Cuba – The Far East Orient Tour

Timing is everything. A few days before we were due to leave for our second bike touring trip to Cuba, simultaneous new conferences from Raul Castro and Barack Obama announced a warming of relations between Cuba and the US. About time! We left with the feeling that the last chance to see the “old Cuba” is now.

After a lovely overnight stay visiting Ciaran, Maike and baby Maya in Toronto, we departed (late of course, Air Canada) for Holguin in eastern Cuba. Two years ago we cycled west from Havana to the Vinales area. This year the plan was to tackle the 800 km route through Guardalavaca, Banes, Baracoa, Guantanamo City, to Santiago de Cuba. We arrived late, but the taxi our Casa had organized was waiting – a classic old skoda. With two Bike Fridays of the roof, we arrived at Casa Hostal Refugio de Reyes and its excellent hosts and collapsed into bed.

Day 1 – Holguin City to Guardalavaca (53 km)
[simage=3469,200,n,left,] After arriving late it was a slow morning. The Casa is lovely. Our room was private at the bottom of the garden and we had an excellent breakfast of tropical fruits, tangy local goat cheeses, eggs and bread. It was great to enjoy the strong Cuban coffee and warm milk again. Sarah and David found us maps (we forgot our guidebooks).

We assembled our bikes and hit the road before midday for the relatively short and easy ride to Guardalavaca through the rolling countryside. It was pretty easy to escape the pleasant city. The route itself is uneventful – not spectacular but pretty and quiet, and a very good road. We resisted the temptation for several side roads leading to five star all-inclusive resorts, and cycled on into Guardalavaca. Our old cycling Cuba book (15 years old!) suggested there are no Casa in the town because it’s a resort town. But now there are many, including some houses just on the right of the main road before you turn off into Guardalavaca itself – these are quite pleasant in typical houses. If you want the experience of staying in a classic concrete cube worker apartment block, there are Casa there too. For dinner we cycled up the hill towards Banes and had a good sunset meal at the restaurant Balcon del Rey.

Day 2 Guardalavaca to Banes (34 km)
[simage=3470,200,n,left,]We started with a nice stroll on the beach and a paddle in the glorious blue sea before saying farewell to Guardalavaca. The first 6 km was retracing the uphill ride from the previous evening to the restaurant – harder with a full loaded bike. The route to Banes is simply lovely – through rolling hills with a variety of farming. A couple of notable climbs with a fun descent. One village on the way had a peso pizza and a few other options, but with such a short day we passed through. The summit of the final climb provides great views over the plain to Banes and the coast. On the lowlands by Banes the fields of sugarcane were noticeable.

We arrived in Banes to find the people our previous Casa had recommended waiting for us on the corner of the road as you enter Banes. It looked rather noisy here, so we sadly had to leave and went to find a place on a side street. After one nice looking Casa (possibly the one in our old cycling book) was full, we were referred down the road to the lovely Casa Bella run by Sra. Sonia. A lady in the street pointed out to Gill that her face was as red as the cover of the guidebook! After settling in we strolled the streets of Banes – a nice town with a few shops. We exchanged some convertible peso for local peso at the Cadeca, and then enjoyed some local ice cream and a cake for a few Cuban pesos. The evening was spent having a couple of drinks and a nice meal at the paladar restaurant run by the Casa that was full.

Day 3 – Banes to Campismo Rio Cabonico (84 km)
[simage=3487,200,n,left,]We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at Casa Bella (apparently we were the first guests ever to ask for our eggs boiled). We stopped at the small bakery kiosk and got some fresh muffins and cake for the ride. Then we hit the road, enjoying the pretty flat terrain through the lovely countryside. The road due south crosses several railway tracks, although it was hard to know if they were still used. This road is mostly in good condition, and we made good speed. In a few sections the road was was quite broken and rough – the longest was a rather tedious kilometer long. Suddenly the road was perfect again and we reached the main road towards Mayari (and Moa and beyond). The headwinds were a fairly strong, so we were happy to arrive in Mayari, a short detour from the route. We looped into the town and found a petrol station store selling water and pop. We then enjoyed peso pizza from a kiosk on some shady benches near the turn off into the town. Andy accidentally ordered a pizza with ham but we gave it away to a passerby who seemed pleased, if confused – our Spanish doesn’t cover that complicated an explanation!

We saw a Casa here, which would make an alternative way to break the journey (stop here and at the Casa in Sagua de Tanamo and take one extra day to arrive in Moa). After a good rest we started our climbs over the rolling hills on the road towards Moa. We passed Levisa, and chose not to turn off to the small town – our cycling book indicated there was no Casa, but we thought there might be (since there are so many more now all over Cuba). We decided to continue 9km to the Campismo Rio Cabonico. It was much cooler now and we arrived around 16:00 after a delicious guarapo (sugarcane) juice at the turnoff. We arrived at the end of the kilometer long dirt road to find the guard closing the gate – he informed us it was full! At that point a local villager arrived (his son had seen us riding along the road) and offered us a room. This was rather basic and involved taking over the main room in their corrugated iron roofed house. Andy took a swim in the river, Gill had a shower in the middle of the yard, and we had a simple but good dinner of rice and fish prepared by our hosts. It was clear from our hosts after-dinner conversation (of which we understood some!) that they are not satisfied with the current situation in Cuba as goods are so expensive and wages so low.

Day 4 – Campismo Rio Cabonico to Moa (69 km)
[simage=3491,200,n,left,]We started early today with a simple breakfast of bread, eggs, coffee and warm malted milk. We hit the road for an entire day of rolling hills. We found a cafeteria selling cold drinks soon after and stocked up – Tukola local cola made a nice change in our drink bottles. Starting early before the heat was great and we reached the 30km mark at Sagua de Tanamo at 10.30. We had a good rest in the pleasant shady village square – no water for sale but we got fruit juice and pop. On the way into town we saw a Casa Particular, and thought that if you can’t confirm a booking at the campismo, this would be a better option than our previous night’s homestay. This would mean stopping at Mayari the previous day and extending the trip by one day.

We hit the road again for more hills, realizing during a break that we had the each other’s saddle on our bike: hopefully swapping them will cure our sore backsides! We began to see some evidence in the surrounding hills of the nickel mining that Moa is infamous for. However, most of the hills have scrub vegetation, perhaps a sign of success in reclamation efforts.

We arrived at the Hotel Miraflores on the outskirts of town by 2 pm and checked in – although rather faded it seemed luxurious after the previous night, and we were soon enjoying cold beers by the (rather green) pool! We had a pizza snack that seemed pretty good so we ordered “tuna in oil” for dinner. It turned out to be a can of tuna warmed up with pickled silverskin onions with a side of rice! We retired to our room but broke the water pump so ended up riding out to the Cupet attached to the gas station to buy water. Despite all this we were still in bed by 8.30pm, ready for “one of the most challenging rides in Cuba” the next morning!

Day 5 – Moa to Baracoa (75 km)
[simage=3506,200,n,left,]Christmas Day! We were up early again and pleasantly surprised to find the hotel was serving breakfast at 7 am as advertised. We hit the road at 8pm, leaving Moa towards the nickel smelters, including a brief stint where the main road to Moa is also the haul road from the pits. The impacts from the mining are clear, but nothing we have not seen in other countries.

This early part of the ride had scrub and secondary forest vegetation and few settlements. We entered the Alexander Humbolt National Park and as the environment improved, the asphalt deteriorated! We struggled over stony asphalt roads and some long steep climbs, but we didn’t need to walk out bikes at all. The road dropped down to the first proper village and we were excited to find snacks, including cucurucho (shredded coconut with honey, sugar and buts in a conical banana leaf) and a “turron de almendras” (sugar tablet with roasted almonds). We stocked up and carried on along reasonable quality dirt and gravel roads where the ride was much smoother.

As we crossed one of the many bridges with gaps between the concrete blocks, Gill fell off her bike trying to detour round a larger than normal gap. The road deteriorated a little for about 10 km – more stones but easily rideable. As we passed a lovely bay, we stopped for coconuts (juice and flesh) and chatted to the friendly local entrepreneur in our limited Spanish.

It was then reasonably easy riding for the last 25 km into Baracoa with palm-fringed roads with plenty of shady patches. Apparently the road has been improved since our cycle book was written and it was not as bad as we feared it might be. We arrived in Baracoa and found a good Casa, then headed into the town for our first PiƱa Coladas of the holiday (shocking). Baracoa is the oldest city in the Western Hemisphere and the restoration of the center is impressive. We had dinner back at the Casa, which was excellent apart from a random dessert of pasta, goat cheese and mayonnaise! We ended the evening on the rooftop deck outside our room enjoying a bar of local Baracoa Fantasia chocolate.

Day 6 – Rest day in Baracoa
[simage=3513,200,n,left,]Learning from the mistake earlier in the ride, in the morning we booked the campismo for the next night at the Havantur office in Baracoa (only 10 CUC/night). Several people we asked in a couple of tour offices indicated there is no Casa in Imias on the other side of La Farola, which proved to be correct. We had a very lazy day mooching around the old town, and both feeling a bit under the weather with “digestive issues”. We had lunch in a restaurant that was serving creole food – more vegetables than we had seen so far at one meal! Baracoa is known for its distinctive cuisine, and the lunch and the food in the Casa was flavoured differently to elsewhere. We also had amazing hot chocolate for breakfast, made in the factory in Baracoa.

Day 7 – Baracoa to Campismo Rio Yacabo (79 km)
[simage=3530,200,n,left,]We set out to ride “La Farola” (the Beacon) knowing the first 20 km are easy riding with gentle climbs through pleasant lush countryside. The day was overcast and showers had made the streets slick and somewhat unpleasant given the emissions from the horse-drawn traffic. Water bottles were stowed in panniers until conditions improved! Gill got a flat after 12km and a roadside repair was required – while we worked we watched some talented youth painting an impressive mural related to the revolution.

We started up La Farola, only for Gill’s flat to reassert itself – we managed to find the tiny sharp rock embedded in the tyre on the second go. The weather was overcast and atmospheric, making the climb to the top easier without the blazing sun of previous days. At one break, we talked to a Cuban cyclist who has sailed past us earlier. He was out on a training ride – he was a cameraman in Baracoa for the TV station and took part in the Giro de Cuba. We reached the top and enjoyed 10 km of steep downhill with beautiful views. It would be much harder to do La Farola in this direction as the uphill would be relentless. The rest of the ride was more or less downhill all the way to Imias, with 10 km through the foothills and 15km along the shores of the Caribbean. As we approached the lowlands, the landscape and vegetation became increasingly dry – cacti at the side of the road. This is quite an amazing transition from Baracoa.

We tried and failed to buy water in Imias – it seems that the “dollar” stores no longer carry water and even the store at the Cupet gas station did not sell water. We had an ice cream from a street vendor for a peso and stocked up on tetra pack juice at the store instead.

We reached Campismo Rio Yacabo 7 km after Imias, and after some confusion about our booking, we finally got into a room and arranged dinner. It was amazing at the campismo – right on the ocean and surrounded by beautiful arid hills. We had a beer by the sea and then enjoyed a good fish, rice and beans dinner, albeit with a random dessert of a sugar syrup with pieces of strong goat cheese in it! Another part of cyclists arrived after us but we didn’t see them to talk – the first foreigners we have seen cycling so far! We enjoyed the ocean breeze on our upstairs patio before retiring for another early night.

Day 8 – Campismo Rio Yacabo to Guantanamo City (75 km)
[simage=3544,200,n,left,]While we went to bed for an early night, the rest of the campismo guests were up partying until after midnight. We were up early for a walk on the beach just after sunrise. The limestone shore is quite amazing and in this location was also full of huge fossilised corals. We had breakfast more or less on time and hit the road before 8 am. The first part of the ride was relatively cool and we made good time along the shores of the Caribbean and through the beautiful dry countryside.

By about 12 pm it was getting very hot and we were glad to have our hydration tabs for our bottles. We tried to stop for a drink in a beachside cafe in Tortuguilla but all they had was beer, rum and cigarettes! We also saw two Casa here, and had friendly exchanges with two pairs of tour cyclists going in the opposite direction to us. We had lot of drink breaks and also stopped to buy some bananas for a stall next to a commercial plantation.

We arrived in Guantanamo City at 1.30pm hot and exhausted. The Casa recommended in our cycling book was full, but we found another great place just along the road. After cooling off and getting cleaned up we went to the nice central square and found a small place for a pizza and cold beer. We then took a siesta (this was the hottest day of the tour so far) before heading to the square for sunset when the temperature was much cooler. Central Guantanamo City is very nice – a lovely old church in the square with lots of restaurants and several restored buildings, including a fabulous pharmacy. Lots of evidence of increasing wealth too, with Cubans driving smart cars and out for drinks. The Taberna la Ruina, a bar in a partially ruined building, is the hip spot in town, and also the only place selling bottled water!

We enjoyed a excellent and enormous Casa dinner (possibly the best of the trip!?) and another cold beer before another early night in preparation for a long and hot ride to Santiago.

Day 9 – Guantanamo City to Santiago de Cuba (89 km)
[simage=3554,200,n,left,]Following a lovely breakfast, we started before 8 am and navigated our way out of Guantanamo City to the Carretera Central, which immediately became a quiet country road. After about one hour, we arrived at the autopista (motorway), which was really, really quiet. We rode 9 km and steadily gained some elevation, and at the end of this section of autopista we turned off back onto the Carretera Central – there was some brief confusion as to whether we should turn off or not, but we made the right decision. The next part of the ride through the pass between the Sierra de la Gran Piedra and was really picturesque. A few climbs and descents and we made it to La Maya for a lunch stop, which was at the end of of a hot climb. We cruised up and down the two main streets and then found the busy market street behind the park,and bagged a couple of excellent peso pizzas with cheese (strong and goaty).

From here on in, we kept hydrated and endured the heat well; there were more clouds than the previous day. The final part of the country roads was fairly busy with trucks, tractors and cars, perhaps given the proximity to the big city. Our road ended at a T-junction with the autopista to Santiago. This one was slightly busier, but a six lane highway down to the coast with only a few vehicles a minute passing us – amazing. This was around 12 km of easy descent and a great way to finish, especially given the headwind.

Santiago roads were a bit busy, but we easily navigated to the old quarter and walked our bikes down a shopping street that has been closed to traffic. We looped around a few quiet streets and checked several rooms in Casas, and eventually found a wonderful old colonial place with one room. Original wooden beams and tiled floors. A great hostess and a fabulous dinner (maybe the best? Whole herb-stuffed fish and salsa) after a victory beer at one of the local cafes with outdoor seating. The east coast Orient tour complete, we were asleep by 9:30pm!

Day 10 – Rest day in Santiago de Cuba
[simage=3562,200,n,left,]We woke up relatively late and were very glad not to have to saddle up and get on our bikes before 8am! We had an amazing breakfast at the Casa, with a huge and diverse fruit platter including a one fruit we couldn’t even identify, plus unusual things like custard apples and starfruit that we haven’t seen before. We started the day with travel chores; long lines at the Cadeca to change money and at the Viazul to buy bus tickets to Holguin. We also managed, more easily then we’d imagined, to organise a day hike to Cuba’s highest mountain, Pico Turquino. We had a siesta in the afternoon and headed out for a sunset drink on the roof of the Casagranda Hotel on the main square. The views of the city are amazing, and preparations for New Years Eve were in full swing in the square below, with the sound system being tested! We ate an early dinner in the hotel (not as good as Casa food!) and retired early.

Day 11 – Pico Turquino (1,974 m a.s.l) and New Year’s Eve
[simage=3573,200,n,left,]Our 4am pickup was waiting outside our Casa and we dozed for the 2.5 hour drive to the National Park office, about 10km west of La Mula on the southern coast of the Sierra Maestra mountains. The road is fairly rough after Chivirico, so it was broken sleep.

We arrived for a gorgeous sunrise over the deserted and dry coastline where the mountains plunge into the Caribbean Sea. We were able to drive the first two kilometers up a track to the trail, which meant we had about 8.5km and 1,850 m elevation gain to the summit. The trail works its way up the southwest flank of Pico de Cuba and Pico Turquino, which is fantastic because it keeps you in the shade for almost the entire climb. The cool mountain air drifting down made the climb much easier. The trail is also in excellent condition – a credit to the national park staff. Almost all the way up, simple erosion control steps have been installed, which, combined with the cool air, made our climb quite swift despite feeling under the weather again. We stopped a few times on the route, first at a well kept ranger station / biological station (3.5km) and at another station close to the summit of Pico de Cuba (9km). The Cuba station has a huge statue erected in 1965 to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the revolution.

Several viewpoints provided great views of the southern coast and mountain range. From Pico de Cuba we could see over the range into Granma province. The final climb of Pico Turquino is the steepest part of the hike, but straightforward – we made it in around 3:15 hours. The summit of Turquino has no view – it’s a broad grassy area with another large statue – this time of Jose Marti. However a short 200 meter stroll down the other summit route (from the former Che Guevara camps) provides some great views. There were lots of interesting plants on the way – a tree fern forest, epiphytes, and even wild strawberries!

We made good time on the descent, and caught up with a Polish couple we met on the summit. We finished the hike to together and enjoyed a fine (and unexpected!) late lunch of rice and beans, fried eggs, and fried bananas. And most importantly, a cold beer! We drove back to Santiago de Cuba, this time enjoying the spectacular coastal scenery and marveling at the parts of the road that have already fallen into the sea, partly a result of severe damage during recent hurricanes.

We got cleaned up and went up to the Casa Grande Hotel again for dinner on the patio (a bit too easy but a good vantage point to enjoy the build up in the square). The stalls selling food and drinks around the square were set up using hurricane relief tents donated by China (good repurposing). More amusing was the fact that they could only start selling the beers, rum, and various different snacks and treats from 11pm onwards – people were continually asking to buy things from 6pm. We drank some rum and tropical juice and watched the acts on the stage. The performances were more like a musical variety performance and not so crowd pleasing. Between each act, the comperes were talking about the revolution and the history of Santiago (500 years old) – a bit boring. Only after fireworks and an impressive raising of a huge Cuban flag at midnight did the popular Cuban son music start. We watched for a short while before heading to bed.

Day 12 – Relaxing and El Morro Fort
[simage=3588,200,n,left,]A lazy New Year’s Day morning for us and our family hosts. We had a fantastic brunch in the garden – the same amazing tropical fruits, tortilla, and good coffee. After a siesta we took a taxi (an old beat up Lada) to El Morro – a 17th century Spanish fort that was built to guard the narrow entrance to the Santiago bay. It’s a fantastic setting with superb views along the coast to Pico Turquino. The fort has been well restored – we were pleasantly amused that all of the ramparts have no safety barriers – if anyone falls, it’s their own fault. A recovery beer in the centre of Santiago was followed by another fantastic meal at the Casa.

Day 13 – Viazul trauma – Santiago to Holguin
[simage=3607,200,n,left,]We feel sorry for the people riding the Viazul bus 15 hours to Havana – our journey from Santiago to Holguin was bad enough. We don’t remember the Viazul being bad at all two years ago, but this bus was awful. After tipping the staff $6 to load our bikes, Andy loaded the bikes (it’s better that way). The bus was old and many seats were broken so that they permanently reclined almost into the lap of the person behind. Leg room was minimal. Our journey of 3.5 hours was 5.5 hours. We all had to get off the bus in Bayamo, where the bus disappeared to get some mystery problem fixed (the petrol smell inside was a lot better after it returned). We remembered why riding bikes is better!

We felt pretty smug to be getting off in Holguin and cycling to our Casa, which was a bit of a challenge to find since few of the streets have names on them, and it appears that at some point all the streets were re-named but only the old signs persist! Following a warm welcome back at our Casa, we strolled into Holguin – really nice town with leafy squares and a pedestrianised street with cafes and bars and other well-stocked shops. We had a chocolate ice cream and, later, planned our final day’s ride over dinner at the Casa. Legs still very sore from Pico Turquino!

After dinner we walked to the great “Noches Holguinares” (Holguin Nights) street party – essentially a long major street by the stadium was closed and there were all sorts of food and other things to buy. Many whole pigs were being roasted and lots of music. The highlight was the amazing “Gran Orchestra no. 4” – a really old punch card, handle operated music organ, which was accompanied by four percussionists and a random old guy dancing with his umbrella. Gill’s highlight was perhaps the old candy floss (cotton candy) machine. Excellent stuff – Holguin’s a winner!

Day 14 – Holguin’s Miradores
[simage=3611,200,n,left,]Following a huge breakfast of tropical fruit, bread and cheese, jam, eggs, coffee and fresh pomelo juice we headed to town with a mission to obtain cash to pay for our last few nights. After ATM failure, Gill braved the queue at the Cadeca. Afterwards we were able to cycle up to Mirador Holguin, which is at the northern end of the city, via the road on its western slope. Good views of Holguin below – a big city surrounded by some impressive hills. Afterwards we went directly south to Mirador Mayabe, which 10km from the city centre. There’s a very nice hotel on this wooded hill with a good swimming pool. Lots of middle class Cubans enjoying themselves. The restaurant was disappointing from a vegetarian perspective, so we had a cold pop and cycled back to Holguin for a peso pizza. After this it was back to the Casa to clean our bikes in the back garden – much easier than at our apartment. We packed up and enjoyed a nice final meal of fish and rice, with the usual viandes (starchy vegetables) and salad.

Thanks again Cuba – a wonderful country that hopefully has a bright future ahead!
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