And off we go

We started off our day trip to the mountains with a great start. Our wake-up call was about an hour late, and Bill refused to move. It could have had something to do with all the rum, cigars and dancing last night, but I’m not generally one to point fingers.

But finally we got a bit of breakfast in us and headed out to Michael’s farm, our guide we met yesterday. I asked Bill, "so, um…how are we going to get to that farm" which was about 5 km down the road? Bill answered "well we start walking, and stick our thumb out, and we jump on the first thing with wheels that stops for us." I love having a well made plan.

An ox cart rode right past us without even acknowledging our presence, as did two trucks, a tractor and even a couple cars. By the time we had make it half-way we decided to stop sticking our thumbs out, the Cubans didn’t seem in a particularly friendly mood today. But it was even ground, beautiful scenery and I was still happy to be in the fresh air, so we didn’t complain much.

We made it to Michael’s farm about an hour after our designated meeting time. This is Cuba so time is very relative, I’m pretty sure we didn’t put anyone out. But after being taking the obligatory cup of coffee we started on our path up the mountain side. Michael turned out to be an excellent guide, which I guess makes sense since he has spent his whole life living in a farm at the foot of these hills.

Every once in a while we’d follow a trail and Michael would stop and look around, and then just back-track. But we were pretty content to follow him without asking too many questions and he didn’t even really mind posing for pictures with the shirtless gringo. Bill stepped on a snake at one point and you should have seen that country boy take off after it!

Every half hour or so Michael would walk us to one of the neighbor’s houses in the hills. We’d sit and chat for a while and of course they’d offer us coffee or juice or whatever else they had. Some of the nicest folks you ever did meet, and none of them really seemed too bothered that two US citizens were sitting on their porch enjoying their views and drinking their coffee. We even had one pull a coconut off a palm tree for us and break it out. Indeed, life could be much worse.

After about 5 hours we had our share of walking up the hills and taking pictures. We headed back and dropped Michael off at his farm again and said our goodbyes to the family. After the hike I was in no mood to walk another 5 km back to town, but Bill told me he had a sure fire trick to make sure we’d get a ride. "Show a little leg" I asked? No, wave a little cash.

Well the first ox cart passed us by even with us waving 20 peso notes in the air, but the rusted-out truck spewing diesel fumes stopped. I jumped in the back with the rest of the hitchhikers before they could debate a price. As we passed the ox cart that gave us no love on the road Bill shouted, "Ay muchachos, gracias por nada!" Within 10 minutes we were back at town and you can get we slept well that night.