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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.
