After the previous day’s break from the bikes, it was back on the saddle for the fourth day of our Cuban tour, where we were to travel from our mountain lodge stay in Santo Domingo to the beautiful hotel El Salton.
 On route we passed through several villages, taking in the wonderful scenery and culture. Everywhere we went we seemed to attract some positive attention, with small kids waving at us and shouting “Hello”, obviously quite pleased with themselves at their English vocabulary. We stopped in one of these villages for a much needed rest, and to help recoup our energy Jesus had obtained some sugar cane juice. This stuff, while looking like some dreadful concoction dredged from the bottom of a cess pit, tasted pretty much like, well sugar really. And who doesn’t like sugar. After three cups of this stuff, I was buzzing with so much energy, I felt I could have cycled back home.
 We proceeded on to the next village at a slightly faster pace. Here we stopped to talk to a local butcher who, it became apparent, had done quite well for himself after showing us his car, an impressive looking 1950’s Cadillac. Once we finished ogling the car somewhat (Well the guys in the group at least), we were back on our bikes once again.
 The remainder of our journey was hard going, possibly due to coming down from the rush of the sugar cane juice, but partly because the terrain had been getting progressively steeper. Eventually we arrived at the hotel el Salton. This hotel is in a fantastic location, surrounded by exotic vegetation with a 30 metre high waterfall at the back plunging into a natural pool. It really does look like a movie set on a tropical island paradise. We spent the rest of the afternoon cooling off in the pool, with some of the group taking advantage of the inhouse masseuse, whilst in the evening we sat down to a much needed dinner.
One thing worth mentioning at this point was we found the traditional Cuban dessert to be most odd, consisting of thin strips of mild cheese and a very sweet syrup. This was served most places we went, so we were starting to get used to it by this time and, on the plus side, was helping us all lose some weight.
The rest of the evening was spent playing some pool (Although made rather more tricky with the balls all looking white, due to the colour being so faded).
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Back to day 3 - Santo Domingo |
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Forward to day 5 - Contramaestre to Santiago |
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