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Tuesday January 23: A note on the boycott. Yesterday in Chinatown in Habana , Gina, one of our riders got a real Coca Cola. It was exported from Mexico, but definitely the 'real' thing. So Cubans can get all the American products they want but they must come via a third country. Last time (last years trip) I remember seeing Hewlett Packard Computers and printers. It is just that all the stuff coming into the country this way is a heck of a lot more expensive. This morning I saw the statue of John Lennon and he looked great! He is sitting on the corner of a bronze bench fully clad as in the Beatles White Album. There is a 24 hour guard to protect the statue, because a few days ago his spectacles were stolen. The Cuban sculpturer already made him new ones. It says on the ground from the 'Imagine' song:You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. 'Dijares que yo soy un Soñado perro no soy el unico.' A bunch of Germans from Berlin also had their picture taken with John Lennon. At 3 PM the long overnight bus ride to Santiago de Cuba (900 kilometers) begins. The bus ride turned out to be a van from the government taxi service. It was very nice. The driver had to stop several times to get gas coupons. We filled up 3 times. Normally the gas costs 45 cents /liter at the highway stations. NOTE, the gas is all diesel. There is not gas in Cuba. We went through lovely little towns that were well kept up and had good lighting on the road. The lights were brighter than Seattle. I kid you not, the electricity situation here is better than the current one in California at the time of this writing in March 2001. Each little town had its dollar store filled with refrigerators, gas ranges, and CD/stereos. A dollar store is a place where you can buy things but only in dollars. The stores are owned by the state. In one of the little towns , a local lady befriended us, and took us to a friend's house where we all got nice hot chockolate for 1 peso each. A peso is four cents. It was very soothing. At one point the driver of the van almost hit a cyclist, but thanx to John ( a member of our group who spoke fluent Spanish) who was riding in the front yelled out 'Bicicleta!!' we swerved and just missed him. That would have ruined my whole trip if that happened. I don't think any of us would have been able to continue. John speaks the best Spanish in the group so he was appointed to ride in the front seat. We got safely to our destination Santiago de Cuba, at 4 AM. We slept for five hours and then got up at 9:30 AM. The noise of traffic and people outside our door is louder than 2nd Ave. in New York City where I grew up. The people we are being hosted by are a lovely 7 day Adventist family. They do not drink alcohol, so we did not have to worry about any drunk people.
