Eastern Cuba Nov Dec 2009

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video selection on YouTube (click)

"Reconstructed" after-the-fact, using borrowed pics, due to no Internet in Cuba. 17 cyclists + 3 staff, 14 days, run by www.cuba1tours.com. Overall impressions at the bottom 0f this post. Clicking the map will enlarge it.

Nov 21/2009 – Flew Air Transat (w. President’s Choice meal )…Arrived in Holguin 6:05 PM on time, met the 17 others and transfer to hotel El Bosque, ...pretty basic. Dinner at the hotel consisted of sandwiches, since it was late.

Nov 22 – assembled my 'coupled' bike with difficulty despite Bill Mander and Doug Hinccliffe’s help…. stemmed from my badly installed cable to derailleur back in May'09. Went to Holguin in van, had lunch. A young guy, 15, wearing a Tim Horton shirt tried to act as guide. I still feel bad (still do) for not giving him something since he never asked for a tip. He said to others he was hungry.

Nov 23 - cycled from 12K from the hotel. Extremely hot and not acclimatized… thought : "this trip is going to be a problem". To the town of Mayari (approx. 85 kms) and then transfer by bus to the island of Cayo Saetia, a 'sketchy' animal reserve. Arrived to an overbooked situation so went to the beach. Stayed in Fidel Castro's room (... no shit!) really large, but many bites from mosquitoes.

Nov 24 – Breakfast and transfer to Levisa to begin cycling the main paved highway and then continue along undulating/hilly roads through some small towns and beautiful countryside with light traffic to Los Indios (Approx. 61 kms). We boarded t he bus at this point and drove to Cuba’s oldest city, Baracoa. Box lunch (ham and cheese, ... what else?) was included. Stayed at Porto Santo hotel. Dinner at the hotel was rather ordinary.

Nov 25– Cycled to a primitive farm then to a small fishing village at the mouth of the Yumuri river, where local Cuban was looking for bike tire, …felt sorry for him. This was beautiful ride, up and down small hills, past small villages and magnificent vegetation. The road was well-paved, with little traffic. At Yumuri we hiked/paddled up the river and a few swam in pools. Spoiled by a much delayed lunch at a local snack bar,... many were pissed off at the delay. Dinner at the hotel was ordinary. (Approx. 60 kms return)

Nov 26 – City tour visited a couple museums then vanned to Maguana beach (kind of nice), the only white sand beach in the area. We had lunch here and spent a few hours enjoying the beach and ocean. Dinner this night was a pig roast at a small finca (farm), with a local band, bought the music CD.

Nov 27 – Breakfast and transferred by bus over the Farola Viaduct which climbs steeply to an elevation of 800 meters. Once we got over the mountain we cycled along paved coastal roads with magnificent Caribbean vistas and our cycling destination was be Tortuguilla where 2 o r3 jumped in the ocean. We packed our bikes on the bus and headed to the city of Guantanamo and accommodation and dinner at Hotel Guantanamo…fairly modest place and rather Soviet-like, and meal was soviet plain.

Nov 28 - Breakfast and cycled to the town of La Maya (approx. 63 kms) to Santiago de Cuba (approx. 90 kms). These paved roads took us along through more of the Cuban countryside (but was cloudy and a bit rainy, rather slippery) with sugar cane fields, mountains in the distance and not much traffic until we got close to city of Santiago. Mostly flat and the last 20+ Km were at 35km/h. Spent two nights at Hotel Melia, a true fancy 5 star…very impressive, with buffet dinner and breakfast included.

Nov 29 – A bus/walking tour of the most important parts of Santiago... finished the tour in the central park, Cespedes, 6 of us had lunch at the Grand hotel overlooking the park and city, and a magician did a great entertaining job at out table. Went to the baseball game near the hotel, hot 34C, just for a few innings.

Nov 30 – Transferred our bikes to the edge of the city to avoid cycling through the heavy traffic. We begin the day by cycling along the Caribbean coast (bad roads) to our destination, the Sierra Mar, an all inclusive resort, previously a Canadian Cuban joint venture. Lunch was OK, and checked the diving options at a dive shack (not promising). … not many divers apparent. (Approx. 56 kms)

Dec1 – Vanned the entire distance totally beside Sierra Maestra mountains on one side and the Caribbean on the other…. because the road was so bad. The traffic along this coastal road is almost non existent and 4 of us cycled back afterwards so as to get at least a bit of cycling in. Was another all inclusive resort, Marrea del Portillo, smallish and had a band at 9:00 PM…not bad. Many people were pissed off because of not cycling at all.

Dec2 – Most transferred bikes (not me) past some steep hills before we cycle along paved country roads with some hills, flats, nice scenery and little traffic. Brought pizza and crisp bacon to eat for lunch from the hotel. We loaded the bikes on the bus and transfer to the city of Bayamo, Tom said one the cleanest most progressive cities in Cuba. Accommodation was at poorest hotel of trip.... dinner was rather poor.

Dec3 – Vanned to Holguin, then cycled along a reasonably flat, well paved road (Approx. 75 kms) to the all inclusive Playa Costa Verde, .... was a pretty impressive resort on a small, golden sand beach. SunWing charges $705/wk incl flight, ...fantastic.

Dec4 – 32 Km over to Guadvarca beach where there was a market, back for lunch, a superb seafood pizza..... best ever.

Dec5 – Repacked bike,…just took 35 minutes. Checked out the diving options at a dive shack 10 min away, but later at the airport others told me it was all "fished-out", and not worth the trouble. Transferred in taxi with Lina …..earlier than the others (because of earlier flight) Holguin airport by commercial van….. pretty much pissed off that Tom didn’t tell us it was extra cost, 35 CUC each, since the idea of going early was not really mine in the first place. Flight stopped in Santa Clara, but arrived in Toronto 30 min early.

Overall Impressions:

4 points out of a possible 10, and my impression improved as time went on,

Pros .....good cultural experience, some of the all inclusives were pretty good, Eduardo and van driver were good, good bottled water supply (every 20K) generally liked all the group of 17, ... nice people.
Cons: ......really too hot (near 40C in sun) for cycling, some hotels/food/roads pretty crappy, Tom was less than thorough.... But Cuba is Cuba, and I love it,... so why complain.