An overview of the road covered during this segment of our cycling.

2019.01.16 – [CU] San Diego de los Baños ==> San Diego de los Baños (0 kms | Total: 257 kms) – As per our itinerary, we took our first day off from cycling since we left Matanzas on Jan. 10th. Jenny even celebrated yesterday by getting a local pedicure. We had our breakfast a bit later this morning. We bid farewell to the Italian cycling couple. After breakfast, I did some tandem maintenance while Jenny reviewed the draft of our first blog entry. Later, we reviewed and selected our photos to support our blog text. When we were ready to upload our text and photos, we walked over to the nearby tourist hotel and enjoyed their patio which provided us with fairly fast wifi access using our own internet cards. Within less than one hour, we had published our first travel entry for Cuba. With this first blog post behind us, we walked to the end of the village with the hope to purchase additional internet cards. Along the way we kept our eyes widely open with the hope of finding a place to purchase some snacks. Our search for both additional internet cards and snacks failed. We continued to wonder the mysteries of where the casa owners purchased their food for our meals. We were looking forward to our evening meal of fish for Jenny and delicious bbq chicken for myself. It seemed that we were more hungry during our day of rest than when we were cycling on the road.

2019.01.17 – [CU] San Diego de los Baños ==> Pinar del Río (53 kms | Total: 310 kms) – Our breakfast was somewhat ill-prepared this morning by the old casa owners in their mid-seventies. They appeared to insist preparing most of the meals by themselves. The casa, one of the oldest looking we had stayed at, appeared to be an institution in the world of casa particular as they were known throughout the province. Before leaving the casa, we took a few photos with our friendly owners. We looked forward to be back cycling on the road. We cycled once again on the carretera central and later on the autopista to reach the city of Pinar del Rio in the province of the same name. We were a bit concerned about the state of our next casa as the previous casa owners had recommended and reserved the casa for us. We were quickly relieved when we were warmly welcomed by the casa owners and showed our very spacious and modern room. Two comfortable terraces made the place even more comfortable. We enjoyed a glass of fresh juice while our room was being cleaned. After the check-in formalities involving our passports, we walked out to the town center in search of a battery for our odometer. Bang. The first jewelry store we walked in had some. We bought two just in case. We then went to the bank. Bang. No line-ups. We quickly obtained funds by using our credit card. After which we walked to the Ectesa office, the telecom company monopoly in Cuba, to purchase more internet cards. Bang. No line-ups here also. We purchased 6 internet cards of 5 hours each. Jenny felt relieved after the latest purchase but also upset that we had paid over $10CUC extra fees when we bought our four previous internet cards at a hotel in Matenzas. We rewarded ourselves following this series of successful purchases with a visit to an ice cream parlor. Our evening meal of chicken at the casa was plentiful and very well presented. In the evening we walked out for an internet session and walked the main street where a celebration was being held to mark the anniversary of Fidel and his band arrival in the city of Pinar del Rio as part of his revolution. It was nice to enjoy this celebration with all the locals.

2019.01.18 – [CU] Pinar del Río ==> Isabel Rubio (61 kms | Total: 371 kms) – Our breakfast was, just like our last evening meal, nicely prepared and plentiful. We were introduced to Paul, a frugal Canadian traveler staying at our casa. We chatted about traveling experiences throughout breakfast. Paul was also visiting Cuba for the next three months. After loading our tandem, we took some photos with our friendly casa owners and Paul. We stopped at a nearby park for a quick internet session before leaving town. The cycling to Isabel Rubio was done on mostly flat roads. It was pleasant as we cycled through many hamlets along the way. We arrived at our casa shortly before 1:00pm. After our daily clothes washing and shower routines, we rested for the rest of the afternoon. We had our evening meal of fish at the casa.

2019.01.19 – [CU] Isabel Rubio ==> La Bajada (70 kms | Total: 442 kms) – Our casa owner appeared eager for our business as she offered us a future discount on our room if stopped at her casa on our way back from La Bajada. Unfortunately, our itinerary did not involve returning to Isabel Rubio. After our usual healthy breakfast, we left our casa and cycled towards Sandino some 15 kms down the road. We stopped in town to make a reservation for a casa for our return from La Bajada. We cycled 70kms to La Bajada with several long strait (and boring) stretches of road. We arrived in La Bajada shortly before 1:00pm. We had reservation at a casa, which accordingly to our list of casas, was highly recommended. Upon visiting the room, Jenny and I were very disappointed by the poor state of the casa. We managed to get our casa owner to introduce us to a different casa which we quickly accepted as a clear upgrade. The peaceful nature of the hamlet was a bit spoiled by some local visitors that played loud music from a battery operated boom box. After settling in, we learned that this hamlet of a dozen houses operated a generator for electricity only from 6pm to 3am. Needless to say, there were no wifi spot here. Nonetheless, we had a good evening meal of fish. Surprisingly, most casas particulares around us were fully occupied. Hence, we were not the only tourists seeking to reach the western tip of Cuba. It was nice to have, once again, a seafront view.

2019.01.20 – [CU] La Bajada ==> La Bajada (30 kms | Total: 472 kms) – We had breakfast at a different casa this morning. During breakfast we chatted with a man from Slovakia who was traveling with his wife and two young children (4 year old girl and 2 year old boy). It was amazing to hear their stories as to how they had rented bicycles in Havana and had cycled to several locations we had already cycled to. They had left their bicycles in the town of Viñales as everyone had gotten sick during their cycle adventure. They took a taxi to La Bajada to enjoy a rest. After breakfast, we cycled 15kms to Maria La Gorda, an International Dive Center with a gated resort hotel. We had been told that a simple entrance fee to the resort was $5CUC per person. We managed to convince staff that we only wanted to have a beer and short rest (mostly to use their wifi). Our visit only cost us $3CUC ($2 for the beer and $1 tip for the friendly gatekeeper). The 30kms ride back and forth to Maria La Gorda was quite pleasant as the sky was covered and the road boarded the the sea. We had our first lobster evening meal but its preparation was a bit disappointing.

2019.01.21 – [CU] La Bajada ==> Sandino (53 kms | Total: 525 kms) – Before sunrise, we heard our traveling neighbors, three girls from different European countries who met on the road in Cuba, preparing to catch an early bus to Pinar del Rio. After breakfast, we loaded the tandem and started to leave the small hamlet. We were called out by our Slovakian friend who wanted to wish us well. Back on the tandem, we were surprised to see our traveling neighbors sitting on the road and looking a bit discouraged. They had missed their local bus by 10 minutes. They had now to wait for another 2 hours to catch a taxi. Our cycling day involved retracing our route back to Sandino. Although familiar, the route in the other direction always appeared slightly different. We were reminded along the way that the final 10 kms of the carretera central, leading into La Fe, was in pretty bad shape. We arrived in Sandino shortly after 12pm. The casa owner had already prepared our room. We were surprised by the availability of a wifi connection from our casa. Although we still needed to use our own internet cards (but not Jenny’s iPhone apparently), it was convenient to access the internet from our casa. Late afternoon, we walked around the town and bought some water, beer and a ham and cheese sandwich. We enjoyed the casa owner’s evening meal of fish. His meal preparation was supported by cooking courses taken as part of some tourist industry training.

2019.01.22 – [CU] Sandino ==> Mantua (46 kms | Total: 571 kms) – We were pleased that our casa owner had secured a casa for us in Mantua. As we understood, there was only one casa particular in town. After a good breakfast, we set out on a local paved road. We enjoyed the peaceful road which was in pretty good condition. We struggled with the wind on a few stretches of road but overhaul the 45kms to Mantua was quickly reached. As we arrived in town before 12pm, we stopped at a wifi zone to catch up with messages. Jenny discovered that her internet card had been completely depleted of her precious minutes yesterday – from what she understood to be free wifi. The large and comfortable casa offered four rooms. After our shower, clothes wash and some rest, we walked to the town center for some beer and internet. At our casa, we chatted with a young family who had just arrived from Panama City and was arranging for a tobacco farm land deed transfer from the husband’s grandfather.

2019.01.23 – [CU] Mantua ==> Santa Lucia (66 kms | Total: 637 kms) – We had a very good quiet night of rest – no barking dogs or loud music. After breakfast, we left town with the reassurance that the road was fairly flat and the stronger wind would be blowing on our side. Although the route was pleasant, the road condition deteriorated along the way. For long stretches of road, we were basically cycling on a dirt track. The vegetation along the road shielded us from the wind most of the way. We were stopped by some French motorists who appeared lost while looking for Cayo Jutias and its beach. They had missed their turnoff some 19 kms earlier. While talking to them, another French motorist couple showed up and were also looking for the same place. The last 10kms of our 66kms cycling day was draining as we faced a good head wind. We checked into our reserved casa and looked forward to our evening meal. After our daily routine, we walked 1km to the town center for a brief internet session.

2019.01.24 – [CU] Santa Lucia ==> El Moncada (30 kms | Total: 667 kms) – As we had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast for the past couple of days, we were relieved to see that the sun was out and it did not appear to have any sign of rain. Although, our cycling distance of 28kms was fairly short, it was plagued by a number of steep hills that we had to walk. Some 20 minutes before arriving at our day’s destination, we got caught in a rain fall. We checked into a pleasant one room casa particular. We rested in our room while hearing the rain fall outside. We almost felt like in the Australian Outback again as the area appeared wildly popular with flies. We were told that a large chicken farm, a few kms away, was the culprit for the large quantity of flies. We had a plentiful evening meal at our casa prepared by its friendly owners.

2019.01.25 – [CU] El Moncada ==> Viñales (19 kms | Total: 686 kms) – It rained on and off throughout the previous evening and night. The clouds appeared to be clearing by the time we finished our breakfast. We stopped for a brief internet session on our way to the Santo Tomas cave nearby. After paying our entrance fee, we were given a helmet equipped with a head light and introduced to our guide. Access to the cave entrance involved a fairly steep (and slippery) hike. The cave did not have any electricity, cement walkway or any other man-made alterations, hence we considered this cave exploration the best we had ever experienced. The cave Santo Tomas is the largest one in Cuba and the second largest cave system in Latin America. Our guide showed us a number of animals living in the cave. After our 90 mins. guided visit, we walked back to our casa and started cycling under some light rain. The rain increased during our 19kms cycling to Vinales. Once in the town, the streets had streams flowing down them. We struggled a bit to locate our casa but after inquiring a few times we managed to find it. We were like yet cats as we checked in. We appreciated our nice and large room at the casa. We also had a good evening meal there. Although the rain had stopped, we opted for some rest in our room in the evening.