Thursday 8th November - Hanabanilla to Playa Ancon (90km)

I woke up at 6am after only a couple of hours sleep, feeling like nothing-on-earth (after a few too many Cuba Libre's last night).

I felt momentarily better on seeing the beautiful sunrise over the mountains, across the lake from my balcony, but this only lasted a few minutes until I had to rush to the toilet with an uncontrollable urge to vomit.

We went down to reception with our luggage and then attempted breakfast. All I could manage was a cup of cafe con leche as the thought of food was too much to stomach. Not ideal with 2 hours sleep and a 90km cycle ahead of me! (It was already 32 degrees at 8am which didn't help matters).

We set off down the hills which we had climbed the evening before. I was grateful that the first few kilometres were downhill as I was having to resist the urge to throw up whilst on my bike at this stage!

We stopped very briefly at the house where we ate last night to wave goodbye to the family.

I stayed at the back of the group for pretty much all of today as I felt like I was going to die (my own fault). Pretty much everyone else had also stayed up late drinking and dancing, but I'm not used to drinking much so I really paid for it today. The scenery was absolutely stunning though as we cycled through the Escambray mountains which made the suffering slightly more bearable. It also helped that Alex and Ariel briefly gave me and Jane a push up part of the hill (only about 5metres) but it was better than nothing!

We stopped for a snack in Manicaragua, a small village about 22km's into our day's ride with a Mr. Whippy style ice cream shop. I felt totally exhausted so I sat on the pavement in the shade with an ice cream which Mark kindly donated. I could only manage a few licks though as it made me feel very sick again!

We set off shortly to the sound of Alfredo's dreaded whistle into very hilly terrain through more villages with children running out and waving at us, and shouting 'Hola!'. Sharon and I were cycling up a hill, when a whole playground of school children gathered at the edge of their playground shouting, 'What's your name?' in English. We answered them in Spanish which made them all giggle and they all waved and shouted, 'Adios'. This made getting up the hill much easier.

Sharon and I cycled at the back with Ariel and Alex through swarms of hornets with occasional pushes up the hill! I went on ahead at one point and stopped to go for a wee at the side of the road (no hedges so just had to keep my fingers crossed that no cars would come along - I was lucky)!

The others soon caught up. We then had a really big hill before arriving at our lunch stop in Campismo Rio Seibabo. I stopped on this hill as I felt like death was approaching! OK, I'm being slightly melodramatic, but I felt like I was going to faint, but I really didn't want to have to go on the bus for any of the route so I insisted on carrying on. First, Alex and Nikki made me put my feet up in the air and poured water on my head! This made me feel a bit better and gave me the strength I needed to make it up the final steep hill to the lunch stop.

I sat in the shade and managed to eat about two mouthfuls of rice and a few plantain chips followed by half a small banana. Ros and I then sat on a swing chair in the shade for a while and everyone lazed around relaxing in the shade before setting off for the final afternoon's cycle.

We had a short bus transfer from the campsite as the road condition was unsuitable for bikes. We were then reunited with our bikes for the last part of the jouney through the Escambray mountains towards Trinidad and Playa Ancon.

I enjoyed the afternoon's cycling much more as I felt a bit better after resting in the shade at lunch and managing to eat a little bit of lunch. It was still pretty demanding terrain, but the beautiful scenery made it easier. We got totally covered in tar when a lorry overtook us on a piece of road with newly laid tar. There was one more really big hill as we got towards Trinidad but I managed this OK. The sun was setting behind the mountains on the right as I cycled up this hill.

We all met on a corner a couple of km's after the hill before setting off towards Ancon in the fast-fading light. We covered the last 15km's pretty much in the dark which hadn't been the plan. The frequent shouts of 'Hole' soon died out as it was pretty pointless as we couldn't see anything. I did this stretch at the front with Alex and Alfredo.

We arrived en masse at around 7 o'clock with Alfredo's whistle blowing and all our bells ringing. There were congratulatory hugs all round and Vladimir kindly gave us all a rub down with a petrol-soaked rag to get rid of the tar on our legs.

We then checked into Hotel Ancon and had a quick shower before our celebratory dinner. It was a fairly quiet affair as everyone was totally exhausted after last night's activities and five days of challenging cycling. After dinner we went and had drinks in the poolside bar. We chatted to Alex, Alfredo and Orlando as they had to leave at 6:30 the next morning to get back to Havana to meet the next group. It was very sad to say our last goodbye's to them as we'd started to grow close to them as the week progressed.