I've never seen a car like this boasting its speed on the streets of Havana before. At this moment neither 😂 because it was parked on the avenue I had to cross to start my bike ride. So I stopped to take these pictures of it. It was something interesting and right at the beginning of one of my cycling adventures, it could be a premonition of something...

A brief search on the Internet shows that this is a Polaris Slingshot that weighs 771kg and is homologated as a motorbike. I'm looking at a 2014 article with lots of technical specs about the vehicle, and it's really boring. Surely being inside it and driving it is not. The website autocosmos.com.mx says that this toy for that date had a value between $20000 and $24000 USD. I guess this is not its price today.

I left with some thoughts about speed. And others about divine timing. And others about not feeling in the right frame of mind to ride. And on top of that it was windy. My legs felt very heavy...

Up to this point I had travelled about 5 kilometres with the wind against me and uphill at least half of the way.

The mission was to accompany a friend to buy a new shoe for his bike in Cuatro Caminos, between the limits of the municipalities Old Havana and Cerro. I think when I met him I was a bit more cheered up. I told him that I felt very slow and tired and asked him if he knew which route we were going to take because I am not good at finding my way around these places. I have cycled there very little. Luckily, he had that under control.

We then drove to his uncle's house in the Cerro 4 km from where I picked him up and it took us 16 minutes or so to get there.

https://strava.app.link/abmbtqzBxPb (this was the route)

On the way he told me that his uncle lives in a house that used to be a Spanish bank and that there was of course a vault under the floor. We joked about the possibility that maybe there was buried treasure there, maybe old coins, gold... diamonds... hahaha... but the hole where the vault used to be was covered up and a floor was laid on top of it in accordance with the time of construction. Nobody found anything when the vault was accessible.

I only took this very bad picture of the inscription on the doorway of the house before crossing the street to enter that blue house you see in the background, a motorbike and bike parts and accessories shop where I bought a plastic knob to carry water on my bike.

We continued our ride and a little further on we had to stop and get off our bikes because there was a cable down in the middle of the road, so we had the chance to take some photos.

Repairs... something collapsed, what do I know? Things are constantly falling apart...

The way to the place where my friend bought his spare tyre was challenging, avoiding cars, potholes, downhill (thank goodness) and of course lighter in terms of effort, with care, because we don't want to have any unpleasant surprises. This is a very busy and noisy area. It was not far from his uncle's house. It was about two kilometres away.

That place, in general I find ugly, but it had this detail on the entrance door. It looks to me like the recreation of a Chevalier of Paris, a picturesque character from the 1920s to the 1950s in Havana, an emigrant who, according to some versions, lost his mental equilibrium after being in prison several times.

Some songs have been dedicated to him.

El Caballero De París - Antonio María Romeu and his Orchestra. Sings: BARBARITO DIEZ (Source YouTube)

A rap (I didn't know this one)

El ilustrado Caballero de París - Gerardo Alfonso. This singer and songwriter has some interesting things to say before his performance, listen to him. It seems that the Chevalier of Paris had dreadlocks before Bob Marley, hahaha... yes it's true that he had dreadlocks but he didn't impose that fashion. 😁

Well, I'm already straying from the subject of this post.

I found another work by Maisel López, going down Saldo Street in the Cerro Municipality. 😍

And after that we went to another bike shop in this area, where my friend bought some lights that he also needed.

And I seem to have stayed connected with the art because on the way back home I just stopped again to take pictures in this construction that looks like it was a bodega, as we call here the shops where they sell those rationalised foodstuffs of the family basket.

The total distance cycled through the city was about 25 km, but let's take a closer look at this form of expression.

😃

Stop fooling around with the little flowers and focus, nani.

Hey, fellow cyclists! hahaha... I'm busy here taking colourful pictures.

I don't know why it seems to me that that ‘’Préndete‘’ has something to do with smoking things... you know... or maybe just the person is invoking the street lights... 🤔

Kill, the King forgives. 🤔

And that's it.

The year is coming to an end... I don't need to think about speed, I just need to be at peace with myself.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

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