check out the big waves still crashing onto the rocks outside this morning. The original plan had been to do some snorkelling today, but that was obviously out of the question, but we enjoyed watching the display as much as anything so it was fine with us.
One thing that really bothered us as we explored the storm battered beach was the amount of plastic that had washed up along with normal things like seaweed and those pesky Man O Wars. When we were in Matanzas and went to the beach there, we had noticed the plastic and were sad that it wasn’t being cleaned up. Now we can see what a huge problem this is for an island like Cuba. On the tourist beaches, someone comes in daily to clean the beach so you never see what’s coming in, but today we were out before anyone came and were witness to the fact that this beautiful beach that we had seen just a few weeks before was also littered with garbage coming in from the ocean. Honestly, we are as guilty as many with our use of plastic, but as a group, human beings just need to stop this horrible horrible polluting of the world’s oceans. We live here, for Pete’s sake. This is our home and the home to so much life, and yet we are contributing to its destruction. I sure do hope that in the very near future we begin to clear up the mess that we have created.
After our walk, we grabbed the bikes and headed over to see Danyela and the gang. When we arrived, we could see that, indeed, this was going to be a very busy day. Everyone was dressed up – the waitresses all wearing bright red pants and special Valentine’s Day shirts and there were tables everywhere on the lawn. I bet they were happy that today was the special day and not yesterday! They seemed to be having a team meeting before the big rush so we had to wait a bit before someone finally came to give us a menu and take our order. However, once the order was taken and they understood our desire to take one order home with us it was no problem – hurray! Doesn’t matter what the weather does tonight, we will be snug in our little apartment eating Paella! And Flan!!!!
Yummy lunch done, we said a fond farewell to the staff, and to Danyela in particular. We have really enjoyed our time in this place and hope to return on other visits to Cuba. It is a wonderful little place and holds a special place in our hearts.
The day had finally warmed up enough for us to enjoy the front deck outside our rooms so we spent our afternoon just enjoying the warm sunshine from our deck and listening to the waves. That was, until the “special” music started up at the hotel pool not too far from our room. We had heard that it would be a Valentine’s theme tonight over there and knowing the Cuban preference for club type music, we were not looking forward to it. Sure enough, around 4:00 they started blasting the music so loud we could hear it clearly in our rooms with the doors closed. Oh boy, I guess its going to be a long night. Talk about going from the frying pan to the fire. Last night it was a storm, tonight it’s the Valentine’s Day music storm! Let all hope that they shut down at a reasonable hour (or maybe that another storm rolls in?). Tomorrow we are off to
Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 1,622 km (1,007 miles)
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