A late start and quick stroll around town for provisions for the trip west. The town streets were busy with villagers selling fruit and vegetables. Found our supplied after serious queues, had a coffee with milk (something quite hard to find in Cuba) and bought some strange polenta/cross shortbread biscuits. After wasting most of the morning, we cycled west from Santiago on the coast road. Did not get very far before dropping into a vegetable market on the edge of the city. Found an interesting looking canteen there selling local food (other than bread or pizzas). Thought is must be worth a try, but only found a communist style soup and some buck wheat with chopped raw vegetables. Interestingly, also met a Czech lady working in the kitchen who helped us out with our ordering. She seemed to be treated as the lowest grade worker there and was not allowed time to actually come out of the kitchen to talk to us.
After our food break, off we went again into a horizon that was ominously filling rapidly with dark clouds. It got hotter and hotter, until as expected, the heavens opened. It was not a short shower . Had to pull into a soviet style holiday beach cafeteria, totally drenched (even the Gore-Tex jacket was not up to the job). The rain did not relent with even the local sheep taking refuge under the cover of the café roof. The two serving ladies were friendly, but had very little on offer to sell to us. We chose a bottle of wine (that must have been there for years) and paid the princely sum of 60 national pesos (equivalent to £3). The day for darker and the rain heavier. After giving us free food (bread rolls of course), and us sharing our biscuits, the serving ladies left stating that they did not expect more customers to arrive that day. We were left with no choice but to camp in the open sided cafeteria. As it got dark, the security personnel joined us for a drink (Tadek had stashed a small bottle of rum and a large bottle of coke into his panniers). Much needed in the circumstances. One guard insisted on staying with us all night and even slept on the floor to make sure that our bikes and us were safe (we gave him one of our roll mats).
After our food break, off we went again into a horizon that was ominously filling rapidly with dark clouds. It got hotter and hotter, until as expected, the heavens opened. It was not a short shower . Had to pull into a soviet style holiday beach cafeteria, totally drenched (even the Gore-Tex jacket was not up to the job). The rain did not relent with even the local sheep taking refuge under the cover of the café roof. The two serving ladies were friendly, but had very little on offer to sell to us. We chose a bottle of wine (that must have been there for years) and paid the princely sum of 60 national pesos (equivalent to £3). The day for darker and the rain heavier. After giving us free food (bread rolls of course), and us sharing our biscuits, the serving ladies left stating that they did not expect more customers to arrive that day. We were left with no choice but to camp in the open sided cafeteria. As it got dark, the security personnel joined us for a drink (Tadek had stashed a small bottle of rum and a large bottle of coke into his panniers). Much needed in the circumstances. One guard insisted on staying with us all night and even slept on the floor to make sure that our bikes and us were safe (we gave him one of our roll mats).