April 22, 2015

What happened…

Andrew writes: I’m starting to think that we have too much “stuff”. When I think of what I carry, it includes:

A bag with my clothes in it

A bag with everything I use everyday (toiletries, computer, chargers, blanket, pillow)

A bag with tools and spare parts

A bag with my kite in it

A backpack with beach toys inside (snorkel, flippers etc.)

I asked Amanda today why we carry so much of this crap, and her setup is similar to mine, really only clothing and one other bag that we use daily. She reminded me that it’s “just in case”. Well, I’m starting to reconsider this. Not the kite mind you, that I don’t mind lugging around. It’s all the other stuff. I think to what we left behind at our friends house back in North Vancouver before we went to Cuba, and it’s SOOO much crap that we may or may not need. It has only been a week, but maybe we can lighten our load a little bit as we travel further in the world. These “things” can act as a bit of a boat anchor at times, both physically, but mentally. How about you dear reader, what extra things are cluttering up your life, that you could donate to a cause, or sell, or just get rid of? What’s holding you back?

I enjoyed the ride today. I knew from the start that it would be a long day, and so as our speed ground down into single-digits in the afternoon because of fatigue and headwind, I just didn’t care. I knew that we would get to where we needed to be…eventually. The terrain was pretty much flat the entire way. After we turned off the Carreterra Central in Rio Cauto, there was very little traffic all the way to Manzanillo.

The first Casa we went to today was occupied, but the owner helped us get sorted out with one of the several others here in town. Amanda and I walked to the town square and found a sit-down restaurant that charged only 10 pesos ($0.40CDN) for hot dogs; we ordered 5. I was thrilled that they came with both ketchup AND mustard. Ice cream and orange drink rounded out the meal with a total bill of 57 pesos or $2.35CDN.

Walking around Manzanillo after dinner was the highlight of the day for me, for sure. All of the people sat out on their doorsteps, talking with one another. Groups of men sat on chairs or buckets; on street corners, with a table balanced delicately on their legs – playing dominos. Children had invisible cordons around their play areas; some were playing soccer, while others played baseball of a sort. People were just being people; they were a community. The kind of community I envisioned existed BEFORE the internet, and before television and video games. I ask again dear reader, when was the last time you sat on your steps and yelled, “HEY!” to someone passing by. It happens all the time here, maybe you could start a trend back home.

I’m looking forward to taking a day off tomorrow. do some exploring of the town, go see some crocodiles, and give my backside a break. The areas around here appear to be somewhat remote, and it could be another long day in the saddle to our next place to sleep.

Amanda writes:
The heat took it’s toll today. The highest reading we saw was 36 degrees. Combined with close to 100 km it was hard. However at the end of the day I’d almost put this in the highlight column too because we never bonked, were smart about water and just knew it would be hard. I’d say our previous marathon training helped us today; 90% mental, 10% physical. I think we are starting to adapt to the heat and that is good as we mentally prepare for Central and South America.

Today was again thought provoking for me. Riding past life in Cuba and watching the locals live their lives is wonderful. Everything moves at such a peaceful pace and while their pace is different from North America; it works. In addition, their methods of food preparation and farming is wonderfully simple. Today I saw no less than four different animals enroute to what was likely someones dinner table. Today we saw a man with a pig on his rear bike rack, likely taking it to someones house for a pig roast later in the day. Then I saw a woman walking down the street carrying a duck by it’s legs only to be followed by a man who got out of a horse drawn taxi cart with two goats tied up at the legs and a bag of chickens. The guy with the goats and chickens I didn’t understand because all of his animals were still alive which was hard to watch them struggle. The only thing Andrew and I could come up with was that maybe in this heat it’s better to keep them alive during transport so they don’t rot as fast. At first I thought how terrible for them until I was reminded of the way we do things in North America. We have 100’s or 1000’s of cows all crammed in a facility gorging themselves on the antibiotic laced food we give them until we slaughter them. Here there are endless fields of cattle and different animals and it works. Large open fields for different types of animals, at most maybe 100 at one farm. In any event, seeing the simplicity of many people putting food on their table was interesting.

Something that is really standing out for me today is the cleanliness of Cuba. In the bigger cities we see people sweeping and washing the sidewalks and streets multiple times each day. In the smaller towns and farm areas there is no garbage at all! This place is cleaner than Canada. If you saw a candy wrapper on the street it would stand out because there literally is nothing. We’ve been here now for almost two weeks and it is just as clean everywhere. Everyone takes so much pride in the their surroundings it’s fabulous. It really makes me wonder how Mexico got to the state they’re in.

We arrived this afternoon after almost 100 km to Manzanillo and I really like the vibe in this community. It was nice to return to the ocean, the Caribbean Sea to be precise. I was hoping to put my toes in the water but there is no beach, only a malecon (boardwalk). Also the water doesn’t look clean. It’s weird, somehow I expected it to be as aqua marine green as it was on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. Maybe it will improve as we move away from the city.

Our bodies suffered a bit today and after almost a week of riding everyday we’ve decided to stay here in Manzanillo for two days. When we took our riding clothes off to shower we discovered our bodies were protesting a bit. I developed a heat rash on my quads, my butt is a bit sore and I sit down right now like someone who needs a donut to sit on. I’ve also developed a cold; my first one since retiring 9 months ago! Andrew has the beginning of some saddle sores and if we had that donut to sit on; he’d use it 50% of the time. So after checking in to our wonderful casa that is actually a full apartment with a sitting room and two roof top patios overlooking the Caribbean, it was a no brainer that this is where we will rest.

Tomorrow we’re going to the crocodile farm! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a crocodile and I’m super excited.

Today’s Photographs