I’ve been hiding 🤫

Sunday 5 April, 3:50 am.

I woke up just before 3 am, as I usually do under normal circumstances... And I say ‘normal circumstances’ because I’m actually sleeping here right now.

Where? You might ask. Well, at the foot of the volcano. 🤣

But let me rewind this tape a little.

What's down there under the coconut palms? Take a closer look – zoom in on the photo.

Hold on... Let me help you 😀... Bikes!!! Oh right, if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here at this time of the night on this Community. By the way, did you miss me? I know my contribution to last week's Sunday Chat hasn't arrived yet, but it was for a good and worthy cause.

😅

On Friday at 5 am, I left home and cycled 83 km with this group. There are six of us explorers and a dog called Homero.

Yes, I pushed myself to the limit! But I went way beyond it! Because the journey here is a really tough route with lots of hills and a headwind.

Look at this landscape. It looks beautiful in photos, but being here—believe me—is a whirlwind of emotions for me... And behind that hill on the left, take a look at what’s in the photo below.

This is Puerto Escondido (Hidden Harbour). Yes! A magical spot in our country that I plan to tell you more about in a future post once I get home and have had a rest. Because in about three hours, we’ve got an 83-kilometre journey back ahead of us. We don’t have a plane or a helicopter to take us back.

Our legs are tired from cycling all the way here from Havana and climbing these mountains yesterday.

If you zoom in on this photo, you might just be able to see my tent way off in the distance... a little blue speck.

😅🤓

Let me repeat: I need to process all this before I can tell you about it. Because it’s not just about being here, listening to the sound of the sea crashing against the reefs and walking through hard-to-reach places… We’ve been out of mobile coverage almost the whole time, because there’s no electricity – and we don’t need it. We came here knowing it would be like this. A weekend almost completely disconnected from everything, simply enjoying nature, with only the bare essentials. Last night we managed to charge our mobiles at the home of a local worker, so we’d have a way of communicating on the way back.

Now, I should get some sleep before the sun comes up. It’s almost 5:00 am, and I’ve got so much on my mind…

This week’s initiative (the Sunday ChitChat) might come a bit later than usual, or it might not happen at all and we’ll just extend the one we’re currently running. We’ll see.

😊 I hope you’ll forgive me, because between preparing for this trip – both physically and mentally – and the current situation in my country, I didn’t have a chance to let you know.