Las Terrazzas to Santiago de Las Vegas
Not all days are all lovely. In order to cross over to the east side of Cuba, Weezie and I had to cycle close to Havana to avoid the mid-southern coast and the destruction there that was caused by a cyclone in November. This was something that we didn’t want to do because the outskirts of Havana are a little rough, but needs must.
After a somewhat grueling day involving intense sun, intense traffic, and intense noise from the wind and honking cars, we arrived in San Diego de Las Vegas. It is loud and chaotic in this town and we felt rushed to get off the streets and out of the diesel fumes. We jumped at the first Casa Particular that we found just a few streets over from the bus station.
We were shown to a windowless room and told that there were no keys for the lock on the door, but that “Lord willing,” our things would be safe. They asked how many hours we wanted to rent it for. Weezie and I are both slow processors and the relief of being finished biking for the day, clouded our higher thinking. Cluelessly, we responded that we would like it for the night. They charged us 20 dollars.
Once inside, we began to see things more clearly. First off, Weezie found two condoms on the floor, one of them used. We found that the beds didn’t have sheets and even worse, Weezie’s had a plastic mattress cover. The kitchen where they offered to cook us dinner was piled with encrusted bake ware greasy trash. We demured. The whole place made our skin crawl, but night had come and we had already paid, so after distracting ourselves with a few rounds of the card game “Spite and Malice”, we took out our own sheets from home and cocooned ourselves in them, to eagerly await morning.
Tomorrow will head back into the countryside, where tranquility reins, but tonight we will hold our breath and hope that the Lord is indeed willing.