An overview of the road covered during this segment of our cycling.
2019.02.04 – [CU] Cárdenas ==> Cárdenas (0 kms | Total: 1034 kms) – After breakfast, we went out in search of the sea at the end of the town. Unfortunately, the seafront was inaccessible. We visited the public park with wifi access several times throughout the day. We tried to buy beer in a few shops but for some obscure reasons the staff indicated that they were closed for maintenance. Even the supply truck drivers could not drop off their boxes inside. We had a light lunch in a modern café in front of the park. The government run Coppelia ice cream parlor must have sold out of supplies yesterday as they were closed today while staffs were sitting around. We had a modest evening meal of chicken at our casa.
2019.02.05 – [CU] Cárdenas ==> Corrailillo (81 kms | Total: 1115 kms) – After breakfast, we started our 80+kms cycling day. The road was flat with long strait stretches. We cycled through small towns every 10kms or so. We struggled against the headwind on our last 20kms into Corralillo. We followed our GPS to a house that was supposed to be our casa particular for the night. Unfortunately, we were told differently as there was apparently a GPS error as the actual casa was 28 kms further. We were tired and had no desire to go any further. We were relieved when the locals indicated that we could find some accommodation in another 2kms further on the main road. We pushed on hoping we would not be disappointed. Along the short distance, we confirmed with other locals the actual existence of a casa. We finally arrived at the expected building housing both a hostal and a restaurant. We had a few uncertain minutes when the staff started inquired whether we had reservations. Thankfully, the owner showed us to a room. We felt very relieved that we had stumbled on this oasis – built in 2016. I had flashback to my first cycling trip to Cuba in 2002. At that time and in the same area, I had to sleep in my tent on the side of the road as the local campgrounds with cabins were all closed during the winter months. Needless to say, I made corrections to Maps.me to reflect the non-existence of the casa in town. To-date, many of the Maps.me corrections I had made in the past month had been acknowledged and implemented by the OpenStreetMap team. Later, a German cycling couple showed at the hostal for which they had reserved on AirBnB. Before our evening meal, we took a horse carriage back to town some 2kms away. Both Jenny and I felt sorry for the hard working horse. After a short internet session, we managed to take a derelict Lada taxi back to our hostal. We had a good evening meal on-site.
2019.02.06 – [CU] Corrailillo ==> Sagua la Grande (64 kms | Total: 1179 kms) – At breakfast, we noticed that another cycling couple was also having breakfast. Hence, cyclists occupied three of the four rooms of the hostal. We did not chat much with the other two couples as they did not appear overly friendly. Although our cycling day was expected to be less than 65kms, we were hoping the wind would not cause too much hardship. The road was much more enjoyable than yesterday even though we had more climbs. As we rode through the town center of Sagua La Grande, we already had a good vibe about the place. Our casa owner was waiting for us upon our arrival at 12:30pm. Later in the afternoon, after a brief internet session in the park, we had some very good ice cream and a sandwich at a local café for $2 CDN. As we had learned upon arrival at our casa that no evening meals were available there, we were recommended a local restaurant for our meal. Surprisingly the restaurant prices were in local cuban peso and both the atmosphere and the food were very good.
2019.02.07 – [CU] Sagua la Grande ==> Santa Clara (52 kms | Total: 1231 kms) – The owner prepared for us a plentiful breakfast for a modest price. The casa owner explained that he had plans to expand the number of rooms in his casa particular at which time he would offer evening meals. The road to Santa Clara was quite pleasant but we noticed a bit more traffic. As we arrived in Santa Clara after 50 kms, we recognized a few familiar roads and landmarks. We easily located our casa through the hectic traffic of cars, motors and horse carriages. We were greeted by a very friendly casa owner. He explained that he had been the chef at a very popular tourist restaurant for the past 22 years, hence he did not offer any evening meals but he suggested we dropped by the restaurant where he worked. After our daily routine, we walked to a local hair salon where Jenny had a hair cut for $0.50 CDN while I had to wait until tomorrow. We showed up at 6:45pm at the Florida Center restaurant. We were surprised on how well the business was doing. The restaurant, back in 2006 when we cycled with Victoria, was much more modest. By 7:30pm, all the tables were occupied by tourists – many of them were from France. Although the restaurant was a bit pricier than a lot of the places we had eaten at, nonetheless, we had a great meal. We even promised ourselves to order lobster the next night.
2019.02.08 – [CU] Santa Clara ==> Santa Clara (0 kms | Total: 1231 kms) – Before breakfast, I went back to the nearby hair salon for my badly needed hair cut (according to Jenny). We had our best and most plentiful breakfast to date. We visited a few tourist sites with strong ties to Che Guevera. Santa Clara was somewhat of a mecca for those who were interested in Che. For many French tourists, it was a “must” destination in Cuba. While returning from our sightseeing, we walked along a pedestrian street and discovered in one of the many shops something we had almost given up finding after visiting over thirty different type of shops since Havana. We had been told repeatedly that it was not available in Cuba. We were reminded of Che’s famous words: “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (Always Towards Victory). Well our victory was certainly infinitely smaller than Che’s own but nonetheless it was a victory for us. We finally found dental floss and even bought some reasonably priced sunscreen lotion. Wow! Late afternoon, we had some ice cream along the Boulevard, a pedestrian street. We showed up sharply at 7pm at the same restaurant as yesterday. We were among the first customers of the evening. Although we had initially our mind set on some lobsters for our evening meal, the afternoon snacks curved our appetite somewhat. Jenny opted for some fish and I tried the Cuban local plate of Ropa Vieja (Old clothe), seasoned shredded beef. We thought the restaurant chef, which was also our casa owner, might have had something to do with the very generous portions. A light rain had started to fall during our evening meal. It was convenient that our casa was only a block away from the restaurant.
2019.02.09 – [CU] Santa Clara ==> Remedios (48 kms | Total: 1278 kms) – After another generous breakfast, we bid farewell to our casa owner and cycled out of Santa Clara. The road to Remedios should have provided for some enjoyable cycling but the traffic was surprisingly busy. Along the way, we must have been overtaken by 15-20 large tourist buses transporting fresh vacationers to their resorts on Cayo Santa Maria. At half distance on the road, we crossed path with another couple on a tandem. Unfortunately, the narrow downhill road made it inconvenient for either of the tandem teams to stop and chat. In Remedios, we quickly located our casa and settled in. Later in the afternoon, after a brief internet session, we stopped for some ice cream. Remedios was lined up with casa particular. We learned that the town hosted a series of mega celebrations in December. Many of the casas were reserved months ahead of the event. We had some well prepared lobster for our evening meal.
2019.02.10 – [CU] Remedios ==> Villa San José del Lago (67 kms | Total: 1345 kms) – We savored our breakfast and brought some extra bananas along as we expected a hard cycling day given the 65kms with strong headwind. The road was fairly flat with long boring stretches. We faced the full force of the headwinds on the last 20 kms as we cycled along open fields. We had booked hastily our accommodation on Booking.com as the hotel’s website had suggested that they were no availability for our selected dates. Upon our arrival at the Villa, we discovered that there were plenty of rooms available, but more importantly we had paid almost twice as much as if we had paid on arrival. Still at $55USD including breakfast, it was still a reasonable offer. The highlight of this particular spa hotel was its mineral water pool. Although I had warned Jenny that government ran hotels were not great, we both enjoyed the refreshing dip in the pool. Our evening meal was rather disappointing compared to our usual casa meal.
2019.02.11 – [CU] Villa San José del Lago ==> Morón (56 kms | Total: 1401 kms) – While putting on my cycling shorts in the morning, I suddenly pulled a nerve in my lower back. The pain was bearable but I had to watch my movements. Our breakfast expectations were not very high after last evening’s meal experience. We managed to get an omelet and some bread – sorry no butter! The 55+ kms cycling was much more enjoyable than yesterday. The road was a bit more sheltered from the wind and more winding. We were proud of ourselves when, at mid-route, we cycled up a very long hill which from far away we had expected to walk part of it. We arrived in Morón fairly tired by the strong headwinds. We checked into a “five-star” casa offering wifi, pool, patio, a spacious and well appointed room. The casa also operated as a restaurant. We had a great evening meal of salmon. Jenny applied some Tiger balm on a few occasions on my lower back. It seemed to relieve the pain quite a bit.
2019.02.12 – [CU] Morón ==> Ciego de Ávila (37 kms | Total: 1439 kms) – By morning, the lower back pain was almost gone. Although we had our breakfast at the usual time, we ate at a more relaxed pace as we only had less than 40kms to cycle today. The cycling to Ciego de Ávila, along a secondary road, was pleasant although the country side view was limited to open fields. And we did not have any headwinds to struggle against. We arrived in town shortly after 11:30am. We learned that the casa owner did not offer any meals. He reassured us that there were plenty of restaurants and cafes in the nearby park. We lined up for 15 minutes at a mini ETECSA office to buy additional internet cards – just to be told that they didn’t have any at that office. We stopped for some ice cream and pizza for lunch at Dino’s Pizza, Cuba’s popular pizza chain. Later we lined up for another 20 minutes to finally buy 1-hour internet cards. The agent must have liked us as she offered us the opportunity to buy more than the regulatory 3-cards per person. We left the office with 10 1-hour internet cards. Along the way back to our casa, we visited two shops for beer and water. We realized that cycling in Cuba would be a lot more trouble-free if we could quench our thirst with rum as the drink was much more readily available than water or beer. We skipped our evening meal as we had a very late lunch.
