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Sunday December 19, 1999 - Last night my buddy Bob met me at Cancun Airport and we took the cheap peso bus to our hotel. We got up the next morning with loads of time to spare. Since last year the line for Cubana Airlines flight to Cancun did not even form to 11 AM, we thought we could get away with arriving at 10:15 AM instead of 10 AM. Little did we know that our entire group checked in by 10 AM, they actually arrived at 9:30 AM. Because the line was so long it was not until a quarter of 11 that I made contact with David Mozer the Bicycle Cuba Director in the US from Seattle. He gave us our tickets and wished us luck getting on. This was the best he could do. Our group was split now with me and Bob behind. The plane left without us and 20 other overbooked passengers. One lady blew her top at the travel agents. I politely asked a few minutes later if there was any possiblility of flying today. They said ALL the airlines were sold out. I envisioned us taking 3 days to get to Habana. But not to fear the Cubana Airlines gave us a special flight at 10 PM, that arrived with 3 incredibly drunk passengers aboard who would have been arrested, and not allowed on the plane in any other country. But this is laid back Cuba. We arrived safely at 12:30 AM and I thank God for it. I was afraid one of those drunks would smash out the windows and the whole plane would explode. One of them went 3 times into the pilots cabin. They refused to buckle seat belts or even sit in their chairs. When some Cuban Air Marshals came on the plane and yelled at them they got in line very quickly. I guess they were afraid of the Cuban jails. When we arrived at 12:30 AM Monday morning, I had all my stuff, but 6 of us had various missing pieces of luggage including Bob's bike. Dave Mozer lost his bike on the earlier flight. I hope we get our bikes back tomorrow. It turned out Bob got his the next day, but David's still has not shown up. I crawled in bed at 4 AM. Pedro (Cuban trip leader) and David met us at the airport, bless their souls. I ate dinner at 3 AM. Bob went straight to bed without dinner.

Monday Dec. 20 - After lieing/sleeping in till 9:30 AM, I had break- fast and leisurely assembled my bike. I test rided it and it works great. This is the second trip for my Moulton. The first was in Europe a few months earlier. Yesterday we had a wonderful conversation in Cancun with Andrew, a mandolin player and fellow stranded passenger, who has lived in Cuba for 7 years. He is a musician married to a Cuban and gave us an earfull of his views. Anyway, he ran out of money and could not get back to Cuba without 40 dollars for a transit visa. Bob and I lent this to him so he could return. He promptly paid us at the airport upon arrival, a very responsible person. He said we saved his life. So I guess there was a good reason for us missing the plane. We have a wonderful group of fellow cyclists, actually more women than men. Tonight I will be early in bed. I bought toilet paper at a dollar store that even takes Visas (except for American). The store was just like in the USA. Some people here have alot of money. It even sold huge Korean refrigerators brand new taller than me (186 cm).

Tuesday Dec. 21 - Today was our first riding day. We rode about 40 km on the highway "Autopista" towards Matanzas. We then turned off on a smaller road where Pedro warned us there was alot of downhill and not to go to fast. Before we knew it we were going 50 km / hour. Bob dropped his hat and I slowed down to pick it up for him. The next thing I knew I heard an explosion and 5 seconds later I was down. The fall could have been alot worse. I got road burn on both knees, elbows and my left thumb. The thumb was the worst. My front rim had huge gouges in it. Nyirka, Pedro's wife and a neurologist did an excellent job patching me up in the truck. Thank God for the truck which bought me safely the last 10 km to Matanzas. At one point my pants had to be removed to bandage my knees and Nyirka said to Claudia, her 5 year old daughter, and Anna, David Mozer's 4 year old dauther, the 2 little girls riding in the truck, don't look, and of course they did. Pedro got quite a kick out of this story the next day. At night we discovered a sink was leaking and creating a little river in our room. Bob my roommate and bike buddy patched the pipe with duct tape so we could safely make it through the night. So this was the end of quite a stressful day for me. Emily, the cyclist from the east village in New York lent me her emery board to file my rim smooth again. This took an hour and a half. I also used my leathermen which my company WRQ gave me for filing too.

Wed. Dec. 22 - Today is a much better day. My condition is much improved ("mucho mejor"). I can pedal fine. We first saw Pedro and Nyrika and Claudia's house which she gets as part of her doctor/ neurologist salary. It is quite nice. We then went to see the museum of "hand made books". These were beautiful books made from sugar fiber paper and hand bound. They had alot of nice stories. A book about clowns, and an anthropology article giving the history of the place of sex in Cuban culture. Gretchen did not want to buy this book because she thought it was "ponography". She bought the clown book instead. We then visited a grand old hotel and headed towards the market. We saw a bike delivering cake on a tray pedaled by a red haired Irish looking Cuban with a very dark African Cuban in front holding the tray. I felt like this symbolic union summarized the work Cuba has done to make "racismo" nonexistent. I could not reach for my camera in time to take this picture, but I will never forget it. At the market, I discovered fried Boniato which I believe is breadfruit. It is delicious. We also had plantains too. This was actually the best lunch of the whole trip. And it cost all of 15 pesos with a drink. We would never see Boniato again for the rest of the trip. We then went to a cave which was interesting but rather hot and muggy except for the very end of it. I did quite well in it, considering I was stuck in an incubator the first 3 weeks of my life. It brought back a few memories but I managed ok. There were 3 pools in the cave, one for verility, one for love, and and for youth. I dipped my hands in all 3. We then got back out of the cave, and pedaled to a beautiful beach right outside Matanzas. I was not gonna swim, but could not resist the water and others having so much fun. So I swam in my underwear for 15 minutes. The salt burned but it was very healing for my wounds ("heridos"). The others are salsa dancing tonight and I am writing this diary to get an early night for the 70 km to Cienfuegos tomorrow. In the evening we heard a revolu- tionary speak who fought in the war. He was not worried about the US invading Cuba. He did not think it would happen.

Thursday - Dec. 23 - Today was a long day. We started climbing the hills of Matanzas for a beautiful view of the city covered in some fog. We then had lunch in a little town with an old church in it. The lunch was crackers and guayabana (guava jelly). We met a man who spoke perfect English (Joaquim ) all self taught. He has his own little subsitence pig farm. He said he just barely makes ends meet. We gave him a Spanish/English dictionary and traded ad- dresses. He had incredible charisma, is very tall, handsome, and very self assured. Our group swarmed around him like a movie star. He hopes to travel to the US one day to use his English more. The day started to get real hot and muggy in the late afternoon at 2:30. We then hopped on the truck for 100 km and were let out 27 km before the final destination of the day a tourist hotel. It had nice ac- commodations overall but still very Cuban. It reminds me of the way things were done in the former East Germany. The dinner was very sparse. We ate much better in the Palomar/Particular (private houses/ restaurants). The toilet seat whacks you on the back as soon as you sit on it. The water in the shower is really hot but impossible to make it cold. It has airconditioning. The ladies from the East Village (Emily and Gretchen) toilet flushes like a river and never stops. I fixed it so that it fills but the valve where the water enters is broken, so alot of water is being wasted. I wonder if that was why the water was shut off for 6 hours in the afternoon the next day. A magician did some nice tricks for us. I prefer the "Particular"/simple cabins even with bucket cold baths to all this luxury. Anyway now I have a taste of how a "usual tourist" lives. One last note for today, while pedaling the last 27 km we inhaled so many diesel fumes that one can get a "diesel cough". You don't have to oil your chain, be- cause it gets plenty of oil through the air. It's as if all vehicles here were like the Seattle busses. There are not that many of them, but enough to do some serious air fouling. I wish Cuba would follow Brazil's example and switch to ethanol.

Friday - Dec. 24, 1999 - My mother's birthday. Today we went to the beach and I had a nice swim in the ocean. The water was nice and warm. The sun is incredibly hot on the beach and I wore shorts and a tshirt instead of my usual long pants and long shirt. This was a mistake. Eventually the heat overtook me and I went back in the truck and back to the hotel. On the way back the truck stopped and I cleared out the entire contents of my stomach. After that I felt alot better. I lied down and rested at the hotel for 2 hours, drank 2 miso soups, several liters of water and 3 "Emergen-c" (health food gatorade substitute) packets. In the evening I went out with the group in Cienfuegos for a nice lobster dinner. Emily gave me a warm hug when she saw me to wel- come me back. The town is a very old beautiful colonial town. Unfor- tunately I had to miss the afternoon boat ride, town walk, and histor- ical society because I got sick. Anyway one can't always do every- thing. I slept very well that night.

Saturday - Dec. 25 - "Feliz Navidad" Today was a beautiful ride through some high hills surrounded by mountains in the countryside. We arrived at 1 pm , thanx to an incredible tailwind ("Viente favor"), at nice beach cabins. This was my favorite place of all that we stayed at. It was so clean and simple and nice. It had a color tv , but we did not touch it or the air conditioner. Both stayed off. This was just 23 km outside of the old colonial city of Trinidad. I ordered lunch in Spanish of course and was really proud of myself ordering for everybody. However, I neglected one detail. The food already came with french fries and salad, so everybody got second side orders of french fries and salad. The waitress did not say a word to us. I guess she thought if that's what they want, that is what they will get. We all laughed quite hard over this( Patricia, I , and Bob). Later David showed up, and we were so stuffed that there was a whole portion of dinner left over for him and Anna. Needless to say my dinner was quite light that night. In the afternoon we took a rowboat tour up a river and back, where a guy dived twice from a high rock- face into the water. We saw Blue Herons, white Herons, Green Herons, Igrets, and red crabs. Shoshona was the birder in our group and she had the book to tell us what was what. She was originally from the Netherlands and had been living in the States along time. She knew some of the towns where my mother had lived in the Netherlands before also coming to the states. In the evening we had dinner, heard and danced to some nice Cuban music (live band) in Trinidad. We also saw a little "Santeria" religious shrine. We all contributed heavily to this shrine firstly for our various wound. Patricia, David Mozers wife, also had quite a few mishaps far worse than mine. I will spare you the details. Secondly we contributed because 2 years ago somebody did not and he wound up braking his hand. We needed all the help we could get. Now it is midnight and we are going to sleep.

Sunday - Dec. 26 (Boxing Day) - Today we started off with a nice 1 1/2 hour pedal to Trinidad where we went to a beautiful historical museum. Cuba was actually discovered very early by Columbus and then about 300 years later the city of Trinidad was established in 1811. Alot of slaves worked here. We saw depictions showing how the slaves were transported in the boat shackled on the floor. There also was a photograph of an overseer whipping a slave. The museum is in a beautful old mansion. We climbed to the top of it and had a beautiful view of the City. We then went horsebackriding which I have not done in 28 years and swear I will never do again. The stirrups were way to short and very painful on my ankles. My butt was flying all over and I was sore as hell. Gretchen was also very uncomfortable on her horse. We got to a place where we had a light lunch and then walked 3 km to an exquisitely beautiful waterfall. We passed by a nice little farmhouse with a hammock and a herb garden. I bathed "au naturel" in the waterfall. Emily, Gretchen, and Val(the rider from France living in New Orleans) hung out for half an hour right under the falls. It was a little to cold for me so I just swam till 10 m away from it. After we put our clothes back on and the blood returned to our bodies we were nicely cooled for the entire walk back. There was not one drop of sweat on us. Apparently the Cuban guide unbe- knownst to us offered Gretchen a helping hand and would not let go of it for 3/4 of an hour, even when she said it was no longer necessary. Apparently she was somewhat stressed and kept tapping Bob on the shoulder, but he did not realize why she was tapping him. So I guess that's why Gretchen was so quiet on the way back. She could have pulled a "New York" and put the guy in his place, but she did not want to do that. Frankly, I want to say that Emily and Gretchen were just too much darn fun, and too nice to really qualify as New Yorkers. (Being a native New Yorker myself the first 21 years of my life). There's a rumor they may leave the high stress NYC fast life for the mellow rainy life here in the Pacific Northwest, but that's another story.

When I got back on the horse for the way out, Val (Bless her soul!) gave me some really good instructions. She said, take my feet out of the stirrups, lean back, and hold the horse with your abductors. It worked! Even when the horse galloped and I felt alot better. Sore abductors betes ankles full of stirrup gouges. In the evening we had a nice shrimp dinner, walked around and discovered a beautiful Cuban band consisting of a marimbela, a 3 tone mbira type bass, originally from Africa, a guitar, mandolin, bongos, and bells (claves). We danced on a cobblestone hill (none of us were wearing heels). Val met 3 Cuban guys. Each one of them ready to marry her and have a child. All 3 sat at the table with her. She declined their offers, but danced with all of them. I discovered Gretchen is an amazing "sexy" dancer. We went home in the truck at 10:15 PM and I had a nice talk with Val. We were back by 11:15 PM and I had a hot shower and was up the following day at 6 AM for an early start for tomorrows 911 meter climb. It was no emergency but we did climb 911 meters the next day.

Monday Dec. 27 - I woke up today at 5:45 AM and got Bob up because I was nervous about the heat on todays 911 meter climb to Topes de Los Collantes. The climb was quite steep with 16 % grade and I had to walk 4 km because my bike did not have low enough gears (lowest 24 "). I also woke up Jim and Shoshona to jion us. They all left at 8 AM, and I followed them at 8:25 AM after writing my diary. I caught up with them 3 hours later at a beautiful lookout called "Mirador". This was the 911 Meter highpoint of the day. After half an hour rest we did the last 1 1/2 hours to Topas de Los Collantes. We ate a very nice meal consisting of spaghetti, tomato soup, salad, beets, and bread. We were serenaded by a very nice guitar acoustical band. He wrote down the words for us to the classic salsa song that Roy Cooder made famous in the Film "Buena Vista Social Club" . Las Palabras: "De Alto Sedro voy para Macane, llega a cueto voy para Mallory". I then went and got a haircut at the German huge "Curhotel" (health spa hotel). The haircut was beautiful and only 3 dollars. I only said one word to the lady barber "bajito" ( a little shorter) and she cut it perfectly the way I get it styled in Seattle. The Cuban people are very smart. I also bought a real nice dress shirt with a label called "energy" in the hotel shop for 8 1/2 dollars. Dinner in the evening was a huge buffet and boy was I dressed for it with my new haircut and shirt. I slept after dinner for an hour and then Gretchen and Emily came over and helped us write funny postcards to friends. Those ladies from NYC are an absolute riot. Gretchen even bought me mango juice. Now its midnight and time to sleep for the long downhill tomorrow to Santa Clara.

Tuesday Dec. 28, 1999 - We had a nice buffet breakfast and I made very good use of those zip lock bags David told me to bring. I also had half the group working for me. Later in the day there was a second breakfast for all and treats that I fished out of my pannier. I sup- pose I could have been harshly scolded for this theivery. But I was just a hungry cyclist helping out my fellow comrades too. As Berthold Brecht said "Erst kommt das Fressen, denn kommt das Moral!". First comes the food, then comes "morality". We then departed at 9AM down the mountain towards Manicaragua. The downhill was beautiful and cool with pine forests and later banana trees. We visited a small rural school house with 3 students in the classroom (one room). The 3rd graders were already doing algebra! I had to wait till 7th grade at my NYC school. We gave the students incredible gifts from Emily's scholastic publishing company and enough pencils for 10 years. We then pedaled to Manicaragua which was hotter where we had nice 2 Cheese Pizzas (6 Peso lunch). The others saw the tobacco factory which I passed up because I saw a cigar factory in Pinar del Rio last year. We mailed 10 postcards and then pedaled the last 20 km to Santa Clara. The town is a beautiful old colonial town with a huge park/main square. It reminds me a little of Delft, Netherlands in its layout. We are staying in the former Hilton, that was expropiated in the revolution. The beds are nice and Bob and I are used to the toilet not flushing. The shower is hot only and runs all night. There is a bucket for flushing though. Something really neat is the door opens leaving slots for ventilation. So we are getting a great cool breeze without air conditioning. Patricia hurt her foot a week ago, when she stepped on a nail. I am glad she got antibiotics here to take for it and saw a doctor yesterday. She is so sweet and mellow for someone whose foot was crucified. I enjoy having her and her daughter Anna on the trip. David and Pedro are super crankers and I can never keep up with them on the bike. It's nice to have Dave on the trip. Everybody seems to have a terrific sense of humor.

We just got out of one of the most incredible ballets I have ever seen, from a Habana Ballet Company. The ballet is called "La Habana Valdes". I slept through the first act but the second act was incredible. A woman really loved one man but was forced to marry another. She tried to kill the man she was married to, but he takes the knife away and later kills the man she loves. Her lover dies slowly and very passionately. The entire ballet is cast with Spanish Classical Flamenco Music, with an Afro Cuban rhythm on top. The fight scene between the 2 male rivals is this incredible foot stomping duo flamenco style. A domino game happens with rhythms reminiscent of "Stomp". There is alot of humor and very colorful costumes like in a Brazilian Carnival scene. There is a tremendous scene of a streetsweeper dancing with her broom and 4 other men with canes, all stomping their feet in beautiful rhythms. There was also a bullfight scene that reminded me of "Carmen". Now its 11 PM and time for bed. I'm so excited by the ballet and all the others in the group have rustled off to bed, conking out around me.

Wed. Dec. 29, 1999 - Today we had a beautiful breakfast buffet in our former Hilton Hotel now called the " Santa Clara Libre" since being expropiated. We discovered that the toilet did flush after all. We walked around the main square to shoot some pictures of the Gazebo and ballet theatre we were in last night. We then pedaled through very heavy traffic to the Che Guevara Memorial Museum. First we saw the room in which Che Guevara and his comrades were buried, about 40 something people. No talking was allowed inside. This is a very honored place for the Cubans. Che's drawer with his remains was the same size as all the others. That was good. Egalatarianism even in death. We then went to the museum that had a history of his life with various aftifacts from his different struggles, along with pictures of him with Fidel, and Camillo Cienfuegos. Outside there was a huge bigger than lifesize statue of Che with the early brigade in the Mountains. This was even more impressive. We then pedaled for 2 hours to lunch in a town called Santo Domingo where we had a nice fried rice with left over cheese rolls we expropiated from breakfast. We then pedaled 1 1/2 hours more and were put on the truck to our last overnight abode ,in beach cabins called, "El Abra", 65 km east of Habana. The place is nice and quiet. I was glad to get on the truck because I had "diesel lungs" again. It cleared up the next day. On the way to "El Abra" we stopped off in Matanzas city to pick up the bike boxes for those who were not donating there bikes, at Pedro Nyirka, and Claudia's house. I said goodbye to Nyirka, Pedro's wife. She hugged me and said: "Este Casa es su Casa!", and hoped to see me next year. She is sweet.

Thursday - Dec. 30 1999 - Today was the first really leisurely breakfast. At 10:30 we pedaled 7 km to Santa Cruz del Norte where we started the trip. The truck had bought us here from Habana. I bought 2 pizzas some postcards for Bob and mailed 3 of my own. Since it was not a tourist town, I bought my stamps for 1 1/2 Cuban Pesos instead of 1 1/2 US Dollars. We arrived back for a leisurely pack up of the bike. I gave Pedro cables, brake pads, tires, bell ( with Bambi on it for Claudia) , tubes and a handlebar bag. We had a light dinner. This trip had half the amount of food of the last trip. I am still surviving from my sardines. We danced a little after dinner. I re- member they played Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" which I first heard in April 1983 in Jahmaica when it came out before it hit the states. Earlier I took a nice walk on the beach and talked to a man fishing sardines for dinner. Tomorrow at 5:30 AM the truck will takes us back to the airport. Alfredo had the day off today to be with his 13 year old son for his birthday. Isn't that nice, he must be a good father. Alfredo is the chaufeur of the truck and the funniest most fantastic, sweetest mellowest guy around, even though we just barely understand one another when we speak. Alfredo is learning English and I am learning Spanish.

Friday - Dec. 31, 1999 - Last day of the millenium. We got up at 5 AM. Rather, I got up and then Bob woke up. We packed and were ready by 5:45 AM. I forgot to mention that we drank some fabulous fresh coconut milk yesterday. Several coconuts worth. I had not done that since being in Jahmaica. I and Emily blew bubbles in it with a straw and then Gretchen would not drink anymore. So we struggled to drink it ourselves. Yummy!

We arrived at the airport at 8 AM. Plane went off ok. We had a last meal together at a nice Mexican restaurant in Cancun at the airport there. This was with I, Bob, Jim and Shoshona. The others had already rushed their seperate ways to catch planes. It was rice beans and Guacamole. I said goodbye to my beautiful bike buddy and friend Bob. It was a GREAT trip! Tonight I think I will sleep for at least 10 hours in my hotel in Los Angeles. That is exactly what I did. I watched the celebrations for 1/2 an hour on TV and then at 10 went to sleep and slept straight through the millenium till 8 the next morning.

FIN!

For more information concerning cycling in Cuba check out Cuba Hosted Study Tour.

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