Adventures with elephants and chocolates

The Strava App says that I have cycled 427.3 km so far this year. That much?

I am... 🤐

And yet, I know this is nothing 😅 because some of the guys I've been cycling with, literally beat the road, as they work as delivery boys in the city, in other words, that's one of their job options to survive.

They are in several WhatsApp groups that tell them when a customer requests that the purchase they made in a virtual shop be delivered to them, and then they apply to make the trip, depending on the availability they have at the time.

I'm not prepared to do that, but who knows if one day I'll reorient myself professionally, 😂 taking into account that each kilometre travelled is paid between 90 and 100 CUP and the first 3 km at 300 CUP. With about 20 kilometres travelled in a day, I get 40% of the salary I receive today per month...

(dramatic music)

Following with the statistics so as not to be the...

... inside the glassware, 😁 Strava also tells me that I have ridden this week:

On the 14th of July (Sunday) I had the first ride and I published it here. If you missed it you can see it at this link. In the post I mentioned that I had gone to try the artistic Alile chocolates from @lileisabel and her son, but I failed to share this image.

Alile chocolates are delicious and I bought a few with milk, white chocolate and peanut fillings. 🤤

The photo was taken by her son and is here with the consent of my amigurumi, as I affectionately call her. That day as you can see we had a mini Hive meetup. We are two Cubans proud to have already reached dolphin status. 😂

I have to say that she motivated me a lot to achieve it. When I saw how happy she was to receive that badge, I really got into gear and set goals. One of the things that really encourages me about Hive is that, for me at least, it always pushes me to move forward and improve as a content creator.

The other pedal stroke was on 17 July and I also posted it on the Wednesday Walk community. I even made a video showing some sections of the trip, but guess how I did it? Well, with my mobile phone in one hand and driving with the other, a very dangerous thing to do, I know.

Would you like to play a little?

(There will be a small reward for anyone who can tell me where in the video this recklessness can be seen and where or near where I was supposedly standing, judging by certain birds in the sky) 😂

I have already said that I want to buy an action camera to record my bike rides. A friend of mine suggested this device that you see here in the picture below. She told me that it could be positioned in such a way that I could record from it with my mobile phone. It was a failure. The camera of the mobile phone is not prepared for that and the image is distorted by the vibration of the rudder of the bike. It looks like it will be used for something else or I'll try to sell it again so it won't be 12 USD lost. I managed to film with the front camera and made the GIF that I inserted in this post. Will I have to dedicate myself to address certain issues while pedalling? Will destiny be leading me down that path? I don't know... now I'm thinking...🤔

I went to buy that device on 18 July and the ride was also recorded on Strava. Before I went, I stopped by my friend Amanda's house 😅 and I really wanted to spend more time there with her gossiping. It had been a while since we had seen each other.

The last tour of the week was yesterday. A trip to Vedado. After the videos that made it look like I was crossing a portal to another dimension, I took the photo of the elephant, near Jalisco Park which, by the way, looked very lively. Lots of kids jumping on inflatable things.

Amigurumi still had my chocolates stored in his fridge because that day I bought them, my friend and I were on our way to Old Havana. They were going to melt because they were in the backpack for so many hours. So... yesterday was the day to take them home.

You know, I took the opportunity to wander around Vedado and take a few photos with my mobile phone. I didn't bring the camera with me because of the weight of the backpack. I had taken the old Mac to a repair shop, as I already said. I couldn't find one.

I shot from... that device. {LOL} But I have a curiosity for you about this corner, 23rd and 12th, in Vedado. Korda's most reproduced photo in the history of photography, entitled "Guerrillero Heroico", was taken in this place.

I took this picture on 21st street just before L. It's just behind the Coppelia ice cream parlour and in front of the Indian embassy, which is right behind me so you don't see it. I was struck by that building, K23, our first skyscraper. Well, it's not me who says so, there is even controversy in the networks about it. People talk about its quality, its height and its stamina, you know? But I'll give you some facts: it has more than 500 rooms spread over 44 floors and measures more than 154 metres.

By the way, I took a look at the offers of this restaurant "La Carreta" and I thought they were quite good. Someone recommended it to me some time ago.

The next stop was on the Malecon in front of the Maine Casualty Memorial.

Built in honor of the American sailors who died in the explosion of USS Maine which contributed to the United States’ declaration of war on Spain.

The American battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing two officers and 250 sailors. Fourteen of the survivors eventually died of their injuries, bringing the death toll to a total 266._Wikipedia

From right there, you can see our National Hotel.

And a little further on I ran into that guy you saw in the photo of the chocolates. He was sitting in the fountain at 23rd and Malecón waiting for Yoyo Batman, the guy in my previous post. We went to eat some hamburgers, I had malt, he had Pepsi Cola, and soon after the Batman arrived. I told them that I had to pick up the chocolates and they seemed to like my company because they didn't hesitate to accompany me.

Yoyo Batman bought Alile chocolates and before going home we stopped by his house to save them. It was a present for his mum. I imagine she must have been very happy.

There, in the basement of his house, I took this photo.

Dominoes, a game that has a lot of science behind it to make the pieces fit together, even if it's a matter of luck after the pieces have been removed.

It was 7 o'clock in the evening. Yoyo insisted on accompanying me home, even though it would still be daylight for me to arrive without any problems.

We chat along the way and laugh at all sorts of silly things.

When we arrived at the 100th Avenue Bridge, I couldn't let this moment pass.

A hug, friends... enough chit-chat for today. 😁 I hope you enjoyed some views of my city, if you joined me in this summary where, in addition to my day to day life, I also share some thoughts.

👋

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_{Original content by @nanixxx. All rights reserved ©, 2024.}