On the Road Again from Baracoa, Cuba Feb. 23, 2014

Dear Friends,

With the challenges of health insurance and a visa extension behind me head down the road later today.   Will not get too far with a late start but should be able to reach to Yumuri east of here then decide whether what may be called a road is passable from there or retrace steps and bike back and head up over the serpentine Farola. 

From there to Guantanamo and Santiago.  A lovely place here.  Enjoyed a Cuban folkloric performance last night and managed a few contortions on the dance floor.  Wonderful experience of being here with all the challenges of being in another culture and using another language.. 

Talleyrand " You can do everything with bayonets except sit on them."

Confucious " It is the moral culture of a neighborhood that constitutes its excellence.

The Tao "An army's harvest is a wast of thorns.  Even the finest of arms are an instrument of evil."

Peace Rider

On the Road from Baracoa 2/21/2014

From Banes to Baracoa there are lots of lomas as the locals call the hills hereabouts.  The first day out of Banes past Mayari late in the day I shifted into low gear only to find the chain catching.  I pushed the bike a ways uphill to a place I could work on it off the road.  I found the problem.  A woman came up to me and wanted to know where I was headed.. You don't have a place to stay and you can't make Moa before dark why don't you stay here.  Another woman and her daughter came and watched while I finished tightening the bolt that had come loose.  They then showed me several places I could put my tent.  The second woman showed me half of her house she was not using.  I could stay there if I wanted. 

I went to the teacher's humble house first.  Her husband had been drinking, an alcoholic, I learned later.  He asked me if I was CIA or FBI.  The seven year old came later,  took my hand and carried my helmet to her divided home of plain concrete.  I stayed the night there.  Kindness to a stranger on the road the openness and generosity of the Cuban people I'm experiencing.  Love not just in words.

Looks like I'm in Baracoa until Monday now.  I need to extend my visa beyond 30 days and must buy additional health insurance to do it.  Moments ago learned the agent that sells the insurance won't be in the office until Monday AM - go with the flow, don't push the river.  The Universe is here to support you.

I'm in a Casa Familiar (110 years old)  for my time here and being well taken care of.  A lingering cough from a cold persists and need the down time off the road.  .

I met a Cacao farmer yesterday and we may hike El Yunque tomorrow.  Its a flat top mesa just west of town. 

The bookmarks I carry that say Love is the Way in Spanish have turned out

to be a nice way to say thanks with a small gift.

All the now.

Peace Rider

. 

On the Road from Banes, Cuba Feb 14, 2014

Dear Friends,

A brief update.  My cold of several weeks is better and will likely leave here tomorrow morning for Mayari, then Moa and Baracoa.  Have heard the roads east are not the greatest with lomas or hills in places.  So little by little will be able to make some progress ahead.

A little more difficult is arranging a place to stay.  Foreigners are restricted from staying in private homes although with a religious visa which I don't have it is possible.  And I have been able to stay in Friends churches but Banes is the last of them headed east.

Met a Canadian cyclist from Vancouver Island on my way here and we had fun talking boats.  He's building a 35 foot sail boat from steel and hopes to have it in the water this year.  He's been at it awhile.  Leaves his bike in Holquin with a friend and was out for a day trip.  He made the eastern circuit I'm on last year.

All for the moment,

Peace Rider

On the Road from Banes, Cuba 11Feb 2014

Dear Friends,

I have been out of touch for about week. The date posted for this should have been 13 Feb. but not sure how to change that in the title.  From Holquin, the provincial capital I biked north the Gibara.  I had not been able to contact Ramon Gonzalez before hand although I had been in touch with him by email before leaving the States.

Gibara is a small town on the coast.  When I rode in two men who had a place for me to stay if I wanted it helped me find Ramon.  As it turns out Ramon and the Iglesia de los Amigos is well known.  I received a very gracious welcome from he and his wife Rosario and her mother Lily and stayed with them a week.  By the time I left I felt like one of the family.  I was also still recovering from a cold and needed more rest and down time. 

I came with a tourist visa and not a religious one.  With the latter one is able to stay in the homes of those in the church without receiving a fine for doing so.  Some allowance was made for my circumstances and what I was doing so I was able to stay with Ramon and his family.

Ramon is a very busy guy wearing many hats, pastor of the Friends Church in Gibara, Director of the Peace Institute and clerk, I believe of their annual meeting and several others that my Spanish was not up to translating.  In short a lot of demands on his time in addition to helping me try to sort out the visa. 

In the end I will extend the tourist visa I have when the time comes.  Friends in Holquin were very kind to helped me with that also. 

Yesterday I left Gibara about 0800 and made it to Banes around 1830.  I took a break near Guadlavaca during the heat of the day and continued on later in the afternoon over the hills. The sun is quite intense at mid-day and guess the temps. are close to 90 F. 

I may stay here another day and leave Saturday morning.  Candido is the young pastor in the Friends Church here.  Heredio, the retired pastor of the church, is also living here for now but will be moving soon to a house in Gibara.  It is a real blessing to be so warmly welcomed where ever I have stopped for a time.

That's about it in brief for now.  From here I will continue east toward Moa, and Baracoa then Santiago and west along the south coast.  I'm told Santiago is hotter than here. 

Peace Rider

Off the road (temporarily) in Holquin

Arrived here yesterday feeling the effects of having not ridden a bicycle for nearly a month. I got off at Cacocum in the early AM Monday.  Developìng cold symptoms were not helped by an all nighter on a train without sleep.

I also had some difficulty putting the bike together on the train platform.  Augustino who was watching along with others worked came to my rescue and helped me sort them out, the derailer cable twisted the wrong way around the frame: of my own doing when I disassembled the bike. 

By the time I arrived here in mid-afternoon during the heat of the day I was pretty whipped.  From a biking Cuba book I had the address of a Casa Familiar here.  With the help of two young men I found Antonio´s Casa at 199 Morales and Lemus.  Antonio recommended I try a herbal remedy for a cold and I set off to find the pharmacy selling homeopathic remedies he suggested. Taking that now and feeling a bit better this AM but decided to lay over another day still not feeling like getting on my bike right away. . 

Will head for Gibara tomorrow most likely.  I have been unable so far to contact Friends here or in Gibara from the telephone numbers I was given.  Antonio told me many numbers have been changed.

To Angel, I look forward to catching up with you again somewhere down the road.  

Peace Rider

On the road from La Habana Feb. 2, 2014

Didn´t quite finish yesterday.  I´m on a local red eye special train No. 3 leaving this afternoon bound for Santiago.  I get off at Cacocum station not far south of Holquin.  Should arrive there in the early AM Monday.  From there put the pieces of my bicycle together and head north, check on Friends in Holquin then on to Gibara,  from there east to Banes and a circuit through Baracoa over the mountains to Santiago.  That´s the plan of the moment subject to change as things unfold.

I met a couple day before yesterday that in the course of the conversation indicated there were three things I needed to do while in Cuba, drink a Mojita, smoke a Cuban cigar and there was a third, much like the three things you need to do to qualify as an Alaskan sourdough.  The two I´ve done, but after the second wonder why I ever took up smoking in the first place - a repeat performance not in the offing.

More down the road,

Peace Rider

On the Road from La Habana Feb. 1, 14

A brief note since I´m on a limited budget of time at this ¨cafe¨.  Alice, me,  fell into the rabbit hole and arrived in another reality the day before yesterday.  But all is well, being well taken care of in the Casa Familiar of Carlos and Neida. 

Yesterday, walked my legs off ending up not so directly at the Le Coubre train station.  Carlos called two places ahead of time and was told I needed to make train reservations five days in advance.  Off I headed for the station to see what was possible.  I had read one could make reservations there.  That turned out to be the case.

Tomorrow I´m out a here on a 4 PM train headed east.  I´ll get off at Cacocum station a ways south of Holquin in the Oriente.  Have-bicycle-will-travel.  Have to show up ahead of time for the train but no problem doing that. 

Impressions:  diversity is the spice of life, in people, buildings, points of view and the natural world.  Sameness equals monotony and boredom.  I have been neither here.  A fascinating place free the kinds of violence, especially with guns, that rob the streets of peace and and a feeling of tranquility.  There is good energy here.  I have been welcomed by strangers on the street asking where I´m from.  Fifties era Plymouths, Desotos, Cadillacs, Fords, Cheverolets, Studebakers and Chryslers ply the streets as taxis. Without emission controls you can smell the carbon in the air.  But hey, no place is perfect.  Far less trash on the streets than I expected with fewer plastic encased goods available.

Today I stopped at two very busy farmers markets where fruit and vegetables are plentiful and inexpensive.

Something to consider:  religious dogma of all kinds is like buying a step ladder in a hardware store.  It is inherently limited and will stunt your growth if you become self-satisfied that that is all there is to it.  The ladder of evolving consciousness we are all climbing has an unlimited number of extension.  The discovery of your True Natureawaits. 

Peace Rider

Pa´lante