West to Vinales...

The road to Vinales... After Eldorette's arrival in Cuba, as predicted, the dynamic of my journey has shifted slightly, not in any way negatively, just different, but such was my expectation. It is amazing how very different it is to travel with another person after being solo for almost 6 weeks without much of a conversation or sharing any of the travel stuff and experience one feels as one goes. From my side, I have had to also shift the way I operate on a daily basis, something I have had to adjust to also. Small things, much of it consideration before doing, which isn't always a bad thing to do anyway, but not always an easy adjustment to make, so perhaps I am just finding my own new rhythm? Her arrival has also brought with it a slight amount of disorganization. I think his is just down to the expectations that Cuba is similar to everywhere else visited thus far, ( which it ain't) and to find out that what was expected here, is not here. Not the right travel bags, too much luggage, tent too big to carry, (but luckily she has a donkey cart as a companion), but we are getting into our own joint rhythm as we go too, much as I am, and did when I first started here. So far, after leaving Havana, we have done about 185km, and are a half day from Vinales, where we plan to stay for 2 nights and have a look at a few sights and experiences in the area. One of the only places in the world to have a certain rock formations or types of rock (one of 3 or 4), and the major tobacco area of Cuba. Day one was pretty uneventful, after pottering around Havana trying to exchange money and get Eldorette a bike bag for her handlebars (which is about as big as a six-pack, so not much good except for carrying 6 beers in cans), it was even a mission, and a McGyvor effort to fit the thing, as her handlebars were too fat. We departed around 1.45 and ended up in a small industrial town called Mariel, and struggled to find a casa. We started following around a bicycle taxi dude who rode us all over town and eventually we had some luck. It was with a very odd man (but who meant well), he kept knocking on the door, coming in, and having a chat in higher grade Spanish. Eldorette just chatted back in Afrikaans, so it's all good and nobody is any wiser for it all. There is a lot of gesticulation and laughing, frowning and nodding of heads, but generally I think the message gets across....maybe. The next day we headed for the beach, just in a bay, slightly out of the town of Bahia Honda. It looked quite nice and had a cool camp spot on the water and a bar/restaurant a stones throw away. Some kids joined us as we got stuck into some rum and put up our respective tents. They brought Eldorette a coconut from a nearby tree. I think some 8 year olds were slightly infatuated the way they were showing off for her, so cute. After dinner I ate so much coconut, which I am not used to. Disaster, (if it was I fact the coconut) I woke up after 2 hours sleep with cold sweats and vomited all night, which was also accompanied by some diohorrea, a lovely thing to have when sleeping in a tent. When I say sleeping, I mean, lying writhing in a tent. After no sleep, and thinking I was amidst "the rooster academy for learning how to crow louder than your neighbour" (non stop from 11pm), I eventually summoned up sufficient energy (barely) to ride the 4km into town. A tour guide came over after Eldorette had some how met him, perhaps seeking a monetary possibility, but after hearing the story, summonsed a doctor, who happened to be riding past the park. He in turn arranged a clinic to admit me to the emergency room, to have drips inserted, and a "moerse" injection in my arse cheek. It was tensed too at the time, so hurt more than all my evident tattoos. The forthcoming saline plus anti biopics and anti nausea, etc, made me so cold, my finger tips went blue, but it did the job. Grateful for how it had transpired that morning and we had come across a very kind and generous man, wanting to help out a stranger. The world needs more people like him. After about an hour and a half of utilising said emergency room and getting pumped full of "muti" from all over the world, I was escorted to a casa, where I slept til 6pm, got up for 45 minutes for a brief dinner, and then went back to sleep until 7 am. I really got my monies worth for that bed. It was a better option than having tried to ride rather than getting help, as probably would still be on the outskirts of Bahia Honda, in certain difficulty. Another day of 60km, a failed attempt to get to Cayo Levisa on a ferry and camp on the beach (which looked amazing from the mainland), we have ended up in a town called La Palma. 30 km outside Vinales, and after getting some lunch and escorted to the other side of town to a casa, Eldorette realized she wasn't wearing her backpack. I could see the panic start to set in as she set off to try and relocate all her valuables....I mean, ALL! I have the tent and she has space for 6 beers in that ridiculous bar bag, so you can imagine what is in that backpack. I knew it would be ok, as generally Cubans are honest and don't steal things, but she didn't even know where she had left it...which fitted in with her disorganization thus far (*author rolls eyes). Eventually, while I changed the outer and inner gear cable on Penny (which wasn't without a few stressful moments, as it's a complete inside frame job), she arrived with a backpack, and a very relieved looking face. The food poisoning is becoming a regular occurrence for me and this is the 3rd bout in as many years, which I'm not all that pleased about, but as Paul Cuthbert pointed out, it's to be expected when one goes off on these travel excursions all over the place. But FFS, coconut? I have eaten some things here that may have not been what it said on the label, yet, coconut is my demise!!!! The landscape West of Havana is very different in terms of the topography, a lot more lumpy than where I had been before, with the exception of Trinidad and surrounds. The vegetation is still very lush, with subtle changes. There are more rice paddies, fewer stretches of cropped fields and the start of seeing tobacco harvests. They seem to store the tobacco in triangular shaped ski chalets in the alps, and those have only become prevalent in the last day. Most of the cute, Cuban houses alongside the roads are painted bright colors. Pinks, yellows and blues are most common. Previously seen houses have just been bare cinder block faces. The mountains around Vinales remind me a lot of being in Thailand again. Bare faced rock with lots of palm type trees growing directly out of them, really amazing and beautiful and unlike anything else I have seen here so far. The mountains are big and as the weather has been sketchy since yesterday, have been sometimes shrouded in a wispy mist. The ride in to Vinales was pretty but one can see we are definitely on the tourist path here. There are more habitaciones and restaurants than people. Apparently the government has punted Vinales as their main tourist spot, so I am expecting the prices to be higher, as has been the case in all other tourists spots I have seen thus far. I just hope the attitude of the Cubanos doesn't follow suit, as it has been in other tourist popular areas. I am a bit over getting fleeced by money seeking locals with a sulky demeanor. The general plan is to ride 2 days through the mountains towards San Cristobal and Soroa after spending 2 days here. That ride will be strenuous with Penny all loaded up, but her new gears are working as smoothly as butter on a hot saucepan. I think I just invented that adage....long may it be used globally. I shall report on the adventure in San Cristobal and hopefully I can relocate that Vino Tinto from Soroa which I found so palatable, whilst in Jibacoa, a week or so ago. I actually can't believe my time here is nearly up, just 2 weeks until we fly to Mexico and visit the craziness that is Cancun. By then it will be Christmas and the silly consumerist season will be coming to an end for another year. The Grinch, out. Everybody dies, not everybody lives...