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2012-01-22, 11:42: news
a test

2006-08-13, 19:15: Nina now has her own website
Cuba’s old houses were built in the 19.century. The walls were painted in different colours, and during the time one layer came on top of the others. The revolution in 1959 put a stop to the maintenance. Since then tropical rainstorms and hurricanes have hammered on the walls. And the many colours from the past are beginning to be visible.
Dream pictures are telling stories about tropical storms, slow decay and time gone by. If you stay with then for a little while, you will discover mystical creatures looking out from the canvas. A piece of Cuban history that have been painted into the walls comes alive.
On Ninas new website ninarasmussen.com you can view all picture and read more!

2006-06-15, 15:02: Moto Mundo
Now you can ride with us to some of the worlds most exciting places!
Hjalte and daughter Ida has started Moto Mundo that arranges motocycle tours.
Read more at Moto Mundo

2006-02-13, 20:00: We drove to the south-west tip of Cuba, Granma province.

2006-02-13, 19:00: Carretera Sur
The southernmost coastal road on Cuba, where the high mountains meet the sea was damaged by the hurricanes several places.

2006-02-13, 18:00: The Ural in Cayo Sabinal, on the deserted northern coast of Cuba.

2006-02-11, 12:00: YES WE MADE IT !!
We drove the URAL all over CUBA. 4000 wonderful, warm and welcoming km. We managed to get the old 1958 URAL with sidecar into Cuba after solving the bureaucratical problems. After a month in Havana we finally set out with full camping equipmen, high hopes and a brand-new yellow Cuban licence-plate HKZ 028 (Yellow for privatly-owned vehicle, H for Havana and K for foreigner, resident in Cuba. The roads are all paved but full of holes. Hardly any trafic but the occasional horse-carriage and ox-cart.

We camped on deserted beaches, scaled all the mountain-roads of Cuba (in first gear) and finally drove all along the glorious Malecon, Havana's waterfront six-lane drive.

Cuba is perfect for motorcycle touring. Beautyful nature, extremely friendly people, pleasant climate and exiting cities.

We invite you to come with us on and tour Cuba in February 2007.

Please read more on our MOTO-MUNDO website

2005-12- 9, 12:00: The last hectic moments before lifft off
I have not yet begun packing my suitcase and we'll soon have to leave. In the dead of night Ida and Emil will drive us to Billund and then we fly via Paris to CUBA!

The picture is another latin city - in the middle of the Atlantic - and a little bit like Havana, From here Christobal Colon set out west, and he came back having discovered Cuba and a world new to Europe.

2005-12- 5, 12:02: Planning ahead of Cuba: Nina has produced a new show MIT LIVS MIRAKLER - The miracles of my life
MIT LIVS MIRAKLER - The miracles of my life. From March 2006 Nina will tour Denmark with a new show , read more on "lectures/foredrag"

2005-12- 5, 08:45: On the high sea
Only six days to lift-off! The Ural made it's way to Hamburg and was stowed in a container, but the container was short-shipped, so no Ural to Cuba. Telepone calls and loud voices. Now, somewhere on the Atlantic on a ship called Valparaiso Express the Ural is rolling on the big waves towards Cuba.
Bags and stuff are beginning to pile up on our floors. Emil and Ida are here. Yesterday we celebrated an early christmas with Max and his family.

2005-11- 2, 13:00: Nina and Hjalte in new books
While we continue preparations for CUBA a new hard-back edition of our book on our 2003 Kurdish adventure in Iraq, Turkey and Syria was published today by Rosinante: "Rejsen til landet der ikke findes" (Journey to the country that doesn't exist) isbn 87-638-0244-9. See more, click "bøger".
Nina is one of twelve famous Danish women featured in a book of interviews, published last week by Pretty Ink: "Hvad livet lærte mig" (What life told me), isbn 87-91603-10-2.
Hjalte contributed "Children in violent spaces: a reinterpretation of the 1976 Soweto uprising" - explaining how children as children successfully could challenge the South African apartheid regime - in: "Social Identities in the New South Africa", ed. Abebe Zegeye, Kwela Books and SA History Online, Cape Town, isbn 0-7957-0133-0

2005-11- 1, 23:00: The Ural has left. Destination Cuba!
Just 40 short days to lift off.
The weblog has been left alone the last two weeks. I have been busy fixing the Ural for Cuba. A few parts have been renewed. But the veteran-bike was in surprising good shape. Nina has spruced up the sidecar. The outfit started up on the first kick when I wheeled it out from the workshop. And it is was not a hard kick - not like my high-compression Norton. The patient Ural side-valve engine can run on 62 octane petrol - almost kerosine. It has a lot of torque but not a lot of power. Perfect for cruising around Cuba's small twisting country-roads.
After one weekend of testing I took it apart again, this time to pack it in a box. With sidecar and full camping equipment it shrank to 2 m3 = $ 650 Aarhus-.Havana one-way.
Today a truck came from DFDS-Transport to pick it up at our house. And the rain was even worse than the day the Ural arrived. Tomorrow it will leave Hamburg onboard Nedlloyd Clement. If all goes well it will berth in Havana on November 30. We cross our fingers and look forward to take on the Cuban customs. And then..Cuba!

2005-10- 5, 12:30: Visit from the past
67 days to lift-off!
Some days ago Jakob and Anna arrived in driving rain on their noisy, wonderfull and rough motorcycle. The URAL was here!. We got it inside the house and soon it exploded all over the work-shop.Heavy metal from a remote place - Irbit, east of the Ural mountains - and a remote time - 1956, a bleak time in the history of the Soviet Union, and more to the point, three years before Castro took over in Cuba.

The enige is OK, all 750 robust side-valve cc's, fitted with new Mahle pistons and Chinese cylinder heads. The gearbox looks fine too, including the reverse gear. Suspesion is more like something from a Flintstone car.

Entry and exit from Cuba remains an unsolved riddle.

Now we need an offcially registered Cuban exporter to get the motorcycle shipped out of Cuba.

2005-09-27, 23:00: Cuban artists
74 days to lift off.

We hope to meet Cuban poet and novelist Antonio José Ponte in Havanna. 2003 he wrote about Cuba:

"Time has been dammed up and is administered as if it were one more of those properties of the revolutionary government. The promises of well-being remain in the future (more scarce all the time, and as a sustitute portents of resistance are offered)...And the present, neither heroic nor comfortable? In Cuba, between yesterday and tomorrow exists the greatest amount of emptiness breathable." (from "Cuba on the Verge" 2003)

We look forward to meeting Cuban artists on their home turf!

2005-09-23, 22:00: Motorcycle club in Havana
78 days to lift off.

On the net I found LAMA - Latin American Motorcycle Association. Headquarter in Chicago, USA, with local branches across the US and in several Latin American countries too - including CUBA!

Today I got a reply from Adolfo Prieto:
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Saludos amigos Hjalte y Nina, mi nombre es Adolfo y estoy a cargo de las relaciones con otros clubes y amigos, seria un honor para nosotros recibirlos en nuestro pais, y seguro los ayudaremos en todo lo posible, aqui conseguir una moto no es muy facil, pues para muchos de nosotros es nuestro unico medio de transporte, pero trataremos de buscar una moto con side-car como usted sugiere, estaremos en contacto...

fraternalmente Adolfo Prieto
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Getting a motorcycle in Cuba continues to be a serious problem - but I am sure Adolfo and his friends will do what they can to help us. We look forward to meeting them in Havana

2005-09-22, 17:00: How to get an Ural to Cuba?
79 days to lift off.

How to get hands on a motorcycle on Cuba continues to be my main concern. I have contacted Lufthansa Cargo. Their subsidiary Condor flies cargo to Havana. Today I got their answer. Totally negative. Motorcycles are dangerous goods - no matter how much you remove petrol, battery, even oil.

But Fred. Olsen Lines can ship a motorcycle to Havana. For a complete Ural sidecar mc it is expensive. around 1000 Euro one way.

AND they do not know what will happen in Havana customs. They promised to come back on that.

To bring the price down the Ural has to shrink, as weight not is a factor. On the road the dimensions are 2.25mX1.65mX1m = 3.75m3.

So how small can you make a Ural with a sidecar?

2005-09-20, 17:00: Our secret dream
81 days to lift off

Nina and I have a secret dream for our Cuba journey. To do it on an old motorcycle with a sidecar. A russian Ural - one of the most common makes puffing along on Cuba. We have asked around, and everyone tells us it is next to impossible.

Horizons Unlimited (see our link-page) has an excellent forum for motorcycle travel.Today I posted this question:

"Anyone out there with experience of bringing a motorcycle into Cuba? AND CUBAN CUSTOMS?

Danish travelwriters Hjalte Tin and Nina Rasmussen are going to Cuba December 2005-February 2006 on an Ural with sidecar. We may - or may not - get one on Cuba. Friends on the island have started looking around.

An alternative is to ship one from Europe. We have an old Ural in Denmark,
perfect for a slow journey through Cuba."

Just a few hours later we got the first reply!

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Hola viajeros,

oh, cuba on an ural. the ural is the most common bike on fidels island.

to rent one will be difficult, as it is forbidden for cubans to rent their private bikes or car to tourists. to buy one is also not practical, because prices are very high. for a good one the seller will ask around 4000 to 5000 US.

shipping your own bike over is an option. on my rtw journey I flew my Yamaha Tenere into Havanna airport. No drama getting the bike out legaly, only 10 usd and two nights sleeping in the airport.

shipping your bike in with a sailboat is also fairly easy with the customs, I know that because I left with a sailboat and friend arrived with their Harley on a sailboat.

I dont know about ports. But legaly you can take your bike into Cuba, the Customs at the airport in Havanna know everything about it.

I dont know how your spanish is, but you should be able to communicate in spanish because this makes it a lot easier.

No, I did not like Cuba and I left after only ten days. But go and see for yourself.

buen viaje

mika
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2005-09-19, 18:00: We bought tickets!
82 days to lift off!

Nina just bought tickets to Cuba! We'll be leaving December 10th from Denmark via Paris to Havana.

The price with Air France is 1000 euro per person two ways.

The clock is counting down. The next big challenge is to get a motorcycle to ride on in Cuba. Either somehow get one in Cuba...
Or ship one from Denmark. A friend has got an antique russian Ural with sidecar - almost as old as the revolution - which we can borrow.

But how do you get it to Cuba - and back again?

If you have any experience, suggestions, bits of information, or useful contacts - please send us a message.

2005-09-17, 23:16: New Weblog!
This weblog has just been added!

The idea with this weblog is to tell you, dear visitors to our homepage, something about what is going on in our adventure workshop. New plans, new ideas, preparations and reflections for experiencing the world. We hope you'll find it interesting and perhaps send in comments and suggestions for us or other users of this homepage. We have visitors from many countries, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Togo and the US.

That is why we have decided to run this weblog in English. And also our photo-page, which we are busy uploading pictures to.

We will be back very soon with updates on our preparations for Cuba.