Biking on Cuba part 2 - Oriente: 10. Santiago

Santiago is vivid, colorful, genuine. It's dirty and poor, ugly and teared down. It's like a peeping hole back in time. We eat in a restaurant for 9 pesos and have ice cream in a lovely ice cream restaurant (yes there are ice cream restaurants) for 3 pesos. We follow a self guided tour described in the Lonely Planet guide, highly recommended. Takes us to some stunningly beautiful, and also historically very interesting places. Like the museum of Moncada. This is where the revolution began, the 26th of July 1953. We buy this very interesting book describing what Cuba was like before the revolution - just horrible.
One of today's missions is to buy water and cookies for tomorrow. We have to try in five stores before we succeed. Yeah!

Next morning we leave early, and it's Sunday. So we get out of town without getting poisoned. The city ends quite fast and pura vida takes over. The Cuban countryside at it's best. The calm sea to our left and the lush green mountains to our right. And the Cuban smells. A dead animal half rotten, coffee, damp air, salty sea, horse shit, sun, sweat, diesel, flowers. . .
Today we see more bike tourists than on all our Cuba bike days together, including the 14 days in April.
Chivirico is a sleepy little town (or village) by the sea. The beach is very full of stuff you don't want on a beach so we skip the afternoon swim. Instead we do as the locals, hang out in the park. Listen to soft waves and looking at the kids enjoying the playground.