2023-12-17 10:05:00
It came out from Neuquen to Santiago de Chile and from there he flew to Havana to lower airfare costs. Pay 150 extra dollars to take the bike and another 150 to bring it back. In the middle, she pedaled 3,000 kilometers for two months for that Caribbean island that dazzled him. He carried the tent, but he used it little, because They invited him to sleep almost every night.
He also marveled at the warmth of those men and women who opened the doors of their homes to them with a smile. From so many invitations, he only spent just under $700 in 62 days. It’s not that I had them programmed, they arose as I went along. It was strange that they would talk to him if he didn’t say hello first, but then no one would stop them.
And among so many friendships that were born along the way, one shines with its own light: Fidel Castro. The same name as the leader of the revolution and a life getting used to that. And that, for example, they wouldn’t let him have a Facebook account with that name. One night, he invited his brand new Argentine friend to dinner at his house in Aguada de Pasajeros, 180 km from the capital. “We only have rice, beans and plantains,” He apologized. “Welcome, I want to live as a Cuban,” Héctor responded.
In a Havana pedestrian, in front of the New England Hotel in Parque Central, he met another great character who makes his living thanks to his resemblance to Fidel Castro, which he reinforces with the cap and military green shirt that contrasts with the long gray beard. When he recognized the accent, he approached. “Here we are with the brother of Argentina, where the best soccer player in the world who led his country to win the World Cup is from, Leo Messi, the Flea, I’m sure,” he said and smiled for the selfie. Between one Fidel and another, he lived an unforgettable adventure.
«I wanted to live as a Cuban»
“I didn’t want to stop in hotels, I wanted to live as a Cuban. And thanks to them I was able to do it,What noble people, they open the doors of their houses to you, They offer you a fruit, a coffee, a plate of food,” says Héctor Flores.
Mayabe Viewpoint. Camagüey. Ancón Beach in Trinidad. National Capitol of Cuba in Havana.
Enthusiastically, he tells the story from Neuquén, where he lives. His tone suddenly turns sad, when he remembers that he was Janet Palavecinothe woman from Neuquén who died in an air tragedy in Nepal on January 16, 2023, who had told her that Someone who loves cycle tourism like him should get to know Cuba like this.
The trip was between May and July 2023 and I would repeat everything except the date, because it was the time of the ciclones and extreme heat. “Thank goodness they invited me to their homes, because I would have had a bad time in the tent,” he says. Otherwise she would relive every day of this unforgettable experience. “The beaches, the cities, the people, especially the people,” she says.
From pedaling in the Alto Valle to the routes of Cuba
Héctor Flores is used to pedaling short distances in the Alto Valle. That is why the trip to Cuba was also a commitment to longer journeys. Nothing further than an all-inclusive in Varadero for two thousand dollars a week was his way of approaching it.
His thing was to look at the map, plan the routes and hit the road: He did two thousand kilometers on routes and a thousand on interior roads with a load of around 20 kilos. He had to recalculate because of the wind and storms. For example, she had to stay 21 days in Holguín because of the downpours with thunder and lightning like she had never seen before. He did everything on wheels, except for a section by train to connect the 400 km from Holguín to Guayos.
with the bike It started at dawn, because I might pedal until around 10, then it was impossible due to the stifling heat. Thus the cities were passing into one cruising speed of 20 km/hin sections that varied according to the distances between the points to be joined, whether they were straight or with exhausting climbs like in Santiago de Cuba, whatever was appropriate depending on the climate and the doors of the houses that opened to accommodate you and were difficult to leave followingwards.
Thus, among others, they passed the immensity of Havana and all the weight of its history, its old cars and the Malecón, Matanzas, its rivers and its hills, Santa Clara as a cultural and scientific center, Camagüey and its plains, Las Tunas and its sculptures, Guantánamo and wild nature, its fruits , the cocoa, sugar cane and coffee plantations, Nibujón and its paradises, the bell towers of Sancti Spíritus and so on one destination following another. Halfway through his journey, he became excited at the top of the Alto de Cotilla viewpoint in the province of Guantánamo, the furthest from Havana and the highest in Cuba.
And the beaches? «Anyone you visit is from warm Caribbean waters.. Guardalavaca is to the north, it is small, charming, with water of many colors and white sand, very beautiful, Ancón, to the south, near Trinidad, is larger and also has white sand. “They are very pretty, they are very good,” she describes. But even though he was dazzled by the landscapes, the historic buildings, the bars, the streets, the churches, what impacted him most was always the people.
That’s what he remembers most regarding all those places, the faces and names of his new friends. “They are people I didn’t know and they left an impression on me,” he says. And talks regarding Enrique and Chachi in Havana, Iliana and Michel in Matanzas, Leonel Ordoñez in Ciego del Avila, Maria in Las tunas, Emilio, Mikel, Marlene and Idelvis in Holguin, Yanelis in Sagua of Tanamo, of Marjoris Rodriguez in Nibujon, of Adolfo and Yarimne in Imias, of Yanet and Luis in Trinidad and Mirvia with Fidel in Aguada of Passengers: “I will carry them with me forever.”
The friend Fidel Castro
The beginning of the friendship that continues today with messages on WhatsApp was strange, because he knocked on the door of his house in Passenger Water and asked regarding his wife Mirvia: on the route from Trinidad to Cienfuegos, when stopping to buy a frozen juice, the seller, the woman’s cousin, had passed on the information that she might get him ground floor accommodation, what I was looking for. Fidel told him that his wife was not there and she wanted to send him to a lodging, but when the Argentine asked if he might set up the tent in the patio, the Cuban called her, they chatted and when he hung up he gave her the good news.
-You can stay in one room and you can also take a good shower if you want -Fidel told him. They talked over dinner of rice, beans and bananas and the dinner lasted until midnight. At 3:30 in the morning he got up to continue his journey. He asked how much it was, they told him nothing, he insisted and left to continue his adventure, which brought him so many new friends, among them, Fidel Castro.
Shopping on the streets and change
In his days in Cuba he had to live with water and electricity cuts. He also noted that the connection to Internet is coming, that many of the old cars have new engineswhich in most houses appliances are oldthat everyone knows how to repair everything, that The street is a large market where there are sales and barter, and to make purchases you have to walk, get the oil on one side, the bread on another, the vegetables on another, the toilet paper on another, the toothpaste on another and so on. One day, a lady saw him with a guava candy in her bag and she stopped him to ask him where she had gotten it. She told him and he went.
If things have to change in Cuba, there is no one to say it.but he does comment that he saw hope, that they believe that life is going to improve and he was also impressed by how patriotic they are.
He also learned that many of the tutorials he had seen to know how to get around to exchange money on that island eager for income from tourism were of no use to him, because following the pandemic everything changed, since Before they worked with two currencies and today they only work with the Cuban peso.
The big news is that the freely convertible currency (MLC) works and that one dollar is equivalent to one MLC. So, for example, Americans who travel and who cannot use their credit or debit cards because they are blocked can transfer their dollars to MLC by loading a card with which they buy in stores exclusively for foreign tourists. Argentines, on the other hand, can use their credit and debit cards to buy MLC and pay them at the tourist dollar value..
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