Cuba: - You’ll love it or hate it

[delilah]

As I couldn’t persuade anyone else to go on the 18 Nov I left Manchester airport on a direct Thomas Cooke’s flight to Cayo Coco in the middle of Cuba. The eight hour flight including bike was a very reasonable £500.
By 3.30 I had reassembled my bike and was on my way for a 60k ride to Moron. Dusk is at 5.30 so I road the last hour with lights on.
Next day bike and I caught the Viazul bus for the 8 hour ride to Holguin in the east where I began the ride proper.
Temperature was very pleasant in the mid 20’s. I made the first mistake of the trip by deciding to follow some minor roads to Banes. Big mistake as the tarmac soon ran out and I was in for 15k of rutted, pot-holed unsurfaced roads.
The next 3 days saw me riding to Baracoa. I can confirm this is indeed the rainiest town in Cuba but fortunately the heavens opened on my rest day. (it was the only wet day of the 3 weeks)


Next I headed south over La Farola a steep remote climb 30k up in mist and fog. At the top it was cape on and a great whizz down the other side to the Caribbean coast. It was seriously hot on the coast temperatures up in the 30’s plus, so it was 6.30 starts and aimed for 1.00 finishes.

Went through Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba Mazanillo arriving 10 days later in Bayamo for a rest day and the bus back to Moron. Total mileage was 600.

You could have done this trip in a fortnight as I later learnt you can fly direct to Holguin. Accommodation is in casa particulars their equivalent of B&B’s very cheap £15 a night for a double room. Not the trip if you like your food it was usually either chicken pork or fish always with boiled rice and I found it difficult to eat properly. Cuban’s are very friendly; virtually no crime and you’ll have the opportunity to practise your Spanish. Some of the road surfaces leave a lot to be desired but that’s part of the charm, and out of the towns they are largely deserted.

If you’re after experiencing a different culture in a safe country then it’s for you... but go now before the Americans arrive and trash it!

[Heltor Chasca]

Thank you for sharing...b

[Smith873]

Looks like a great place to visit by bike. Will you be uploading any more photos of your trip?

[delilah]

As requested a few more pics 5 is the most i'm allowed to up load in one go
Happy to answer any questions.

[simonhill]

Interesting title! I'm afraid I hated it. (Maybe hate a bit strong, but didn't enjoy.)

I was there 2 months and definitely agree with you about the food. Most people rave about it, but I found it bland stodge. Overuse of pressure cookers handed out as energy saving devices didn't help.

One other thing, theft is rife, particularly in the towns. Why do you think that every house has bars and grills on everything. Carparks and bicycle parks have guards, to counter the theft problem.

Also, you could say the Americans have already spoilt it. There is an affluent middle class who get their wealth from money sent by family members living in the US. These have completely upset the normal social order ie, all the people are poor except for the Govt and the military.

[delilah]

And 2 more

[greyingbeard]

Upsetting the social order simply won't do. Who will mend my punctures, clean my shoes or do my bidding for a few cents
Keep them in thier place, what !

[TrevA]

We loved it when we went in 2013. We did a bus assisted cycle tour taking in Havanna, Trinidad and Vinales. Apart from Havanna we stayed in small towns and hotels in the country. Never saw or heard of any crime, though we did get hustled a bit in Havanna. I loved the mix of cultures, Spanish, American and Russian architecture and big old American cars.

We tended to eat in the little private restaurants, often having lobster or seafood for the evening meal.

[JackRabbitSlims]

I did 4 weeks in Cuba in 2009 - not cycle touring, just simple backpacking.

If you stay in the "Casa Particular" (Families who rent out a room in their house) the food really is very good! Eating street food, or food from small cafes / restaurants was very disappointing with very little choice, over priced and poorly cooked / presented......all IMHO ofc.

Wonderful country and loved traveling through it.
After 4 weeks I'd had enough though

[mjr]

I was there 2 months and definitely agree with you about the food. Most people rave about it, but I found it bland stodge. Overuse of pressure cookers handed out as energy saving devices didn't help.

I think I was there 2 weeks and the food was OK. We mostly had simple food in the casas particulars, so I can see how that might be a bit of random chance whether it was any good or not. I think we ate in some restaurants in Havana and Trinidad and they seemed OK too. Don't expect Michelin stars, but it's quite adequate examples of the style... except for lunches. The widespread sandwiches of bland cheese and bland ham in all-crust bread rolls became a bit of a joke - including one time when I ordered a ham sandwich and it came with cheese in... I suspect the cheese sandwiches came with free ham.

One other thing, theft is rife, particularly in the towns. Why do you think that every house has bars and grills on everything. Carparks and bicycle parks have guards, to counter the theft problem.

I thought the bars were because windows were often left open in the heat (where they existed) and you don't want just anyone wandering in, while the excessive number of guards and police were job creation rather than OTT security. Certainly, a police officer in Havana was not at all interested in intervening when someone was sticking a pig with a machete in the middle of the street a few metres off Plaza Vieja!

[blackbike]

If you’re after experiencing a different culture in a safe country then it’s for you... but go now before the Americans arrive and trash it!

How can you trash a place that has no free speech, no free press, no free elections, no free political parties and no free trade unions?

It sound grim enough as it is.

[stu1102]

My wife and I attended a Medical Conference in Cuba but we did have some time on rented out bicycles

We loved every minute, people, culture, geography, food, such a magical place for us.

We stayed in Casa Particulars as stated above living with a Cuban family as we gave the Conference Hotel a pass

We never felt threatened, intimidated etc in fact quite the reverse. We deliberately sought out less affluent areas of Cuba to explore and visit

There are too many highlights for us to cite but one stands out;

Our taxi driver in Havana, an unassuming man, dropped us at the local bus station, we started a conversation with him and his friends at the taxi rank. His friends quickly revealed he was at the Bay of Pigs and was part of the group guarding Fidel Castro . I quizzed him of his experiences that day, and it it was simply wonderful to hear him recount the stories of that period and that traumatic event for the Cuban people. At the end of my questions to him about the event and went to pay him but he refused. He simply said: 'it was nice to meet you Comrade ' Photo of him below

[mjr]

How can you trash a place that has no free speech, no free press, no free elections, no free political parties and no free trade unions?

By calling it the USA?

More seriously, as I understand it, Cuba is a one-party state, but there are elections (remember the ranting when some monitoring organisation ranked the US's notorious "hanging chad" election as less free than Cuba's election about the same time?), factions within that party and workers councils and cooperatives that could be seen as fulfilling some of the functions of trade unions at a single-enterprise level. I see problems with all of those but I'm really not sure if they're significantly worse than the problems with some of the elections, political parties and trade unions in this country...

But free speech, there seems not so much in any sense, which I think stems from a deep fear of their big rich neighbour using its media muscle to sell their citizens another unfavourable Cuban–American Treaty of Relations... That's not entirely without reason, as there were many stunts like using Christmas displays in the grounds of the United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland to send political messages, but it does seem like a major flaw.

[simonhill]

I was there for some elections. I think there were 6 candidates, all pre chosen by the State/Party and you could vote for 4, I think. Can't remember if voting was compulsory, but there was a very high turnout.

I'd be interested in knowing why the OP used the love/hate title??

I loved all the photos, they took me back to some great places I visited in Cuba. However they sort of sum up my problem with Cuba, they only show the good bits. I spent hours in grotty towns wandering along roads with virtual shanty or slum houses. In the country there were isolated high rise housing blocks where the no hope unemployed post closing of sugar production lived. These sort of shots are never shown.

Then there were all the empty fields that could have been passed to the people to grow fruit and vegetables. Instead the State would rather keep them empty rather than passing the means of production to the people! I've travelled extensively in other (so called) communist countries eg Vietnam and Lao where the locals grow plenty of food and the markets are overflowing with fresh produce. The Cubans could, but don't or won't?

My overwhelming feeling in Cuba was anger towards the State. I felt they lied. There were signs everywhere telling of the successes of the revolution, but what I saw, albeit below the superficial tourist gloss, was the failure of the revolution. I was saddened and upset as I somewhat naïvely thought I would see a much more equal society.

Incidentally, I've just been checking fares as I am thinking of going back to see if I have got it wrong, but its looking like Western Australia may be cheaper at the moment.

[mnichols]

Went in 2013. Loved it, but left the bike at home and did the full touristy thing with wife and kids