7. Baracoa - Tortuguilla. March 9 & 10

We wave goodbye to Leonardo and his wife at the very nice and clean casa. He has some new information for us coming from our friend Oscar. A list with three new recommended casas. So nice of him, he had probably been looking at the map and figured out we could not do some of the very long distances we planned. And he was right. Biking in Cuba is not about maximizing kilometers. Poring rain, of course. It's rush hour and getting out of town is an interesting (read scary) adventure. Old crappy bikes with one person sitting in front of the driver, old crappy buses, old crappy lorries, those ex prison transporters painted in bright colors with dozens of people hanging out from the windows (without windows). Shouting, waving. Horse carriages passing more slow ox carriages in full gallopp. Some turists in rental cars trying to avoid the worst potholes. Smokey, noisy, wet and slippery. Most of these vehicles are from the fifties, and they constantly spill oil.
We survive and bike into lush quietness. That last for about ten k, and then we reach the Mountains.

Signs suggest you check your car before entering the thirty k of mountain road.  Brakes - check, gears - check, strong legs - check, stubborn heads - check. We'll give it a go. Twenty k of quite steep and steep uphill. We are very proud of ourselves and bike all the way up to the top.  Engulfing the sweet cucurucho treat, even better than the Cliff bars we brought from Canada. Then the fun part begins. The ten k of going dooooooown. Road in quite good condition, so we really enjoy it. We stop at some women and children offering us sweet bananas and other goodies.

On the way down to the south cost the weather changes, so does the nature. Sun instead of rain. Cactuses instead of rain forest. The coast road is super pretty and we gladly bike until sunset today. Reaching a little paradise called Casa Fidel. Just by the azur blue sea. With a pool, garden, superb food and clean, spacious room.
The decision to spend two nights here is a very easy one to make.

Here we go - up La Farola

Up, up, up. Beautiful landscape and very few cars. Who could ask for more?

At the top - very content

Women selling super sweet bananas and mangoes

The more south we go, the less thick are the clouds

And finally we reach the south coast. Calm nice ocean, dry landscape, no rain.

And after a long day we reach casa Fidel - a little paradise

Casa Fidel - pool overlooking the ocean