Mar 11, 2020 - To Havana by way of Varadero

3-11 Daniel had arranged driver for 8 am pickup and Nana made us a take away breakfast of boiled eggs (2 ea), bread and bananas (4 ea) and only charged us for on breakfast - yesterdays. Really considerate. Our driver, Wilson, was very good, spoke good English and explained lots of things as we asked about agriculture, etc and places along the way.

Mar 11, 2020 - Back to Havana

3-11 Daniel had arranged a driver for 8 am pickup and Nana made us a take away breakfast of boiled eggs, bread and bananas. Really nice. Our driver, Wilson, was very good explaining lots of things as we asked about agriculture, etc. and places we passed thru.

Mar 9, 2020 - Mar 12 - 20, 2020 Guardalavaca

As the weeks passed, and with several cold fronts coming in, we started to think maybe 6 weeks was too long. The village is small and you can only lay on the beach for just so long. I was able to communicate with the locals, but for Fero it was getting a little boring. And just as we were getting back into the 'only two weeks left' let's enjoy our time, the trip was cut short with the Covid-19 Pandemic spreading rapidly throughout the world. Initially we thought maybe we could just stay and isolate ourselves here as there hadn't been any...

Mar 8, 2020 - March 8 - 11, 2020 Guardalavaca

Life has been quiet here in Cuba. Another cold front has settled in and it has been fairly rainy and cloudy for the majority of the days. We fill the time checking the various stores/bars for bottled water and it seems to be getting quite dire. We can only find 500ml bottles which is such a waste of plastic. We keep hoping a shipment of the 5L bottles will come in but no luck yet. Sunday the 8th es el día internacional de la mujer and our apartment party tonight has been moved into Luisa’s place due to bad weather. During the afternoon...

Mar 7, 2020 - March 7, 2020 Guardalavaca

As the weather man promised, this morning was sunny and by noon the clouds & wind came in - another frente frío está aquí!! And today is Saturday and the feria (farmers market) is across our street. We are down by 7am buying our weeks supply of onions, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, papaya, pineapple & bananas. $13 CUC for everything and we estimate it would have cost us close to $100 in Vancouver! Here the produce is very organic and likely picked just yesterday for today’s market. The taste is unbelievable!! Following our coffee...

Mar 5, 2020 - To Trinidad

3-5 Still a bit under the weather, I took lomotil pill for the shared taxi ride to Trinidad - I'd been up 5-6 times the night before! After an early breakfast the car arrived at 7:30, an old '51 Chevy. We were the first in so got the "best" seats - Bon and I in front & Cathy behind by a window. Picked up an Italian family of 5 and then off we went. The driver had us pay in advance which was unusual I thought, but as it turned out he only took us the 2 1/2 hours to a restaurant/shared taxi stop outside Havana. There we switched to a '55...

Mar 4, 2020 - Climate Crisis vs Bernie or Biden

——- A VOTER’S GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHANGE According to NASA, the Earth’s average temperature has increased a little more than one degree Celsius since 1880, with two-thirds of that change happening since 1975. A big reason for that rise is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which has reached the highest levels ever seen in human history. Scientists say it will take Herculean efforts to prevent the temperature from rising another two degrees in the not-too-distant future. These may seem like small numbers, but keep in mind this is...

Mar 4, 2020 - March 4-6, 2020 Guardalavaca

As predicted in the weather network, the next 3 days are hot (29-30C) and sunny. Great days for hitting the beach. Our routine was to have our coffee at home and bike to the beach around 9 or 9:30am, get chairs & a palapa close to the water. It’s $1 per chair and we tip the fellow an additional $1 so that he holds the chairs for us each morning - worth it! One morning Fero went to put the towels on our chairs and the fellow there wouldn’t let him sit - he kept saying ‘it’s reserved, it’s reserved’. Finally the fellow that we made the...

Mar 4, 2020 - Vinales Cuba

Yesterday (3-3) was spent from 11:30 to 4:30 in a shared taxi ride to Vinales that included a stop at a tobacco farm which also grew rice and other veggies - 14 hectares in total area. Worked by the same family for 60 years...since the revolution. They have to give a certain % to the government each year and the rest of their crops they can do whatever they wish. Once we arrived at Casa....? the owner, ? , who spoke & teaches English (often tutoring students as well), helped us greatly to maximize our stay. He recommended we go to Finca...

Mar 3, 2020 - March 3 Guardalavaca to Playa Pesquero

The weather today is still windy and cloudy which is perfect for cycling. By 8:45am we were on our way to Playa Pesquero. I love the breeze first thing in the morning and the first several kilometres are relatively easy. Today the only challenging loma was up to the Playa Pesquero turnoff and it wasn’t even that bad. As the morning wore on, the sun peeked out and the temperature rose so we made a few stops. We made really good time and arrived at the ‘shopping’ plaza, having a cold drink by 10:15am!! We rode around most of the resorts...

Mar 2, 2020 - March 2 Guardalavaca

Another cloudy, windy and cool day. We went across to the TRD and purchased lentils and Fero busied himself making soup (which was fantastic!). I walked to the Arenas Caracol Liquor store looking for water, only small bottles. I then went to Flamboyanes and nothing there either. Decided to have a cappuccino and received hot chocolate! While on the internet I received a message from Lily so I meandered over to her stall at the market. Her father is a silver jewelry craftsman and they have gorgeous pieces!! I picked up a gift for Kimka’s...

Mar 1, 2020 - March 1st Guardalavaca to Playa Blanca

Ok, today we are going to be very ambitious and cycle 24km each way to Playa Blanca. It is cloudy and windy so a perfect day for cycling. We get our bikes from Luísa and head over to Boulevard first to call Lubo & Elena on What’s App. So convenient! Around 9:50am or so we start our journey. We have the Maps App on my phone and the route seems pretty straight forward so we are set! This time of day in a Sunday is quiet and the ride is very pleasant. At the moment the wind is behind us and the gentle lomas (hills) are easily climbed. We...