An overview of the road covered during this segment of our cycling.
2019.02.13 – [CU] Ciego de Ávila ==> Ciego de Ávila (0 kms | Total: 1439 kms) – After a noisy night in our casa, we were on the sidewalk in front of our casa by 7:30am. As we were staying in town for another day, we decided to look for another casa that offered meals. After visiting more than seven casas without success, we had almost given up until we knocked at a final casa door. The friendly owner confirmed that they had availability and that they catered to evening and breakfast meals. Within an hour, we had swapped casas. Our previous casa owner, who spoke English well, was very understanding of our choice. After settling into our new casa, we even had our morning’s breakfast on-site. We rested in our room for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon, we visited the large city park with an artificial lake. We stopped for some snacks along the way. We had some well prepared lobsters at our casa for our evening meal. Later and to digest our meal, we walked several loops around the main square as well as down the pedestrian boulevard.
2019.02.14 – [CU] Ciego de Ávila ==> Florida (70 kms | Total: 1508 kms) – After our breakfast, we headed out of town for our 65kms day. We had expected a very boring cycling day as Maps.Me was showing a road quite strait but in reality the road was quite pleasant. We had been keeping an eye out on the wind conditions forecast as we still had a few days of cycling in an easterly direction typically subject to headwinds. Our original itinerary was proposing a clockwise route along the northern coastal road but early into our cycling adventure, we realized that it would be better for us to cycle with, as opposed to against, the dominant winds. Given that in Cuba, the dominant wind tended to blow from the east, we opted to cross over from the north road to center of the island, from Morón to Ciego de Avilà, in order to embark on a counter clockwise itinerary. The idea was the mountains along the south coast would shield us from the wind as we continued our easterly journey – and hopefully as we emerge in a week or two on the northern coast we would be enjoying strong tailwinds. Vamos a ver (We will see).
Well our Valentine’s Day was only slightly better than last year’s when we were confronted to a long climb over Clyde Mountain in Australia. This year we stopped at mediocre casa in a mediocre town at which the pizzeria had no pizza, the hamburger joint had no hamburger and the ice cream parlor had no ice cream!
2019.02.15 – [CU] Florida ==> Camagüey (40 kms | Total: 1549 kms) – Today, we had our first breakfast in Cuba without any bread. We learned a few days ago that Cuba was undergoing an important shortage of flour and hence was impacting the availability of bread throughout the country. We discovered that previous casas that had been providing us with bread lately were acquiring it on the black market. It seemed being a foreigner had its privileges! Sadly we will remember Florida as the first town in which a casa lady owner tried to rip us off by charging more for the food and more importantly for internet access for which we were using our own internet cards. It did not take much of my arguing to roll back the cost of our food and nullify our internet usage. We were eager to leave this sad town. The 40kms cycling to Camagüey were covered fairly quickly as we arrived at our casa before 12:00pm. We were intrigued by our casa’s name “La China” (The Chinese) but it appeared to be only a nickname for the owner whose eyes were slightly almond shape. She assured us that she had no Chinese ancestry. Camagüey, the third largest city of Cuba, was quite pleasant. We had some tasty peso pizza for lunch. We stopped at a bank to withdraw some additional funds on our credit card. We had some chicken for our evening meal at the casa. Later we enjoyed a good walk while keeping an eye out on the heavy clouds.
While we’ve been cycling in Cuba warmth, our hometown has been subject to some record breaking snow fall this year. We had ill-prepared to deal with snow removal in such a snowy winter. We have been very grateful to some close friends to arrange for our driveway snow removal. In particular, Gang and Sharon joined their efforts for the clearing of our staircase and walkway which was a huge undertaking given the heavy snowfall. We are deeply in their debt.
2019.02.16 – [CU] Camagüey ==> Guaimáro (82 kms | Total: 1631 kms) – We had a slightly earlier start to our cycling day as we had an 80kms day to Guaimáro. Thankfully, the road was quite pleasant with no wind and the occasional cloud cover. We arrived in the small town shortly after 12:30pm. We were surprised to find our casa several blocks away from the main road but we were pleased with the accommodation. We learned that the casa owner was out of town today and hence we would not be able to have our evening meal there but we were reassured that there was a good restaurant in town. After our daily routine and some rest, we had a brief internet session from our casa. Later, we walked back to the town center in search of the recommended restaurant. To our very pleasant surprise, the restaurant environment, food quality, service and price were all above our expectations. Upon our return at the casa, we met the casa owner’s wife who had commuted back from Havana on a 10 hour bus ride.
2019.02.17 – [CU] Guaimáro ==> Las Tunas (46 kms | Total: 1676 kms) – The friendly casa owners prepared us a good breakfast to keep us energized for the road. Although we again had only a 40kms cycling day, it felt a bit longer due to the absence of any cloud cover and temperature reaching 34C. In Las Tunas, we struggled a bit to locate our casa as Noel, our casa owner from Matanzas, had made the reservation for us thinking that we had the exact location on Maps.Me – which was not the case. After a bit of Googling in a public park, we managed to find our casa. After a rest, we walked to a local snack bar for a sandwich and beer. The streets appeared almost empty as folks were probably hiding from the afternoon heat. Once again, our casa owner informed us that she would not be able to provide us with our evening meal but recommended a good nearby restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant experience was not as great as yesterday’s. In the evening, the streets filled up with activity as some sort of celebration was taking place – possibly linked with Valentine’s Day. We spent an hour watching an orchestra setup their venue but we only got to listen to a few interpretations.
2019.02.18 – [CU] Las Tunas ==> Bayamo (81 kms | Total: 1758 kms) – We had breakfast a bit later than planned as the owner could not get bread any earlier. We left Las Tunas rather confidently even though we had another 80kms cycling day to Bayamo. Unfortunately, we struggled more than we expected with a headwind while at the same time being confronted to a rather boring route. The temperature again reached 34C. As we entered the province of Granma, we met a friendly solo Belgium cyclist who had extensive touring experience. It is always interesting to meet other touring cyclists on the road. Just when we thought we had been cycling for a long time in Cuba, we met this mature gentleman who had been cycling all over the country for the past 8 weeks – without any knowledge of Spanish. He still had another two weeks to go. He cycled all over South Asia and even bits of China. Some 20kms before Bayamo, we stopped at an unexpected road side restaurant, we garbled a pint of ice cream and two beers before continuing our route. We arrived in Bayamo shortly after 2:0pm, later than our usual time. We were again directed to a restaurant for our evening meal. Although the restaurant environment was pleasant, it was rather expensive as it was geared to tourists. Later we walked the streets in search of water but we were unsuccessful. We returned to our casa to discover that the owner was not at home and the door to our hanged laundered clothes was locked. Later in the night, Jenny intercepted the casa owner for our clothes.
2019.02.19 – [CU] Bayamo ==> Bayamo (0 kms | Total: 1758 kms) – After a good breakfast at our casa, we walked back to the town center in search of some beer and water. The beer was easy to find but the water was a lot more difficult. We finally gave up visiting shops and dropped by a luxury tourist hotel where we bought 1.5l bottle of water for more than twice the usual price in local shops. On our way back to our casa, we stumbled on a small shop that sold bottled water at the usual price. We bought another bottle to hydrate us well under the 34C temperature. Back at our casa, it was time for another tandem maintenance. We also drafted part of our next travel blog entry and reviewed our photos. Later in the afternoon, we walked to an ice cream parlor where people were lining up to enter. As good visitors to Cuba, we inquired as to who was the last one in the queue, folks showed us the end of the queue. As the line-up started to move, we discovered that more folks were standing up in the queue. Our patience was a bit challenged for waiting in-line for a 35 cents ice cream bowl. We had a great evening meal of fish prepared by our casa owner. Clearly it was much better quality and value than our previous evening’s restaurant meal.
2019.02.20 – [CU] Bayamo ==> Manzanillo (66 kms | Total: 1823 kms) – After our breakfast, we loaded the tandem, took some photos and left town for Manzanillo. The road was very pleasant and we enjoyed a good tailwind for most of the 60kms route. We saw a few rice fields along the way. We met our first Canadian cycling couple (Cobourg, Ontario) on the road. They had started from Holguín and were wrapping up a 1 month loop (clockwise) around Cuba’s eastern coast. We exchanged a few travel information and tips. We arrived in Manzanillo before noon. We learned that our casa did not offer any evening meal but the owner recommended a few nearby restaurants. Clothes washing proved a bit more challenging as a neighbor’s large dog was roaming freely on the rooftops where the clothes lines were normally setup. We had generous plates of shrimps for our evening meal.
2019.02.21 – [CU] Manzanillo ==> Niquero (73 kms | Total: 1896 kms) – We had our breakfast at 7:30am, a bit earlier than usual, as we had 70kms ride to Niquero. The wind condition was not as favorable as yesterday but nonetheless the cycling was easy. We met a group of six Canadian cyclists at the municipal limit of Manzanillo. The three couples were pleased with our arrival as they were looking for someone to take a group photo for them. They also had started in Holguín but had taken a transport to Santiago de Cuba where they had embarked on a ride west along the scenic south coast. Our last 10kms cycling was a bit tiring as the 34C temperature and boring views were getting to us. We were greeted by our friendly casa owner who helped us bring the tandem to the 2nd floor and provided us with a welcome juice without prompting him for one. Our room was on the third level with our very own clothes line. A nice perk of our casa location was that the internet signal from the nearby park was strong enough for us to connect from our room. Our casa owner, whose wife had recently taken a two-year optometrist job in Venezuela, was an excellent cook. He prepared the best lobsters that we have had on our trip so far.
2019.02.22 – [CU] Niquero ==> Pilon (41 kms | Total: 1937 kms) – We opted for an early breakfast even though we only had a 40kms cycling day. We had to retrace yesterday’s route for 10kms in order to link back to the road to Pilon. The road climbed gradually with a gain of over 250m. We were surprised by a few steep sections. We arrived in Pilon shortly before noon after enjoying a six kms downhill. On the local street we met our casa owner who was riding his motorcycle back to his house. We had been warned by other cyclists that bottled water was likely unavailable in Pilon. Thankfully, we managed to buy a few cold beers. Our Platypus gravity water filter had been a total god send as it had reliably provided me with 3.5l of water a day while Jenny managed to only use 1.5l of water every other day. We encountered our first noticeable power outage before our evening meal at our casa.
2019.02.23 – [CU] Pilon ==> Campismo La Mula (73 kms | Total: 2010 kms) – We had an early breakfast upon the casa owner’s recommendation. We anticipated a fairly difficult cycling day over the 70+kms to La Mula as a result of the forecast headwinds and the road profile describing a few good climbs towards the end of the day. Our breakfast was quite modest compared to the usual breakfast offering in casas. It was nice to be cycling in the early cool morning air. The first 35kms cycling was fairly easy as the road was flat. Later the road joined the coast and the scenery started to be quite spectacular. We often stopped on the side of road to take some photos. By mid-morning, the headwinds started blowing. It slowed down our progress but it also cooled us down. We drank more water than usual including an extra liter of filtered water that we had prepared as backup. I broke the news to Jenny, some 10kms before arriving at the campground La Mula, that we were not staying at casa at the end of day. After some disappointment, she accepted the modest cabin room filled with mosquitoes and no wifi access. Thankfully, the campground sold bottled water and the on-site restaurant provided us with a reasonable evening meal of fish. The best part of the meal was a long chat we had with a cycling couple from Nova Scotia. We exchanged travel information and tips throughout our meal. Today’s route was clearly our most scenic ride to-date on this trip.
2019.02.24 – [CU] Campismo La Mula ==> Chivirico (42 kms | Total: 2052 kms) – We were out of our cabin and walked around by 7am but we had to wait for the on-site restaurant to open at 7:30am. We had a light breakfast. We were eager to cycle the 40kms towards the town of Chivirico. Today was a referendum day in Cuba for changes to their Constitution. Surprisingly, we did not face any headwind on the road but in turn we felt the full heat of the morning. The paved road to Chivirico was the best road condition we encountered in Cuba – it was only one year old. We arrived in town before 11am. After checking into our casa and completing our daily routine of showering and clothes washing, we dropped by an ice cream parlor for some very inexpensive ice cream. We also stopped at a small relaxing seaside restaurant for some BBQ chicken lunch. Back at the casa, we met a French cycling couple who had done some extensive touring. We exchanged some route and casa information. We had fish for our evening meal. We were relieved to finally receive some emails from Noel, our Matanzas casa owner who had been arranging for our casa reservations along the way. It appeared that some of his emails he had thought he had sent us were stuck/delayed somewhere on the internet. In the evening, the casa owner explained that a party at one of the town’s park was the reason for the unbelievably loud music.
2019.02.25 – [CU] Chivirico ==> Santiago de Cuba (73 kms | Total: 2125 kms) – Although our air conditioner in our room muffled a bit the sound of music during the night, we did not have the most restful sleep. We had an early breakfast before embarking on our 70+kms cycling day to Santiago de Cuba. The sunny sky, temperature of 34C and the headwind tired us. We met a cycling couple from England going in the other direction (west) – as most cyclists were doing to avoid the easterly headwind. We look forward to reaching the eastern tip of Cuba so that we can, in turn and hopefully, enjoy some (strong) tailwind. Although we had expected the Sierra Maestra mountain range stretching along the south coast to shield us from the wind, it did not quite work out for us. As we arrived fairly exhausted in Santiago shortly after 1:00pm, we recognized along the way a few streets and landmarks from our previous 2016 visit. We located our casa without much difficulty. Unfortunately, the check-in into our room was delayed by a late guest departure. Our hosts were very friendly and spoke some English. We enjoyed relaxing on our casa’s rooftop terrace. We had a brief internet session before our nice 3-course evening meal of fish.
