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10 January 2003: Tope de los Collantes to Santa Clara 75 km. We had a nice buffet breakfast and started off at 9 AM towards Santa Clara down the mountain. It was down hill most of the way but certainly not all of it. The vistas of the Escambray mountains were incredible. At one point we saw several lakes surrounded by the mountains. It looked like a little Switzerland. After 19 km we arrived at a tiny one room school house where I was 3 years ago. The school teacher remembered me and the four students I saw last time were now all a foot taller. There was a big improvement in the school. They now had 2 solar cells on the roof and a computer. The students were so cute and well behaved. I shook all their hands and the teachers. I felt like Fidel. We gave them chiclets and pencils with peace signs on them. I was so happy to see the school, teacher, and students again. Ray said I should have found out her name and address, but I was too shy. I don't even know if she was married. We then pedaled to Manicaragua a nice little agricultural town where we bought fresh baked bread ( 9 loaves for all at 2 pesos each). We had to wait in line 20 minutes for it , but it was worth it. We also had ice cream and almond cookies. The 30 km from Manicaragua to Santa Clara had a lot more uphill then I remembered ( I really thought it was all down). At 6 PM we entered the outskirts of Santa Clara and took the highway right to our hotel! It was so nice to see so many bikes on a real highway. There were also peso horse carts, and motorcycles. We did not see any cars while we are on the highway for 10 minutes. We had a huge buffet dinner at Los Cayenes where we stayed 6 days ago (In fact Ray ate too much). Tomorrow we stay in Habana at the Casa Particular where I was four times before of Senor Morales. I am good friends with him and his son Francisco who is a brilliant string physicist doing a third post doctorate in Rome. He gets invited every year the world string conference where Steve Hawkins appears. I have visited Francisco twice in Europe and hope this time to meet his now wife the brilliant mathematician. They have two teenage boys now. (2025) fiance too.This has been a wonderful trip. All went very well. We did 550 km total. All arrived safely at the final destination of Santa Clara. Bruce in spite of bad stomach sickness was the first to arrive.
