Our Trip to Cuba
During Feb 24 through Mar 4, 2001 Kym and I took a bicycling
trip to Cuba, here are our trip notes, along with some pictures.
The notes were mostly written by Kym.
Feb 24 Walk around Portland airport. Fly to Detroit and then to
Montreal. Plane is late so we miss our bus to Mirabel airport -
Everyone is French - Take a cab to Mirabel and stand in line for an
hour. Talk to Daniel who also has a bike. Get on plane and go to
sleep and arrive in Holguin. Go through customs fine and get bike
boxes.
Feb 25 - Put bikes together with the assistance of some security
guards. It's still dark out but we ride into Holguin. Arrive in
Holguin with the light. Find Elaine's house and wake everyone up.
Talk to the whole household en espanol. Then go to Jose's and give
the old laptop to him. Talk in English. Kym and Yami go for a walk
(Kym also went on a bike ride w/ Edelsis, to meet their mother). Go
back to Elaine's house to eat lunch, but Kym crashes out on the
bed. Finally eat at 1pm head for Gibara at 1:30pm with only tap
water to drink. The ride takes three hours and Kym almost passes
out from exhaustion and dehydration. Get to Gibara at 4:30pm and go
straight to the bar for naranaja (Orange soda) and bottled water.
Go to place Sandy the Canadian suggested and get a room. Sit there
and vegetate for a while and meet some crazy old Australians. Dad
goes to sleep, Kym wakes him up at 6:30 and we take a walk around
town. Eat a huge seafood dinner at 7:30 (at the hotel) and later
talk to the crazy Australians again. At 9pm we go to sleep.
Susel at Miriam's house
at Miriam's house
Picking fresh banana in Gibara!
Feb 26 - Dad wakes me up and we eat pan (Spanish for bread) but in
Cuba they're little rolls). Prepare to leave and a nice woman at
the hotel gives me a necklace made of seeds. Go to Don Lino (a
resort on the coast) buy some sugar cane and unripe papayas, on the
road. To save time we take a little boat from Gibara to across the
bay. The boat was one meter high and the waves are 2 meters high" -
words of the crazy Australians when we reach Don Lino (a resort -
not a town) we find out it's full. Stay anyway and swim in the
ocean and have a buffet lunch. Have super nice waiter who looks up
people for us to stay with in Playa Blanca. Finally leave Don Lino
and go to Playa Blanca. Go to Rafael's house and stay in house he
has for guests. Interesting story - the house was started when a
Canadian friend of his had no money and needed a place to stay. So
Rafael put him in the house. A year later the Canadian came back a
millionare!! (from inheritance) and he paid to fix the place up.
The end - Dad does laundry and I'm writing this. At 4pm we go on
Rafael's boat across the bay to a "island" really it's a peninsula.
It's a national park and it has an amazing restaurant that's closed
so we can't buy any bottled water. Dad and me go to the museo,
which is filled with archeological stuff. Then we go to a monument
to Christopher Columbus. We go back to our "house" and make plans
to have dinner ordered and Rafael goes to get the bottled water
when he visits Don Lino to make a call. We sit and vegetate. Do a
walk of the town and see smoke in the distance from a sugar cane
field being burnt. We go back to the house and see that the house
is filled with smoke. Dad can't stand it so we get our stuff
together and go into town. On the way we meet Rafael with our food
and water. He tells us to eat at his house until the smoke clears
away. When we're done eating we go back and find that the smoke is
gone. We go to sleep.
Trip across bay from Gibara
Washing clothes at our house rental
View of bay from our house rental
Feb 27 - Dad's watch wakes us up at 6 and we leave about 5 minutes
later. Rafael is not up so we slip key with money under his door.
Bike to Freyre and went to the panderia (bread store) and bought
bread Went to a market-type thing and bought green oranges and
yellow bananas. On the way to Guardalavaca we stopped and ate bread
and fruit. When we got into Guardalavaca we checked into a nice
hotel and got a room. We visited a market that was very
capitalistic for a communist country. We bought a weird candy bar
in a shop and then went back to the room to change into our
swimsuits. On the way to the beach we ate lunch in a restaurant. We
swam and talked to Canadians. After the beach we went back to the
hotel and had a cold shower then sat and vegetated and wrote this.
Dad talked with a French Canadian (Yanouk) whose name I can't
pronounce or spell. I went inside and slept for a couple of minutes
and then woke up and we went on a bike ride to see the rest of
town. At the far side of town we found a restaurant, that Dad had
eaten at 2 years before, so we stopped and had dinner. The food was
a bit expensive but delicious and a man sang Cuban songs to us. We
biked back, then went for a walk along the beach with the French
Canadian. When we got back we paid for the key and then talked with
some Dutch people. The man turned out to be a communist so he gave
us a long speech on it. We went back to the room and sat around for
a while, now we'll go to sleep.
Feb 28 - Have to wake up way too early. 15 minutes later at 6:30 we
were out the door. We start on the way to Banes and encounter many
scenic tropical land-spaces and lots of hills. At Retrete we
stopped and bought 2 bread and butter slices from a vender. The
bread bus (actually a 3 wheeled Soviet delivery "truckette") pulled
up right then so we bought a loaf from him. Later on we stopped at
a woman's house to ask if they had any bananas. They didn't but we
gave them half a loaf of bread anyway. Then we attempted to cut
down some sugar cane and a girl comes out with a machete and cuts
some for us. Yum! We got into Banes and found a "casa particulares"
(room for rent) to stay in. We leave to go downtown and check
everything out. The place wasn't communist! There were towns of
vendors and we bought a papaya, 2 rolled up pizzas and a drink,
mints and cocada (coconut-sugar soft cookie)! We found a bookstore
with books written in English and I got a book and some very old
pictures of Banes. Then Dad got a haircut. We went back to the
hotel. Dad hand washes clothes and I read. Eventually we went for a
bike ride to see all of the city. There is lots of Jamaican
architecture and we heard Bob Marley being played. When we got back
I took a shower, then we had a fantastic meal of plantains, fried
chicken, and rice and beans. Later Dad took a shower, then we went
on a walk and bought more cocada. Bed time!
Kym on the way to Banes
Rick on the way to Banes
Kym yelling at me, on the way to Banes
Bread truck on the way to Banes
Mar 1 - We woke up to our hostess saying "Son las Seis" (it's six
o'clock). We lurched out of bed and got ready to leave. We stopped
by Los Negritos to eat breakfast on the side of the road and then
we rode into Antilla. We went straight to the single hotel in town
and checked out a room. The sheets were dirty and the bathroom was
unspeakable. We got the name of a casa particular and went out for
there. On the way Dad stopped at a youth computer club to look for
a man (Luis) he had meet there 2 years ago. He wasn't there but
someone directed us to the casa particular. It was clean and half
the price of the hotel. We took it. We walked around town for
awhile and then went to the museo. After that we attempted to
change money at the bank (just for fun) but we had to change it in
the streets. Dad got pockets full of pesos, we went and got a
rolled up pizza for lunch. I ate 2. We went back to the casa
particular and sat. Dad talked to Toni and I read. We decided to go
to a beach we had heard of. We got directions and set out. On the
last road, a bumpy dirt road, Dad got a flat tire. The beach was
beautiful, but Dad had to go back on my bike to get the tire repair
tools. Dad returned and quickly jumped in the water to cool off.
Then Kym and Dad went in and swam for a long time in the warm clean
water. Dad stepped on a small green sea urchin so we got out and
fixed the tire and rode back and took showers at Toni's. Felt
great!
Typical rural school with bust of Jose Marti
Waiting for transportation near Antilla
Sign near Antilla
Mar 2 - We stumble out of bed and said bye to Toni. We get
directions out of town and start to Baguano, which Dad never
learned how to pronounce the whole trip. Because this will be our
longest distance day we try to keep up a good speed. We stopped at
Bijara and ate breakfast on the side of the road. We stopped again
at Tacojo and found a dollar store (a store that only accepts US
currency) on the side of the road. This was the only dollar store
in a little town we saw on our whole trip. We bought orange soda to
drink and Tukola (like Pepsi) to save for our bike ride. Worried
that we wouldn't be able to eat any more sugar cane, we stopped at
the first field we saw and began to embarrass ourselves. We managed
to get a huge stalk out of the field and then someone came with a
machete and cut it into good-sized pieces. We said thanks and
goodbye but the guy followed us into Baguano and proceeded to
follow us for a while. When we got into Baguano we asked for the
computer club to see if Luis (from Antilla) would be there. He was,
so we decided to hang out with him. The sugar cane guy finally left
and he was replaced by one of Luis' henchmen, a computer nerd. At
the market place we saw a booth selling sugar cane juice and Dad
went wild. He drank 3 glasses that day and you know how strong cane
juice is - most people can barely drink one. I had a pizza for
lunch and we meet up with Luis (sans henchmen) to talk for the rest
of the afternoon. But before that we investigated into casa
particular options. There aren't any in Baguano but *don't* go with
Jesus. His room is dirty and the bathroom is non-existent. Don't
ask to stay with his mother either, as she lives in a pre-fab
concrete Soviet apartment building (which Dad is violently opposed
to). Do leave Baguano. We explained our problems to Luis and he
suggested we grab a taxi and go to Holguin. As we had been thinking
a similar thing, we planned to do that. We talked with Luis most of
the afternoon, at 3pm a taxi came and picked us up. It could only
take us as far as the Holguin-Banes municipal border because la
policia were doing checks to make sure that only tourist-licensed
taxis were driving foreigners. Our cabbie didn't have a license so
we stopped by the border and rode the rest of the way (11 km, 7
miles) to Holguin. We rolled into Holguin at 4pm and tried a casa
particular that Sandy the Canadian had recommended. It was full but
the owner's friend had a room and we stayed there. It was still
early so we left to walk around the city. Dad bought Mango juice
which we loved (and we forgot at our casa particular). Talk in
English with Hector, ex-English/Spanish Literature professor, meet
his son Hector Jr. Watch noticias (news) on TV. Ate at Restaurant
Cafeteria (which isn't a cafeteria), very cheap and good.
On the way back to Holguin
On the way back to Holguin
Typical farmhouse
In Baguano
Luis in Baguano
Taxi that takes us 14km toward Holguin, in Baguano
Park and Soviet motorcycle w/sidecar in Baguano
Soviet motorcycle w/sidecar in Baguano
Mar 3 - Wakeup early on the one day we don't have to! Kym sleeps in
a bit. Wait for breakfast for some time- Hector's wife makes
omelets, fresh squeezed orange juice, bread and butter, milk, and
bananas. Go tour Holguin and look for requirdos (souvenirs). Climb
one half of Loma de la Cruz (hill at the north end of Holguin) -
gets really hot - buy tons of cocada from street vendor. Go to
museum, Kym gets bored, stumble into an artists workshop, buy some
plates. Eat lunch at paladar (one room restaurant in private home)
near Hectors - chicken and fried plantains - a bit salty but good.
Get rid of Rick's "mullet" hairdo at barber-artist near Miriam's
that Rick went to 2 years ago. He remembers me right away! Buy a
picture from him. Visit with Miriam, Elaine, Edelsis, and Nino.
Miriam makes a very good dinner for us - pork, rice and beans,
plantain and a really good flan. Take excess stuff off of bikes,
walk with Miriam and Susal to main park - Lots of teens - nicely
dressed cruising around checking out the opposite sex. Sit for
awhile here and take it all in. It's amazing how active this park
is this time of night. Continue our walk to Jose's house and chat
with Jose and Yami. They wish we could stay longer. We visit and
pick up our winter clothes that we left there at the beginning of
the trip and head back to Miriam's. Kym sleeps and I watch really
bad American movies until 1am.
Hector in Holguin
Hector's wife in Holguin
Mar 4 - 1am, Say goodbye to Miriam, Elaine, and Nino and jump in
the taxi for the airport. AirTransat is 2 hours late so we hang out
in the airport and finally get on just before sunrise. Sleep almost
the entire way to Montreal, meet Sandy and Edelin at Montreal's
Mirabel airport. It's nice to meet them after two years plus of
emails and phone calls. We drive to restaurant and have brunch then
stop for pictures and then they drop us off at Montreal's Dorval
airport. Breeze through US customs and immigration. We're late
getting off which puts us late for our flight from Detroit to
Portland, so late that only 4 minutes pass from the time we get in
the plane until they push away! Good thing we don't have any
luggage. Mom picks us up at Portland and we describe half the trip
in detail during the 2 hour drive home.