Back safe and sound on Isle of Wight, now for..more than a week? This marvellous adventure is now finished but it is good to be back and be with our people. Back to the grindstone, cleaning, varnishing, tarring, and of course Zumba and West Bay!

  Live with no regrets and love with no apologies (Paulo Coelho)

Rouen

Am typing this in the dark to save our battery...leaving in a few minutes for Le Havre, it is pouring with rain.
Wilhelmina with her mast up and rigging back is ready to go home. Will put sails up tomorrow in Le Havre whilst we wait for Harry and favourable weather. Am dreaming of a shower...have been wahsing in river water for the last few days to save water. Must go. If we are to complete the 120km in one day and cope with incoming flodd we have to leave at 7

Montargis

Too exhausted to write anything but all's well and everyone happy. A few crises, hitting a few stones, too much wind pushing us across lock entrance, boat stuck in shallow water, and much bad communication between skipper and crew. But we are all improving. Well we have to!Yesterday went food shopping for the next installment, Catherine, Claude, Sophie and Felix arriving on the 11th. That will make 8 of us on board!

Back in Decize

We are back from the "folle aventure" as Bernard Coclet describes Le Grand Bal at Gennetines... rain (well, MUCH RAIN) and wind, lovely and lively music and people, not much sleep and much work on the mazurka, schottish, valse and bourree. 
Le Grand Bal is about music and dance of course: "Dancing with others involves the consideration of real issues, as well as experiencing the irrationality of dance without holding back. It is about allowing oneself to be transported by the music and the dance, adopting a universal language of smile and gesture. It is to attempt to tame the dance"  (www.gennetines.org). But fundamentally it is about "Respect for and understanding of others". We (even John) did enjoy dancing but we also much enjoyed meeting old friends, Catherine from Switzerland and especially Frederic from Limoges with his infecting optimism and boundless generosity. I returned re-energised and inspired and John relieved he has survived...
Now Decize. After managing a tricky entrance into and through the Port de Plaisance (side wind and prop walk) we are now moored on the Loire, next to Michael and Pippa on Sterna and are temporarily part of a DBA rally. We are getting ready to welcome Maman and Marine who are arriving by train here tomorrow. That means cleaning and food supplies. Should I also mention that we have had trouble with the sea-toilet? It syphoned in twice in the last 3 days!! John is grumpy after mopping up the bilges, I am neurotic about sinking...But now, after cleaning, dismantling, polishing, sucking (the air admittance valve) we are (nearly 100%) hopeful that it functions properly. And grateful it didn't happen whilst we were away from boat!

Just about to cycle to Gennetines, leaving Wilhlemina in the good hands of Mark Vardy at Gannay. Weather hot and sunny, forecast rain... we 'll try to pitch our tent NOT at the bottom of the field like last year!

It feels very funny (and nice) to spend a whole day on land after 674km on inland waters (and 86 locks). After a copious lunch we walked through the Promenade des Halles, a beautiful avenue of plane trees planted in 1771, nearly 1 km long where we looked at "Des Forets et des Hommes" a photograph exhibition initiated by the foundation Good Planet to show the beauty of the world and its fragility too. The 70 photographs indeed very beautiful and thought provoking were built around 6 themes: discovery, inhabitnats, uses, services threats and solutions. Most enlightening.
The evening was spent back on the boat and the heat, still unbearable until the storm at last broke. By that time we were in bed and all the portholes were open...a few floods were found.

Decize

Decize at last! our destination! and it is much too hot for me to sit at the computer...all I can say is that an eclusier offered us tomatoes, courgettes and green beans and that I have found shop where I bought a lettuce, peaches and nectarines, milk, beer and wine. It is now too hot to eat and we will just sit inthe shade of a beautiful lime tree.

Chevenon

Jaugenay chapel

Over Canal du Guetin looking down onto Loire

Chevenon was supposed to have a boulangerie, epicerie and restaurant but...it was Sunday of course! and despite several attempts (cycling 1 km to a shop that had closed the minute before, to a boulangerie that was shut for holidays, walking miles to deserted villages in the heat...) we didn't find lettuce, tomatoes or fruits and all boulangeries were closed! So it was lentils and rice last night for supper and soaked prunes with our muesli for breakfast. In fact it was delicious.
Yesterday floated 60-70 feet over the Loire on another pont canal. Quite a sight! We were however a little distracted by heavens opening just as were were going up the big lock (9.23m) leading up to it. We were soaked to the skin and although I could tell John disapproved, I thought the people in the boat behind us were quite ingenious: they were holding a rope in one hand and an umbrella in the other!
This stretch of canal is sublimely peaceful, the only people we met are the odd cyclist, happy people waiving from boats or rushing out of their house to photograph us and the friendly eclusiers.
John has just returned from a little exploration of Jaugenay romanesque chapel (which we remembered seeing last year whilst cycling) and I can see it's time to go, lock is open.

Cuffy

We have decided to stop in the middle of nowhere again for the night. No sounds other than the birds singing... Not so many locks on the Canal lateral a la Loire and we are getting better at mooring with our super stakes and super super hammer I bought in St Satur, so we have time to stop, have a cup of tea and look around. Haven't found anywhere that sold lettuce, tomatoes or fruit and tomorrow in Sunday and all shops (other than boulangeries of course) are closed on Sunday and Monday! Never mind, I am sure we won't starve.

My trust in John took a sharp dip yesterday when I was on the tiller, edging towards the bank to moor and John jumped ashore with a rope he had forgotten to tie on the boat!

False start this morning...we were planning to leave between 9 and 10 to go through lock but 2 peniches went by before us and when we finally cast off (trying to stay still in front of closed lock to show lock keeper we were ready) lock keeper came to say he was waiting for descending boat and therefore we would need to wait.

Lack of water means boats have to "go together". We don't mind. It is all good practice as I have always thought that staying still was probably the most difficult thing to do on a boat (well, for us at the moment) and we only have to take notice of wind and prop walk. No tides!
So now, it's 11 o'clock, and we are waiting.

Menetreol

Canal cruising on Wilhelmina is not as stressfree as I had expected! the locks of course are always an unknown quantity, they are very narrow (we have about half a foot clearance each side at our widest point), will a breeze blow us off course at the entrance? (we now have decided to lower the leeboards to give us more stability), and then there  the curents inside the locks and getting the ropes on the right bollards. Outside locks we can relax a bit more except there is always the threat of meeting a peniche round a blind bend. Just before Briare we nearly hit the bank because we moved too much out of the way of such a peniche on an inside bend. We are also stressed about finding fuel, a problem we are not used to when on the tandem! The best price for diesel is in supermarkets, carrying a 30 l drum can be tiresome but we have now at last evolved a syphoning system to transfer gazole into the boat without spillage. John sucks through a black tube... no mouthfuls of diesel so far!

The scenery has been lovely, many people wave and photograph us "votre bateau est magnifique!". We certainly have not seen another sailing barge.
After crossing the Loire on the most impressive canal bridge we are now in the Canal Lateral a la Loire, with more holiday makers but less commercial traffic. Have just been informed that water levels are low so that could mean waits at locks for up to one hour.


Had a day off today. Walked through vineyards and across a redundant railway viaduct up to Sancerre, a medieval fortress town. A most pleasant change.
Ready for bed now, especially John who has battled with the paraffin cooker to cure (yet) another leak!

Vernon, 5th July

45 km and 26 locks further, here we are in Paradise, a stretch of water surrounded by long grass, tall hedges and a majestic lime tree, 4km north of Briare. I can't recount the number of scratches and bumps we have had to submit poor Wilhelmina to, entering or exiting locks nor the number of beers we gave away, but I will not forget Sunday's river swim, WARM deck solar shower and hair wash (at last!), nor Jean-Michel, an enthusiastic eclusier, boat and canal lover who admired Wilhelmina and took every details about her for his collection, nor the early clothes washing session with Jean-Pierre's wonderful washing machine (we took the opportunity when we were moored near water and electricity and Dammarie-sur-Loing), nor the amazing sight of Rogny's ladder of seven locks, built during the rign of Henry IV,now replaced by the more practical six non-contiguous locks we took - boats can pass one another thank goodness.

It has taken us all this time to eventually relax, stop shouting at each other for putting the fenders at the wrong height or wanting to put the leeboards down or bashing the entrance of the lock  and realise how wonderful it is to be gliding on these waters.

Montargis

All these locks is hard work! and we are going through most of our stash of beer...(we give one to each eclusier or eclusiere, they are so nice!).
Last night moored in a lovely quiet spot after Neronville's lock, near trees and a mint carpet. Everything was so quiet and lovely. Yoga in the morning (on the mint carpet) then coffee and croissant...

Just now are moored temporarily in Montargis so we can supply ourselves with food (and beer - not for us of course!). I have sent John and I can just hear him come back. Next lock is over 4m deep. Will we survive it?

Episy lock

Tom went at midday and I found launderette in St Mammes on my bike. Lock day today. We learnt how to glide inside lock without scratching sides and how to operate the gates. We had to lift the blue lever. Easy really, once you know. Next lock was “manual” i.e. an eclusiere was here. We were quite confused, first thought there was a boat already in the lock (it turned out it was moored way before and not in our way at all), then we attached our ropes on the wrong side of the lock so we weren’t able to help the lady lock keeper. She explained how eclusiers communicate with each other about boats movements in the Canal. She was so nice we gave her a bottle of wine.

We had thought of mooring before next lock (there was a restaurant nearby…) but after chatting with eclusier Frank, we thought we could make an earlier start by mooring after lock. John had to undo his carefully placed spikes and we are now moored under the trees, birds are singing and we are just about to go and investigate the “Auberge de l’Ecluse”.  

Moret-sur-Loing

After 2 extremely hot days (38 degrees inside cabin! and 3 or 4 dips in the river every day to cool down) we had a thunderstorm last night that cleared the air. Moored next to Champagne’s lock for the night, bought gazole (we must siphon fuel in next time rather than spill a great part of it….), met Francoise and her dog Moustique and still learning so many things: today we turned Wilhelmina because John wanted to tar the other side of the boat (over the battle scars…) and he wanted to practice turning without the engine on, ie with ropes only. Well… why did we do it right next to the lock?

We got away with it but we could have run into serious trouble had there been peniches wanting to go in or out. As it happens, a few minutes after we eventually managed to turn, a double followed by two others gathered around to get in whilst 2 or 3 were steaming out. Phew! Another lesson! We have now left the Seine and its huge peniches and are in the Canal du Loing just past Moret’s tiny lock (compared with the ones on the Seine. Everything is quiet and beautiful, we saw 2 air balloons floating by whilst we were having supper. Bliss! Tomorrow, Tom goes back to England and we will start the series of “automatic locks” (do we have to pull or lift the lever to make the lock fill up?) towards Briare.

St Fargeau-Ponthierry

It is 8.30 in the evening, John is reading, Tom is fishing, I am eating cherries. It has been a very hot day we slept most of the day (!) and we swam in the river to keep cool.

After rushing to get to Paris by Thursday (when we were supposed to meet Tom) life has quietened down nicely. No more worries about loosing oil pressure or other technical things. We are definitely in relaxed river mode, still delighting in the absence of tides and the easiness of tying boat at night and, dare I say, also getting more confident in the locks.

 Arriving in Port of Paris l’Arsenal was very stressful though. Between the one way system, the whizzing bateau-mouches and the waiting for approx an hour in all that hullabaloo (well, we realised later that we were waiting in the turning area of the bateau-mouches, ooops!) outside the lock of  l’Arsenal John has become a very capable barge handler and my confidence in him has soared up! We stayed there for a couple of nights, I did 3 washing machine loads and had a quiet time whilst John and Tom did the “sights”We left yesterday late morning, managing to manoeuvre deftly past the hundreds of expensive boats moored there and doing quite well on our first “descending” lock. On the way here we saw a sunken barge, worked through 4 locks (not counting the one out of Paris Arsenal, our first “down” lock) and moored in this lovely quiet woody curve of the Seine 50km south of Paris.

In Paris!!! We made it across the channel, made it roaring down the Seine towards Rouen at 11 knots, made it through our first lock (huge, sharing it with an enormous peniche who made poor little Wilhelmina bash about on the side) and made it into Paris Port de l'Arsenal which wasn't an easy entrance...

Preparations

After spending a busy Spring working on the boat: trying to sort out alternator, installing AIS, converting the exhaust system, renewing all the water pipes in engine etc etc. we are spending a very busy few weeks trying to get ourselves ready for THE BIG TRIP.

Now that we have passed the ICC and CEVNI and that we have a generator in case the alternator doesn't perform, the plan is to leave Cowes midday on 10th June weather permitting, to catch the tide to Bembridge and from then point to le Havre...

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We are still recovering from the excitment of seeing Erick from Purmerend, who arrive on his barge Nooit Gedracht, younger sister (by 1 year) to Wilhelmina but bigger by 3 m. We learnt more in the 5 days he stayed alongside us than in the last 10 years! Erick is now sailing towards the West Country.

These last months have gone like a flash...we have hardly had time to settle back (in fact no time to settle, just time to work) that we are getting ourselves ready to leave with Wilhelmina to Le Havre. John has itchy feet...

Havanna

We are back in Havanna, getting ourselves ready for our return, realising that we can now find our way around easily through the city, find food and make ourselves understood. Even make phone calls in Spanish!
We met Ignacio again, the ciclotourism president, as well as his beautiful wife and 2 vivacious children. We were impressed by his bike workshop housed in 3 tiny sheds in his mother's tiny garden. He has an amazing collection of bikes, bike bits and TOOLS (this has to be seen to be believed in Cuba) that he has salvaged or been given by foreign cyclists like us. He works so hard and well at preparing cycling tours through Cuba.
It was a hard decision to leave him but we wanted to put a toe in the Pinar del Rio region west of Havanna. We calculated we could easily make it to Las Terrazas, an eco-village, and back for our flight on Sunday. as it happened, we pushed on a litle further to Soroa, a quiet little mountain resort (yes, there WERE big hills to get there!) where we climbed to El Mirador and sat on rocking chairs at Don Agapito, surrounded with whispering palms and beautiful orchids. Idyllic...but there were invisible mosquitoes and we are still scratching our legs!
We had a bit of an argument at Las Terrazas, I wanted to stay and join the tourists for a swim in the cascades of the Rio San Juan. John wanted to go back to La Havanna. Riding a tandem means we have to stick together! In fact riding a little earlier to La Havanna (via the Autopista, very safe very quick, very hot) meant we were able to rest, relax and walk around the streets of this absolutely fascinating city.
Our flight is tomorrow Sunday evening, hope snow won't await us like it did a couple of years ago when we had to put plastic bags on top of our sandals to ride home!

Matanzas

We have arrived in Matanzas (100km from la Habanna) after some lovely days on the coast and a couple of hard days riding, yesterday 92km with a head wind all day. Have just been entertained by a wind band playing in the park for the anniversary of Jose Marti, national hero, poet and freedom fighter born in 1853. Were woken up this morning at 7 am by music playing nearby. From balcony of our casa we watch more than a thousand school children singing and processing through the town in celebration. Fortunately shops and museums were still open and we visited the Museo Farmaceutico founded by French Ernest Triolett and his Cuban partner. The 2 chemists won a gold medal in the 1900 Paris Exhibition and is now a wonderfully preserved example on how medicines were preserved and prepared from basic ingredients on the premises. there were 1000's of raw material (from arsenic to cinnamon to ants for formic acid...) all in labelled bottles or porcelain jars.
The coast and its hardships and delights seems far behind. Hardships because of weather and lack of food. Out of Trinidad we had to dodge deluges of rain, took shelter in a restaurant where we met a bus load of cyclists (mainly Swiss) and got so hungry we had to tuck into our reserve of cashew nuts and porrideg oats (dry). The delights were snorkelling in the beautiful transparent turquoise sea. We swam through shoals of rainbow coloured fish, all darting in and out of coral. It was too beautiful for words. The next day we went on a guided tour in the swamps of Zapata where our knowledgeable guide Mario showed us many birds including the iridescent blue zunzuncito, the smallest humming bird in the world at 5 and a half cm long! Mario was so excited to see it as he is very rare, small, shy and very hard to see!

Trinidad

We made it to Trinidad!
Managed to fit tandem on bus in the evening and arrived early in the morning and have enjoyed beautiful town...

Recently we were approached by a distinguished looking lady who came up to us.
Unlike many others she didn´t want anything from us. She just wanted to talk, which she did for about an hour. She was a retired University lecturer, in town to visit her husband who was being treated for cancer in hospital. She explained her husband´s pension and their food ration weere not enough to live on. She has to buy food on the black market to supplement it (unbelievably, sugar is more expensive on the black market than in England!). For clothes and shoes she has to save for months.
She had walked into town to save the bus fare. She lives with her son and 2 daughters and their families, her son who is a doctor and both daughters who have university degrees, but none of them have a house of their own. She has a relative living abroad but no hope of visiting them. The Cuban medical system provides free medical care but because of the shortages it has become corrupt, much queue jumping for those who can pay bribes. she never goes into shops for tourists because they only have things she can´t afford.
She was distressed and understandably aggrieved. She is one of many older people living close to the poverty line.
The Cuban leadership is still focusing on the communist ideology which we see on billboards everywhere (no adverts here! but as someone commented, their billboards aren´t as successful as ours...)
As in the UK, the current generation take for granted the freedom and stability their grandfathers gave their lives for. The American embargo that followed the revolution drove Cuba into the arms of the Soviets, whose system they adopted and enjoyed 30 years of huge subsidies. During that time they failed to develop a sustainable economy and in the 90´s they decided to introduce tourism to avoid economic collapse. This has resultetd in a 2 tier system. Those who benefit from tourism and those who don´t. It creates the sort of anomaly our waiter was telling us the other evening. He makes more from the tips in his evening jobs than his monthly salary for his main day time job.
Our budget is $30 A DAY each and most tourists probably spend 3 times that! The average Cuban salary is $20 $25 A MONTH!
The irony is the WWF declared Cuba as the only country in the world with a sustainable lifestyle, but how do you placate the rising tide of discontent of Cuban people who are denied many of the disposable goods we regard as life´s necessities, for example washing machines, computers, mobile phones, cars and foreign travel? Many want to visit relatives in Miami, only 80 km away, but are unable to do so. It s hard to put a price on the pace of life that they enjoy. They ahve time to talk to each other, play dominoes in the street, dance to music and enjoy their families in a way we haven´t seen since before the war.
Cuba indeed stands at a cross roads.
Benevolent dictatorship has brought 50 years of relative freedom and stability in marked contrast to the previous 50 years of corrupt democracy. Dervla Murphy concludes her book "The island that dared" by quoting the remarkable Cuban Juan Antonio Blanco he said back in the economic crisis of the early 90´s
"Cuba has the human and material potential in spite of the crisis to become a successful social laboratory for a new model of authentically human and sustainable development. If it is possible to "re invent" socialism anywhere, then the conditions for doing so exist on this island"
When we are cycling, we think this must be small comfort to the Cuban in his horse drawn vehicle force off the road by the tourist in his shiny Japanes hired car passing at 70 miles-hour

Holguin

Finding food is still an issue for both of us. However much I like peso pizzas I find it hard to eat standing up. As for John he nearly fainted with hunger as we trudged through to the Autobus Terminal in the rain to make a reservation on Viazul bus for Trinidad for tomorrow. We spent nearly an hour trying to work out the strategies to take so we don't get refused boarding the bus as we did from La Habana to Santiago... If we can't board the bus we will have to cycle all the way to Habana on the Autopista in order to get there for our flight on 6th bFeb. We don't really mind the distance, it's the squids (antiquated lorries and American cars that spew out black smelly fumes) we object to!

Although Holguin is pretty miserable in the rain at least we are staying put for a few days. Still trying to dry out our clothes and bags after cycling 50km in the rain back from Gibara and La Heradurra.

Gibara, Holguin's ancient port seduced us with its tranquil atmosphere, colonial houses and delightful people. Frank, a quiet, deep and friendly lecturer at the Casa de la Cultura, our casa hosts Beti and Angel and so many other people met in the street made us feel so welcome. We then cycled along the coast to reach a secluded little beach 50km on but because the path was so ravaged by the 2008 hurricane had to detour inland on dirt roads surrounded by fields of sugar cane which was being harvested. When we arrived at La Herradura, we found a quiet little village, buildings on one half of the street next to the ocean had been washed away. We stayed at the home of a nurse who cooked us delicious supper on a charcoal fire and were lulled to sleep with the sound of the wind and waves.

From Baracoa to Holguin

After sorting visa which was surprisingly straightforward we left Baracoa on an empty bumpy road and soon reach a beautiful little secluded beach. It was too wonderful not to stop. We went for a swim, were approached by fishermen who cooked us delicious fish and decided to put the tent there. It was absolute paradise.

John spent a long time in the middle of the night gazing at stars and listening to the sound of waves just a few feet from the entrance of the tent (we had worked out that there was practically no tide...) I was slightly worried about "robbers" (the fishermen had invited us in their house for security but as they were not licensed to have foreigners they would be risking their house and we refused) but none materialised and after a hearty breakfast of prawns and fried bananas we bravely cycled on, the road by now had all but disappeared and our average speed was a mere 7km/hour...
We stopped briefly at Alejandre de Humboldt National Park, where with 1000 flowering plants it is one of the most diverse plant habitat in the Caribbean. We were taken on a little boat but saw mainly mangroves. It was peaceful enough and rested our legs.
The next strenuous 50 km were brightened by the presence of Peter, a middle aged retired Swiss traveller who was cycling to Moa to visit friends and help them get a mattress. They had been trying unsuccessfully to buy a mattress for month as theirs had been destroyed in a fire.
When we arrived at last in Moa we thought we had arrived in a place of aftermath of nuclear war. Poisonous fumes were lingering from the nickel mine toxic water leaking and a desolate valley of dead trees as aras one could see...One of the numerous political signs by the road signs said "A better world is possible"...
We were glad to leave the following day but the sun was relentless and although the road surface was better it was full of exhausting ups and downs. We eventually found somewhere to stay that night and set off early for the next stop Mayari.

Our ride from Mayari to Holguin was 90km in the Lonely Planet Guide. It included some steep climbs and on a hot day I had doubts if we could make it. So, when we got lost and unbeknown to us cycled past Mayari by 30 km (how can you cycle past a city without noticing? anything is possible in Cuba...) I was pleased to find a Motel at Cueto and that we had reduced our next day's ride to 60km.
The motel was run by the state telephone company for its employees but they agreed to let us have a room for $CUC35 Convertibles (we usually pay between $CUC20 and $30). Cuban use National Pesos (25 National Pesos to $CUC1), so we probably paid 25 times more than Cubans... I am not sure where the difference went.
Our room, cavernous and sparsely furnished had graphitis scrawled on the walls. It did have a bathroom though but the wash basin's waste ran onto the floor, the WC had no water for flushing but we were grateful the shower had a trickle of cold water. Nicole would get me to go into the bathroom to kill the cocktroaches before she would enter.
There was a restaurant with loud music blasting from the outside bar and from an extensive menu there was only one choice: fried chicken, rice and fried bananas. We went to bed early only to be woken around midnight by a lorry outside and lots of very nasty and excited shouting. The next morning the peace was broken about 7 am by the lorry which turned out to be a 1950's huge American car. It was evidently used as a taxi by 2 young men who had picked up 2 girls. Much drinking and hanky-panky was going on and when we came out of breakfast we saw 3 of them pushing the car and the fourth holding a tow rope in an attempt to get the car started...
Breakfast was first promissed at 7.00 am, then 7.30 and finally 8.00, but when we arrived we were told there wasn't any food. Ravenous we persisted and tepid coffee was produced as well as warmed up ham and yesterday's bread. The bill was 11 National Pesos (33p).
The restaurant was clearly smart (in the 70's or 80's) when built but had since had no maintenance at all. The ceiling in the centre section was missing (maybe hurricane damage), the remaining ceiling sagging and pieces missing exposing the rafters and asbestos sheeting above. None of the once plush light fittings worked and the lighting for the whole restaurant was by two small temporary fluorescent lights. The tables were all attractively set out with table cloths, glass ware and smart covers for the chairs. the waitresses dress in smart uniforms but no food on offer. they all made some attempt to help us but they ahd no bread delivery and virtually no food to offer us. How could they be expected to be enthusiastic in their attemps?

The whole set up so mirrored what we have found in any state organisation here (90% of the country is state owned): hopeless inefficiency and bureaucracy making absolute economic non-sense in such marked contrast to casas particulares (B&B) and paladares, small restaurants family run, which have been licensed by the state. These struggle to cope with high taxes and irrational regulations imposed on them to minimize competition with state-owned business, but who give excellent service.
It is hardly surprising the whole country is on the brink of economic collapse. Yet, food rationing ensures everyone has enough to eat, everyone is literate and well educated, benefits from good free health-care and night out costs next to nothing as tickets to theatre, cinema etc are subsidised by the state and considered a right of the people...
More on this later...

Baracoa II

Still here in Baracoa as we have to sort out our visa extension (it only lasts 30 days) and immigration office wouldn´t attend to it more than a few days before its expiry on 6th Jan. Still we have been resting, having hot showers, eating the delicious food/fish in cocounut sauce especially, cooked by our hostess Neida.

Yesterday went to visit the family´s finca with Ruben, which consists mainly of coconut, banana, coffee, orange, grapefruit and cocoa trees. Also saw strange looking trees bearing huge gourds (used for making maracas I think). Everything very tropical. Today it´s raining... hoping to leave tomorrow if visa is renewed.