Holguin, Cuba by bike via Montreal
During May 1 through Mar 8, 1999 I took a bicycling trip to
Cuba, here are my trip notes.
TRIP NOTES NOTE: the number in the left column is my odometer
reading. (0 km) Sun May 2 Vancouver resident on way to duaghters
wedding in Iowa. PDX->MSP (PDX scans vise grips and scissors)
see Mackinaw Bridge, Green Bay, WI, Lake Mich & Huron. Old
biker with patent on suspension from Ashland. MSP -> YUL Late
bus Dorval - Mirable testing my nerves. Nice weather in Montreal,
no leaves. Sit next to Bobby and Anick - actors. Bobby loves to
travel - going for a week of sun and fun at Las Brisas. Stop at
Cayo Largo for a couple of beers. Full moon. Holguin airport -
notice that every one with cardboard boxes are being stopped and
their boxes being gone through. Wait a bit until they look like
they are tired and want to go home. Slyly slip past customs like I
know what I'm doing. Check out area around airport. Put bike
together in from of departure building with crowd of security
agents gathered to observe and help. Wait for sun to come up at
about 6am. Ride to town with very low air in tires. Find Cupet
station with air, fill up to 60 lbs. Much better, this air lasts
the whole trip. Get haircut about 2 blocks from Miriam's from 78
year old guy with painter artist roommate. Visit Miriam's house -
some confusion about whether I'm staying the night - goto Jose's to
get some translation. Unknownly wake him and Yami up from a 12
hours drinking spree followed by a 12 hour sleep. He's very groggy
and is wondering who I am and why the hell I'm there. As time
progresses he warms up and we go over to Miriam's. Have lunch with
Miriam and 2 daughters. Rice, potato like stuff and flan dulce.
Ride around town - looks like rain - handle bars come loose, walk
bike back. Meet Sandy's drinking buddy Russo, he slaves away the
whole day building a roof on the neighbors house. Dinner at
Miriam's. Take Nino and Russo out for some beers at a bar. Russo
has a job now. He was in the war in Angola for 16 months, liked the
country but not the war. Nino works for the state government, seems
real nice. Russo reminds me of an old high school buddy of
mine.
(33 km) Mon May 3 Late start, alarm goes off at 5:30 but I ignore
it, Elaine wakes me up at 7. Great roads for awhile then a little
bummpy. Unknownly take a wrong turn when the sign says "Sila de
Gibara", which I think is the city of Gibara. Go 10 km and give a
patch kit to a bicyclist with a flat tire. After talking with him I
decide I'm lost and that I need to backtrack. Take an unpaved
"short cut" that is very bumpy/muddy. Get to Gibara and find a
great hostel with very tall ceilings and nice reception area. Lock
your door with a shoestring. Pizza on the street. Meet Milano,
Italy guy. Swim on "party" beach, nice. Run into US woman in post
office that has been here for 4 months. She says they had tornados
here yesterday. This is only US person I run into the whole trip.
Go half way to Caletones, pretty but plastic all over the
coral-like coast. Tighten fork nut again. Great dinner at hostel,
Tuna-like fish, rice & beans, tomato & cucumber salad, and
fruit bowl. Look for beer - end up at reputably expensive
restaurant that isn't so expensive after all. Drink with 4 crazy
French guys, Two are train drivers, one is a at-risk child
counselor and reminds me of my uncle. He and I speak to each other
in Spansh as he is the only one who speaks another language. We
talk and drink till 2 AM. Mosquitos at night.
Gibara
Square in Gibara
Gibara
Gibara
Taxi in Gibara
Taxi's motor in Gibara
Dinner at casa in Gibara
(104 km) Tue May 4 Up at 5:45am, make good time considering real
bad road from Flora Peres to Rafael Freyre. Run into guy who found
me lost yesterday. His flat is fixed! The road improves from there
to Playa Blanca. Nothing here but 78 year old restauranter married
to 17 year old beauty. Shows me a picture of his 17 year old son
who died in Angola, really sad. Two girl friends of wife, sugar
cane workers, talk with me for a long time, practice Enlish/Spanish
with them. Swim in the nice cool water, it's hard to believe but it
seems cool anyway. Ride to Freyre just for fun, have homemade coco
& sugar candy and orange refresco. Cool black clouds on the way
back from the hill between Freyre and Playa Blanca. Stay in little
cabina.
On the road to Freyre
Che
(186 km) Wed May 5 On the road at 6 am, lots of dew in the air. Go
through Freyre and head toward Guardalavaca and stop at Playa
Pesquero, nicest beach I've seen but nothing there. Tighten crank
nut at truck depot. Stop at Playa Esmerelda and the Marina with
their big new hotels. Go to Las Brisas and call Bobby, arrange
lunch, go find a place to stay. Stop at cabinas, the receptionist
thinks I'm British. Wait for cabina to be available, then find out
they need to clean it but I can't wait. Talk to maids and they let
me shower in the room while they wait outside. Have lunch at
seafood restaurant East of Guardalavaca, nicely presented food.
Hang around pool at Las Brisas and in their room with beers. Meet
John from London. Go swimming on the beach alone at my hotel, a
really nice sunset on the water. Late getting back to Las Brisas,
Bobby and Anick are gone, try to find them at all of the
restaurants West of Las Brisas. Finally give up and go back to Las
Brisas to see if they are at one of the restaurants in Las Brisas
when the receptionist says he has a message to give me - they are
in the restaurant in Villa de Las Brisas. Go find them and have a
nice dinner with French wine and Port wine and musician waiters. Go
to disco then to live cuban music bar where we all buy a tape of
the band. Go back to disco, dance to Bob Marley. Crash at 3am.
Playa Pesquero beach on the road to
Guardalavaca
On the road to Guardalavaca
John, Bobby in Guardalavaca
Anick, John, Bobby in Guardalavaca
Anick, Bobby in Guardalavaca
(260 km) Thu May 6 On the road at 6 am, beautiful rolling
countryside. Short ride to Banes, stop and buy bananas at farm
house. They won't accept money so I stuff $1 in their fence post
and thank them. Go through town and go to Playa Moreles, just South
of Playa Puerto Rico. Meet Yani and have lunch, beers, and snorkel.
Get sunburned on the back from snorkeling. Try to fix Soviet tape
player using homemade rum to clean capstan. Get tour of three salt
water ponds that are feed by underground water coming in from the
sea. Pretty fish in the ponds. Mothers day sidewalk vendors back in
Banes. This town looks really old and has a distict colonial
flavor. See Yani's archeological pots at his house. Take Yani out
to dinner, bad american tasting chicken. Yani complains about the
food and feels guilty. I tell him it's fine. Talk about Yani's wife
and girlfriend troubles. Meet Yani's girl friend (esposa) and
father in law, has been in Angola, hated it.
(340 km) Fri May 7 On the road at 6 am, pedal to Antilla. Cool port
town that looks like Banes a bit. Go to food store to get a juice
but there is a blackout so the head guy goes to his house to get me
some tomato juice. What service! Talk with English students but
they are too shy to try to speak any English. Try to pay for juice
but they won't take it, in desparation stuff $2 into shirt pocket
of head guy and leave. See sign "Computer Club for Jovens" but no
one around. Stop in at library next door to look at atlases. Nice
helpful staff. Ask what time the "Computer Club for Jovens" opens,
they then have me fill out a card with my name, address,
profession, etc, at this point I'm not sure why. Go into boulevard
park and hang around. A guy runs up to me with the card I filled
out and asks "is this you"? I follow him to computer club and meet
Luis and the guy who came to get me, Frank. Talk about Microsoft
and Linux, give him Linux bumper stickers, curse myself for not
having more to give him (like Linux CDROM's). Go to Museo with Luis
and walk town with him. They "take" me to lunch at Tony's but won't
accept my offers to buy lunch for them after repeated attempts so I
eat while they sip beers. These Cubans seem uncorruptable! Stay at
Raul's house, get to cook fish, tomato, garlic, cucumbers, onion,
and tomato puree. Go on conga march through town for "semana de
cultura". Great party atmosphere.
Pig
They look like ripe bananas they aren't
(369 km) Sat May 8 Wake up at 5:30, shower. Hear Rauls alarm go off
but don't see him. Try not to wake him up. Leave money on bed and
note of thanks on bed. Run into mountain bike club member in
Tacajo, gives me coffee and we talk about stuff. Later run into him
in town and give him my pump. 14 km of fairly bumpy roads from
Tacajo to Marguita, the rest is fine. Visit Miriam's house, only
Elaine is there with her daughter. Take some pictures for Sandy
after Elaine prepares herself. Go to Jose's, meet lots of friends
including Alex who is a translator at the nickel mine in Mao.
Prepare bike for Jose, I have to talk him into taking it. He
probably feels that he will never be able to repay me but I tell
him I got it free and I don't expect any repayment. Go meet Luis
and Rosabell who are building a house. Both speak really good
English. Jose and Alex take me to the restaurant on the "hill of
steps" and order steak, unfortunately it's really tough. Jose feels
bad but I don't like steak anyway. Everything else is good,
especially the stir-fried onions. Offer to pay for dinner telling
them that I haven't spent my "budget" and need to spend more but
they don't believe my story. Alex's Moskvitch (sp) breaks a spark
plug wire on the way down. My first trip in a soviet vehicle. Cab
to airport, he won't take $5 + 20 pesos for a $5.95 fare. Next time
I'll ride my bike!
Bike parking lot in Holguin
Rick, Jose in Holguin
Elaine, Susal in Holguin
Jose, Yami, Elaine in Holguin
Jose, Yami in Holguin
(461 km) Sun May 9 Miss early flight from YUL -> PDX. Take later
flight. Home at 9pm. Whew!