Fourteen Flats and a Cuban Sunset! - Part 4 of My Bike Tour

in #adventure7 years ago (edited)

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A mighty Cuban sunset

Today started with 4 flats, patching flats has become a part of our daily routine and has given us the gift of patience. There is a prickly bush here that is murder even for the most impenetrable Schwalbe tires. Our crew has a current total of 14 flats. Mountains, mountains, and more mountains are on the horizon for us this afternoon.

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Loving bike touring life

My shirt is drenched in sweat and the only thing that keeps me going is regulating my breath and looking ahead at the growing horizon. Luckily the reward for all the hard work pedaling up the mountains is you get to fly down them. The feeling of rounding the corners, the importance of your body weight in relation to your bike, and anticipating what's around the next corner is exhilarating.

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A days work

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Looking for a camp spot

We couldn't decide what to cook for dinner and the delirium of our hunger led us to think that cooking everything left in our bike bags was a great idea. The contents of our creation included Annie's ravioli, chicken noodle soup, sardines, wild rice, cheese powder, and quinoa noodles; we then fried up some veggies in pig fat and mixed everything together in a big pot. As disgusting as it sounds it was actually kind of good, well...except for the one piece of leftover pizza that was also thrown into the pot that I was the unlucky recipient of... I dry heaved, tried my best to focus on the other flavors and swallowed the spoonful back, I lost my appetite for the rest of the night.

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Loading the bikes in the back of the truck

We heard rumor that the coming days were nothing but flat stretches of vast barren land so we came up with a crazy plan to try our luck at hitch-hiking. I can't imagine many places in the planet that you can find a truck to pick up 5 people and their 5 bikes but somehow, it worked! A dump truck looking vehicle pulled over and we piled in, bikes and all. We caught a ride for about 200km getting us much closer to Cienfuegos. What was supposed to be a 4hr drive turned into a 7hr drive. We had a 3hr wait at the gas station, the station ran out of fuel so along with the 30ish other cars we waited for the pumps to be filled.

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Lucero and I taking the bumpy ride in stride

When we piled back in the truck it started to rain. We were cold, wet, and slightly drunk off of the bottle of rum we shared and we watched the moon peek in and out of the rain clouds. We'd burst into random fits of laughter throughout the ride, I had Lucero and Andrew tucked into my sleeping bag and Spoch on my left curled into the fetal position, when the truck pulled over the final time I didn't want the ride to end.

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Master chef and comic relief of the crew, Irish Richie

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Another dreamy old car

The coming days arrived with endless sugar cane fields, wind, and worst of all, traffic; I put on my headphones and watched it all fade away. Pedal, pedal, pedal, we took turns being in the lead or close behind drafting. I focused on the hub of the bike ahead of me and let my mind wander; I thought about home, about the next bike tour, about dinner.

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Uncle Sam gettin' a shiner

Today we ran into a French couple bike touring with their two kids, a 3yr old and a 5yr old. They have been riding for two years through Europe, the United States, Central America, and now Cuba. I'm completely inspired and I feel I've witnessed a kind of "settling down" that could work for me :P

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One of the camping spots on a farmer's land we were welcomed on

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Faster than a bike

Spoch's bike broke on the way out of Cienfuegos, the back rack came loose and swung into the spokes. Luckily it's not uncommon for someone to lend a helping hand here; we ended up with a repaired bike, an invite for a meal, and a place to sleep. The hospitality didn't end there, we had amazing hot bucket showers, watched baseball on the T.V., and found Aloe Vera to slather on my sun burnt skin.


Steemians! where should I bike tour next?!


Until next time!

@Wolfcat

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You are an inspiration! ... and that kid on the horse, El Jefe! :) Thanks for sharing your magical adventures with us @wolfcat!!

:) awe thanks ❤❤❤! Yeah that kid was a horse whisperer! Lets ride horses soon :)

Yes! 🦄 😉🐴🌈🎑

Your Cuba trip sounds like it was a really, really cool adventure. Glad I was able to catch some of the story - thanks for taking the time to share it. Imho it is not easy making these posts. Take care yo'!

Thanks :)
It was! The crew was wonderful and all the people we met along the way. Yeah, keeping a journal has helped in the posting realm, still a learning curve but the community here gives me super powers :)

Congratulations! Your high quality travel content caught our attention and earned you a reward, in form of an upvote and resteem. Your work really stands out. Your article now has a chance to get curated and featured under the appropriate daily topic of our Travelfeed blog. Thank you for using #travelfeed

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What an awesome adventure! And great pics as well! I hope to do something similar someday around my country so you are an inspiration. Thank you so much for sharing and I wish you the best of experiences!
Greetings from Venezuela :)

Thanks for stopping by! From the looks of your blog and sense of adventure I think you would be a great candidate for bike touring :) Ive always wanted to visit Venezuela, maybe one day ill make it there. Welcome to Steemit!!

Thank you very much! I hope the opportunity comes soon enough :)
And I'm glad to read that! If you ever do so (coming here) you can contact me and I could show you around Caracas. Here you will have more than enough mountains and green places to see around haha
A pleasure to know you, I will keep looking forward for your channel! :)

It looks like you had a joyful adventure with your friends.. Luckily you met hospitable people and enjoyed the nature by biking and camping..

Yes, so much fun! People and nature really make a trip :)

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One day I will go to Cuba as well. How bad was the internet situation?

It wasnt the best... You get an internet card from a government office that is good for one hour of access at nearby parks. You are allowed 3 cards a day.

This is the original photo photographer. It looks like the photos you take and the pictures you shared between us are really unmatched and very impressive. Thank you so much for sharing your article among us. I am very happy to thank you so much beautiful. Post to share with us

I'm enjoying your bicycle adventures! Inspiring! I'm always up for riding a century here in Minnesota. Wolfcats are welcome if you've had all your shots :)

Wow this certainly sounds like a wild adventure haha almost lost my lunch when I was reading the description of yours!