spanish refresher course

 

a bit of easy vocabulary to get started

 Having consumed a lot of effort boxing the bikes for flying we have decided not to get them out during our week in Mexico.  It's a relief.  It's such a lot of faffing to put the racks and mudguards and handlebars back on, only to remove them so soon.   It's a worry.  What if the bkes have been damaged in the flight from Washington to Florida to here?  When we get to Cuba there won't be a bike repair shop with parts.  It's a cost.  We have to hire a people-carrier taxi to take us to Puerto Morelos, the little town south of the airport.  It's a pain in the arse.  We're staying in the town, not at the beach, so we either have to get the minibus down to the beach or take a longish walk.  A shrug of the shoulders. No hay importa.

We have a simple appartment in a small block on a small new estate on the edge of the small town.  Walking around I notice the people are small.  The tacos we eat at a taco stand are small.  The beach is small too, but very long.  Some days small tropical storms brew up over the sea and whisk over.  After being in the United States for so long the scale of everything seems much reduced.  I need to recalibrate my perceptions.

small sofa

small beach

small scorpion in the bedding

We spend a week doing nothing special, acclimatising to heat and getting used to wearing shorts and sandals again.  This is a nice feeling.  The town and beach area are low-key and low-rise and the only disquieting note is the presence of paramilitary police in pick up trucks.  But the drug violence in Mexico sadly might necessitate such a show of force.  It's not a great image for a country.

After a very quick week we have got used to speaking Spanish and are eager to get on our plane to La Habana.  The bikes are getting claustrophobic.

the vortex

A polar vortex sweeps down from Canada and across the US.  The weather gets a lot of TV coverage, but snow in Texas and Florida does seem extreme.  Everyone here is used to these cold snaps and big snowfalls.  The schools have an early-warning system and will close if there's severe ice on the road.  Olivia is thrilled by these opportunities to lie-in.  Hannah is already considering her college choices and needs to keep on top of her school work.  We feel like the indolent sloths we are.

 We return to DC for another visit and feel the windchill factor on our faces.  The Library of Congress is a grand architectural highlight and the collection of museums is so large at the Smithsonian that we are forced to pick and choose.  We go for art over history.   We are not disappointed.   Another day, sunny and dry, Kamran takes us out into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, stopping in a couple of the pretty towns and we get that incredible winter light.
  

Gayle's mum is ill and admitted to hospital.  Kamran and Emma immediately offer to put Gayle on a flight back home to the UK, if she wants to go.  After chatting with her sister Gayle decides she will accept their generous offer.  Kamran travels so much with his work that he has accrued a large number of airmiles, which enables him to get Gayle onto a flight the next day.  In the twenty years they have lived here they have experienced the anxiety and dread when someone is seriously ill at home and understand the need to get back home.  Gayle's mum is released from hospital and Gayle returns a week later.  It's been a shock.  We know nothing can be taken for granted.  We are more grateful to Emma and Kamran for their generosity than our words can convey.

Having decided we will go to Cuba, and investigated flying there from the US we decide to travel via Cancun in Mexico.  It seems this is the easiest and cheapest way to get there with our bikes.  And so it is with some excitement and a little regret that we say goodbye to our new family in West Virginia.  We will be back one day, we feels ure.

resting in Reston

It's Christmas. Emma's family have flown over from England, her mum Patricia, her brother Simon, his wife Janine and their daughter Thalia and it's a full house.  It's lovely to be part of a family Christmas when we're so far from home.  Kamran and Emma are super hosts and Olivia and Hannah are great fun. Not only are we treated to several meals out and get to meet their friends, but we also wine and dine in great style at the house.  If it wasn't for walking Lola, their cockapoo, then we'd have ended up with one of those Christmas hangovers that comes with overeating.  As it is we feel really happy to be here and feel like part of the family.

making of the gingerbread houses - possibly the only things we didn't eat

Christmas morning

no rest for the wicked hungry

a classic Christmas dinner

Before our lovely hosts returned from their holidays we'd taken our bikes back to the train station and took a trip to see Washington's Mall.  This is the stretch of land between the Capitol building and Lincoln's Memorial down by the Potomac River.  In between are serveral more monuments, too many war memorials because of too many wars, the ludicrously-tall obelisk to George Washington, and most of the Smithsonian Institute's museums.  These national museums were funded by a donation to the US government by Andrew Smithson, a man who never set foot in the US alive. (He's buried here.)  A wealthy  businessman, he gave the money to the US government not long after the war between the US and Britain that ended in 1815.  With the memory of British forces burning Washington's government buildings still fresh, the US initially refused the donation but eventually accepted it.  The place was busy with tourists exploring the museums and taking obligatory selfies at all the iconic monuments.

MLK is the first non-president honoured at the Mall

 Emma has managed to reserve tickets to the new Afro-American History Museum at the Smithsonian - it's an experience.  The museum catalogues the messy history and the complex ironies of the US fighting for independence and liberty while maintaining slavery.  We are overloaded with accounts of the heroes and the villains, shocked by the power and simplicity of some of the exhibits - particularly of the actual sharecropper's house on display.  And one emerges  finally with the positive and challenging words of Obama fresh in our minds back into the harsh light of today.

a famous 1937 photo of black Americans queueing for flood relief after the Ohio River flood

It seems we are only just visiting the Great Falls park on Christmas Eve before we're celebrating the New Year.  There's been some snow and some seriously cold days.  We've had a lot of fun playing family games in the evenings.  Now it's time for Pat, Janine and Simon and Thalia to fly home to the UK.  School starts for Hannah and Olivia and Kamran is back at work. Emma is preparing her next art workshop for a local primary school and we need to plan our onward journey south.