fundraising females: 23rd Novemeber 2008

Heck. We did it! Day one. 63km, (41 miles) Mainly off road and very flat. We did it in legs of 12-15km each. After the first stop my bike died - chain jammed (-yes, Cuban B.O.D!) so I rode Claude's bike until the next stop. (Claude was one of the team from classic tours who had organised the whole event) The third leg - until lunch - was good, I really got going and was one of the first to arrive. Lunch was a picnic of cheese and ham sandwiches. Then the next leg was via the muddy puddles (lakes!) I went through a couple but mainly walked around in an effort to keep my shoes alive until the end of the week. We stopped for water by the hospital, and the next leg we were back on tarmac and Caz ad I did really well - until we turned the corner and were heading straight into the wind; a really STRONG wind! No available bushed for peeing at the next stop so I had to hold on - and hence sprinted a lot of the last 11km leg until I found a suitable spot! Then I rode with Olive until we got to the coaches that were going to transfer us to our hotel. We went through several small villages and all the people were very friendly. I saw dogs on the roof at one place! Lots of horse-drawn traps around. We got on the coach and then drove for an hour or so to Cienfeugos. We had 15 minutes to explore the square, then back on the coach to the hotel. The hotel has to be seen to be believed. Stalinist Russian concrete, primary-coloured monstrosity of a building, but with fantastic views. Just had a shower and the towel rail fell off in my hand - at least it was hot water.
on route....