"How can you love a country if you don't leave the resort?"

First, the team....

Frank Maidens (DIY Bike enthusiast and uber talented designer with Concrete Design)
Anibal Davila (Founder of Bike Sauce, a not-for-profit bike repair shop in Toronto, www.bikesauce.org)
And myself, just the guy with a camera.

15km south of Veradero lies Cardenas. The bike capital of Cuba. A town where horse drawn carriages and bicycles outnumber cars. We stayed at a Casa Particulaire, Angelo's. Casa Particulaires are home stays, people have two or three rooms to rent and are government regulated. If you plan on doing Cuba outside of the resort, this is the way to go. You really get a feel for the culture and the food is amazing.

On a side note, our host Angelo, runs the Italian restaurant at the Breeze's resort in Varadero. He offers people on the resort a chance to come to his home for a lobster dinner. If you happen to be there, I highly recommend the experience.

Cardenas was a great place to start our trip. Slow paced, not touristy at all, and the people were so friendly. So friendly, it seemed that everyone was offering us women. The town was not dirty, there were no visible ladies of the evening, nor other tourists or ex pats looking. It just seemed that when people noticed you were without a woman, that they felt obliged to offer one. You know when you have people over, maybe the out-of-town relatives, you offer them a drink, well it was like that. Except we were offered ladies. "You look thirsty, can I offer you my friend here?" We weren't pressured either, we would say no, and the conversation would move on. It was an odd experience in this old town that seemed stuck in time.

It was near the end of the first day that I met Madaglia and her grand daughter Janicel. I have to thank Anibal for making this encounter possible. As our translator he helped us into and out of many situations. The experience would not have been the same without him. Especially this one...

Madaglia is a spunky old lady who is taking care of her granddaughter, Janicel. After her parents divorce, it seems that both parents have re married and neither have taken an interest in caring for her. She is a quiet 11 yr old, but has an amazing smile and I was able to get her laughing. Madaglia suffers from Asthma, has no running water, a leaky roof and feels the movie store has screwed her by going to DVD. Her possessions are one UHF TV, a VCR (she uses it for a clock), two chairs, a desk, bed, and a book of poetry.

This book is not just any book. It's hers. Hand written pages from throughout her life. She is a romantic, and her poems reflect the love and loss she has experienced. She reads a few poems and explains that she stopped writing in 1977. Though she never really explained why. She did say that she always wanted to make a book but says the funding wasn't there for people like her. She had a friend type a few for her, but in fear of being caught at work, her friend destroyed the originals before returning the copies to Madaglia. It is a surreal feeling, seeing this old home, empty, but knowing throughout the years, this lady has held on to this folder full of poems. You can tell this book is everything to her.

Cardenas was the starting and finishing point for us. Upon returning from Havana I visited again and brought Madaglia 4 bottles of vapo rub(helps with her asthma, but she can't afford it). We exchanged addresses and promised to write. Her grand daughter and my daughter will hopefully start up a pen pal relationship as well. Before we parted ways she gave me one last thing, she handed me a portion of her poetry. Some drafts, but she also gave me the printed copies, the ones where her friend had thrown out the originals, her only copies. As I write this I see them beside me and wonder what to do with this amazing gift. This trip was amazing, full of experience, but this one is closest to my heart.