An overview of the road covered during this segment of our cycling.
2019.03.24 – [CU] Trinidad ==> Trinidad (35 kms | Total: 3316 kms) – After breakfast, we leisurely cycled to Playa Ancon some 12 kms further south. We stopped at a small all-inclusive resort with the hope of reserving a one-night stay for the following day. Unfortunately, after the hotel staff informed us of the hefty price of 148 CUC per night, we opted to skip the beach front accommodation. The all-inclusive was more than five times the normal price of our nightly accommodation. On our return ride, we stopped at a beach front bar for some mojitos. For a bit of nostalgia, we cycled the road through the small fishing village of La Boca where we had previously enjoyed a nice stay during our visit in 2005. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon at our casa. We also had our evening meal at our casa.
2019.03.25 – [CU] Trinidad ==> Trinidad (0 kms | Total: 3316 kms) – It was our first time since we had left Matanzas that we actually rested a second day in the same town. We had planned to dedicate the day to wait in various queues. After breakfast, we walked to a bank in the town’s center where we waited, with many other foreign tourists, over 45 minutes to withdraw more funds from our credit card. Next, we walked over to the Etecsa office to purchase additional internet cards. As we arrived there was a bunch of folks waiting at the door, but the locals told us we could walk in directly if we only wanted to buy internet cards. Within 10 minutes we had purchased six more 1-hour internet cards (3 each). As we had agreed to try out one of the many restaurants for our evening meal, we visited a few of them to check out their menus. Back at our casa, we rested until the mid-afternoon, after which we visited an ice cream parlor. We were glad to have returned to our casa before the late afternoon rain. We waited until 7pm for the rain to taper off before walking to a restaurant for pizza. As we left the restaurant, a long queue of hungry tourists had formed in the front of the restaurant.
2019.03.26 – [CU] Trinidad ==> Campismo Villa Guajimico (43 kms | Total: 3360 kms) – We left our comfortable casa after another great breakfast. The 40+kms cycling was mostly enjoyable except for stretches of road partly overtaken by crabs coming down the mountain and crossing the road. Many crabs were already squished by car. Although we did our best to avoid the lived ones running away in every direction, we still managed to squish a few by ourselves. We understood that these crabs were not good for consumption and performed their mountain to sea migration and (back) at this time of the year. After checking into our deluxe campismo, at more than twice the price of our regular casa, we struggled against a series of staircases to reach our actual cabana. We opted to have a light lunch at the on-site restaurant as the evening meal started to be served only at 7:30pm. After lunch, we spent a couple of hours around the pool area while enjoyed the water and surrounding views of the sea. We were surprised by the number of many foreign tourists. At least two large groups were staying at this campismo which operated as a scuba diving center. During our evening meal, we reminded ourselves how thankful we were to only be staying one night here as the meal prices were higher and the quality was lower than in our usual casas.
2019.03.27 – [CU] Campismo Villa Guajimico ==> Cienfuegos (45 kms | Total: 3404 kms) – After our buffet breakfast (included in our cabana cost) we were glad to saddle the tandem and hit the road. We encountered much fewer crabs on this 40kms route. Once in Cienfuegos, Maps.me led us to our casa location, but we still needed to ask further directions from some locals. Once we settled in our room, Jenny did some clothes washing and I went out to purchase some water and beer. We opted to have our meal at a nearby restaurant as the casa meal was pricey. In the evening, we walked over to a pedestrian street where we managed to buy some sun screen at a high-end tourist hotel shop. Upon returning to our casa, we spent time relaxing on the rooftop
2019.03.28 – [CU] Cienfuegos ==> Playa Giron (82 kms | Total: 3486 kms) – With a plentiful breakfast and water bottles top-up, we set out for our last 80+kms cycling day. The road was mostly flat and enjoyable as the traffic turned onto the autopista after 20 kms. We had a nice tailwind for much of the second half of our ride. In Playa Giron, we checked into our casa in the early afternoon. We relaxed at our casa for the rest of the afternoon while enjoying internet access from the rooftop terrace. We had some relatively expensive fish for our evening meal at the casa. In the evening, while walking the main street, we noticed that the town had an abundance of casa particulars, but lacked some typical infrastructure, such as a main square. We visited a few restaurants for next evening’s meal consideration.
2019.03.29 – [CU] Playa Giron ==> Playa Giron (0 kms | Total: 3486 kms) – As it was a day of rest for us we had a leisurely breakfast. We continued to relax around the garden patio of our casa. In the early afternoon, we walked to the nearby beach. The beach was a bit disappointing as sea weed covered much of the sea bottom. We further understood why Playa Giron attracted tourists who were mostly interested in scuba diving activity rather than those interested in enjoying a sandy beach. We had our evening meal of lobster and fish at a restaurant at the end of the small town.
2019.03.30 – [CU] Playa Giron ==> Playa Larga (36 kms | Total: 3522 kms) – After our breakfast, we loaded the tandem and bid farewell to our casa hosts. They cautioned us about avoiding crabs crossing the road as the broken shells could cause some tire punctures. The 35kms ride along the Bay of Pigs was quite enjoyable. As we arrived in Playa Larga, we stopped at a small Etecsa office to purchase some internet cards. We were lucky as we barely needed to wait for our purchase. After settling into our casa, we walked to a nearby beach. Although the water looked a bit brownish, it was still clear as we could easily see our feet. The beach had a low-key and relaxing vibe. We even enjoyed some cocktails on the beach. We had a good evening meal of fish at our casa which we had bargained down. In the evening, we met, on our casa’s rooftop, three young German travelers from Munich. We had a very enjoyable time exchanging about travel and life experiences in Cuba, Germany and Canada.
2019.03.31 – [CU] Playa Larga ==> Jagüey Grande (31 kms | Total: 3553 kms) – It was an easy 30kms ride to Jagüey Grande where we arrived before 11am. We checked into our nice casa which included a pool. We went out to buy beer, water, ice cream and some hamburgers before relaxing for the rest of the day in the pool and its surrounding. We had some lobster for our evening meal at our casa.
2019.04.01 – [CU] Jagüey Grande ==> Cardenas (67 kms | Total: 3620 kms) – After breakfast, we set out on our last 60+kms cycling day to Cardenas. The route was enjoyable with traffic being much lighter in the second half of our journey as vehicles turned onto the carretera central, the main cross-country east-west road. In Cardenas, we checked into the same casa where we had spent two nights two months ago. It seemed like we had not changed too much as the owners recognized us. We took the opportunity of our early arrival to have some grooming done. Jenny had a $1 pedicure done and we both got good haircuts for $0.25 each. We had our evening meal at a nice restaurant near the town’s main square.
2019.04.02 – [CU] Cardenas ==> Varadero (50 kms | Total: 3671 kms) – Although we only had 19kms to cycle to reach our casa in Varadero, we had agreed to cycle to entire length of the Varadero peninsula. The road along the peninsula was quite boring except for the occasional bus stop where tourists were waiting for their hop on/hop off buses. When we finally arrived at our casa shortly before noon. We had to wait for our room to be cleaned as the previous client had just checked out. We took the opportunity to buy some water, cookies and some beer for our two night stay. In the mid-afternoon, we walked 200m to the beach. We were both in awe with the beautiful beach and blue water. We especially enjoyed the gentle crashing waves of the sea. In the early evening, we went out to a restaurant for some pizza and fish. Varadero was clearly overrun by tourists. As expected, it offered a very different Cuban reality from those we experienced in the past three months.
2019.04.03 – [CU] Varadero ==> Varadero (0 kms | Total: 3671 kms) – After a leisurely breakfast, we caught up with our travel journal. We went to a small mall for a brief internet session. Shortly after 11am we walked from our casa to the beach – a mere 200 meters away. We spent a few hours alternating between the water and some shade on the sandy beach. After a late afternoon rest at our casa, we walked to a restaurant for likely our last seafood in Cuba. Although the food was good, the portions were quite modest as we had to supplement our hunger with some ice cream at a nearby shop.
2019.04.04 – [CU] Varadero ==> Matanzas (41 kms | Total: 3712 kms) – We left our casa after our modest breakfast and cycled our last 40kms to Matanzas. Without talking much to each other, it seemed like we were both reviewing our past three month cycling – finding it both so long ago and yet so recent – that we were cycling on the same road in the other direction. We arrived in Matanzas before noon and checked in at the same casa as we had stayed on our arrival in Cuba. As usual, our young casa owners warmly welcomed us back. We visited the bank, one last time, for some funds. Our casa hosts treated us to our plentiful and tasty evening meal of chicken and all the accompaniments (soup, sauteed vegetables, rice, etc)
2019.04.05 – [CU] Matanzas ==> Matanzas (0 kms | Total: 3712 kms) – After a leisure breakfast, it was time to disassemble the tandem and pack it into its box. The disassemble and packing process took over three hours – not much faster than the assembly process. Along the way, we noted some additional bike maintenance tasks required once we are back home. In the early afternoon, we went for a brief internet session while having a light snack at one of the nearby park. Back at our casa, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We had another great evening meal at our casa – fish one last time!
2019.04.06 – [CA] Matanzas ==> Ottawa (0 kms | Total: 3712 kms) – We woke today up with some mixed feelings. We had started anticipating this day since we had bought our return airfare over a month ago while we were resting in Santiago de Cuba. Over the past two weeks, as we were getting closer to reaching Matanzas and hence closing our cycling loop of Cuba, we were increasingly looking forward to heading back home. Even after cycling three months in Cuba, we still found it challenging to deal with the local realities such as queuing for everything (bank, shop, etc), as not easily finding food or drinks, as not having wifi whenever. On the other hand, we knew that we would surely miss greeting the locals on the road with “holà” and hearing their warm response, the comfort and great food provided by the large network of casas particulares, the quiet (but sometime) rough roads. As North Americans, we are often told to embrace change in our environment, but for the Cubans the type of changes they face on a daily basis hovers more closely to chaos. We leave Cuba having the greatest respect for its people’s warmth, adaptability and resilience.
We knew the day would be a long one as our flight from Varadero’s airport was scheduled for 10pm. We checked out of our room at 11am and left our luggage at the casa. Our casa hosts, Noel and Marielys, kindly invited us into their kitchen for our last evening meal in Cuba. It was a real privilege to share this moment with them. We learned through viewing a series of photos how this young couple started the construction of their casa particular in 2006 and completed it only a couple of years ago. It was clearly a monumental construction task which made us understand a bit more some other challenges that Cubans faced whenever they tackled tasks that we took for granted. In summary, there are still so much we have not learned about this country. Hasta luego Cuba!
Note to self: In the future, try to avoid airport chaos by not booking a return flight from Cuba on a Saturday night as it seemed every patrons from the all-inclusive resorts showed up at the airport at the same time.
