February 19, 2019 to February 20, 2019
Surprise! We're back!
Knowing that we didn’t need to leave all that early, as check in time is normally around 3 and we only had 15 km to ride out to our casa, we got up and were getting ready to head out to find breakfast when the power went out! Not an unusual occurrence at all in this part of town, but this time our room had no windows! We were able to use the flashlights on our phones to finish getting ready and headed out into the bright sunlight in search of a café. We had a secondary purpose this morning and that was to find somewhere that sells Cuban coffee beans. As I mentioned in an earlier post, grocery shopping here is kind of a chore with certain stores only stocking certain items. We had, as of yet, not found the one that sold coffee beans, but I had read online that I could purchase them from a café in Old Havana. We headed down into the old town and happened upon yet another lovely little café with breakfast for $5, so we stopped in and had another fantastic breakfast. It is unbelievable how much food is included in this small price. It is enough to keep you going for most of the day! Satisfied, we moved on to find the O’Reilly Café, located logically on O’Reilly Street (there were, apparently, a few Irish and Scots folk who came here in addition to the Spaniards). We found the café and purchased our coffee, which smelled heavenly and was still warm from roasting – yum!
That accomplished, we meandered back to our Casa to collect the bikes and bags and head off to Carlos’ casa. Despite the close quarters (and the power outage) we actually enjoyed our stay here. Vincente was just so sweet and kind and that went a long way towards making us feel happy with our stay. We headed down towards the Malecon for our last ride along it before heading up 12th where we would come to the Havana Cemetary. This seems like an odd stop, but it is a very famous place with many many elaborate tombstones dating back to when it was first established in 1871. The population in the cemetery is larger than many cities at 80,000. While there were many tombs that were of interest to us as we went by, there was one in particular that I wanted to see. That one, only marked by the number 43 is the tomb of Cecelia Sanchez, who was instrumental in the Cuban Revolution. I had been reading about her and was interested to see that she had insisted on a burial with other members of the Revolution with no name plate or other adornments, making the place all the more special to Cuban people who know her story.
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When we finished our tour, we continued on the very short distance to our first casa in Cuba. We were excited to see the ladies we had met when we first came here and it was with that excitement that we arrived and rang the bell. And then rang it again. And again. Finally, a woman we did not know came to the gate. She spoke no English but we tried to let her know that we had a reservation for 2 nights. She was not buying it and left us waiting outside in the hot hot sun while she called to see what the story was. Finally, she let me come in and I showed her our bike boxes which seemed to convince her we were telling the truth. She allowed us both to come in with the bikes and we at least got to sit on some chairs in the shade while things were sorted. She apparently got ahold of Carlos, the owner, who must have realized the mistake that had been made as she now brought us some cold water while shooing the young couple who were currently occupying our room out. We felt awful and didn’t really want to make things difficult for anyone, but have learnt that Cuban people have their own way of doing things and we just needed to sit tight and let things unfold. The young couple moved from the room we had booked to one in the house (not looking terribly happy about it – who could blame them?) and the woman who now smiled at us began cleaning the room. Eventually Carlos drove up and apologized for not looking at the calendar before giving the room to the young couple. We are thinking they are friends or family, but who really knows. Eventually we were able to move our things into the now clean room, but the atmosphere what not terribly welcoming with the young couple sitting outside looking pretty gloomy. We decided to go for a walk and then go to have dinner at the restaurant we had enjoyed before. At the beginning of each day, we usually load Jim’s wallet with what will be enough money for that day and today was no different. However, we didn’t account for paying an entry fee for the cemetery, nor for a couple other purchases we had made and so had the unfortunate experience of asking for the bill at the end of dinner and realizing we didn’t have enough cash! Oh no!!! Of course they did not take Visa (hardly anyone does). There was nothing else to do but send one of us back to the casa for cash. Jim volunteered and I ordered a second Mojito. I know, it was difficult, but I managed to wait patiently until he came back, huffing and puffing with the money. The waiter thought it was all too funny and we had to agree!
Back in our room, we listened to a podcast before trying to get some sleep. However, due to the odd way our return had unfolded, neither of us was able to drift off so we ended up watching some terrible movie (in English!). We came in near the end and when it was done were treated to the official sign-off of the tv station. This is something we both remember from when we were little – tv did not go on forever, but stations would sign off and then there would be just a screen shot of something and a tone. It was funny to see this after so many years! With nothing else to do, we again settled down and this time managed to get to sleep.
Wednesday – the last day!
For our last day here in Cuba, we had wanted to cycle out to the Hemingway House museum, about 15 kms from here. We had set the alarm for 7:30 and even with our very late night, managed to drag ourselves out of bed by 8:00. We had not been offered breakfast and so, thinking we would surely find a café along our route, we took off in the slightly cooler morning air. It was a slight uphill for most of the way but we had happily decided to ride up on the highway rather than taking the smaller roads as we remembered how much room there was on the highway for bikes. Arriving in the neighbourhood of San Francisco, we rode past the turnoff to the museum, looking for a café that was on my map. However, when we reached it we found out that even though they were open and had tables and chairs, they had no food. Oh boy. Well, that made two of us. We had no food either! We rode back and found an open bakery where the only thing for sale was french style bread. We bought a loaf and looked next door to what looked like a fruit stand only to find that they only sold drinks. Ok, so we bought a couple of juices. Now we had breakfast! Laughing at our ridiculous food, we rode up to the museum entrance to find they would not be open for another 20 minutes. Perfect! We broke the bread (literally – it was that hard that I had to break it over my leg!) and enjoyed our bread and juice while watching people lining up for the opening. Of interest to us was a little group of elementary students – what a fun field trip that would be! Once the gates opened, taxis and tour busses began going through the gates. We joined the line up an were soon cycling up the long driveway to have a look at where Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba. Us, along with a whole bunch of white haired tourists and of course, one sweet little school group. Once we had parked the bikes and handed over our ticket, we joined line after line to peek into the home of this very famous author. I wonder what he would have thought of the spectacle he has become! While some parts were interesting to see, it was all just very touristy. The best part was seeing the little kids for me! However, it was an interesting experience to walk in this place and picture Hemingway here, and very sad to think of how he had to leave it and never return.
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Once finished, we headed back the way we came, keeping a lookout for somewhere to get some actual food. This happened about halfway back at a very busy little roadside restaurant where we ordered chicken and rice. I’m not sure if it was really that good or we were just so hungry but man, that was some good chicken!
When we finally got back to the casa, we checked with Carlos about our departure tomorrow. Apparently it is very difficult to get a taxi to come to the house and particularly when you are asking for something as large as a van. The end result is that Carlos and a friend will both drive us to the airport in the morning. It will cost us twice what it cost us to take the cab here, but as we have no way of confirming a cab it is the best option. I think on our next visit we will either stay right at the airport for the first night and leave our boxes there, or head straight into Havana where there are more taxis available to book. Oh well, these are the things you learn along the way, right? We are just happy to know all is taken care of. Jim spent the rest of the afternoon getting the bikes taken apart and into their boxes while I worked on the blog. With all the bags and boxes packed, we walked back to our now favourite little restaurant for a last Cuban dinner and Mojitos, of course. Tomorrow at this time we will be in Cancun and this little adventure will have come to a close. I guess that’s part of travelling, isn’t it? Your trip eventually ends and you return home, thankful to see family and friends, but sad to leave all that you have had while on your adventure. We love this mode of travel and are already planning our return to Cuba. There is so much more to explore!
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 1,733 km (1,076 miles)
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5 years ago
5 years ago