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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.
