What did the Cuban barber tell me he used for practice?

The barber told me that he practiced on himself.  Chris Parrot, seen below in his blazing red lycra and matching water bottle cycling on Prince Edward Island during that fateful trip in September 2007, got the right answer; but according to the Contest Rules he is not eligible to win the bag of coffee.

What does Yolanda love about the Newspapers in Cuba?

She loves that there is no bad news.

No one got the right answer.

What did Yolanda do when after a long hot day of biking the shower did not work in our Hotel?

As part of the answer, I’ll give you a little bit of background.  We got to the hotel around 4:00 pm. The rooms for the group were not ready because of late checkouts.  We waited in the bar where they plied us with free booze.

Photo courtesy of Cindy Loo. March 25, 2011

One by one we got our rooms.  Yolanda and I were among the last.  By the time we got to the room we did not have much time to shower and change for dinner.

So when Yolanda found that the flexible metal-sheathed hose that attached to the showerhead was broken she wrapped herself in a towel (that I wished was bigger) and headed for the hall.  The first person she accounted was one of biking companions, Albert. Yolanda, joining once again her 30 plus year battle with the English language:  “Can I take a shower with you?”

Me yelling from the room:  “Use your shower!!”

I grabbed a towel and stuck me head out the door.  Too late.  Yolanda was charging down the corridor in search of who knows what.  Albert, a cattle buy from Alberta, who we had known for all of eight days, was standing in the hall looking confused.

Yolanda disappeared around a corner and reappeared seconds later with a chambermaid (and the towel, thank goodness!) in tow.

The chambermaid showed us how to jerry-rig the hose.  With some difficulty and much laughter we managed to get showered and down to the lobby on time.

When we got back to the room after dinner, the hose had been repaired.  There is hope.

No one got the right answer.

Here’s an interesting article about a Cuban man who invents things out of junk to alleviate the backbreaking labor of much of Cuban agriculture.

P.S. We left the chambermaid the biggest tip of the trip.