Cuba 2016 – ¡Aquí no se rinde nadie carajo!

(nobody will surrender here by Camilo Cienfuegos)

Cuba was the utopia, an idea that builds new worlds possible, the impossible triumph of justice over foreign despotism, the land of strong ideals and principles. Deaf to the critics we would occasionally hear, we felt that the Revolution had to be supported, because they deserve it, because against all the odds they managed to beat Goliath.

With this mindset we bought our tickets to Cuba and planned to cycle most of the island to discover first hand its beauty and rebellious essence. Truth is, after spending 6 weeks cycling
around the country, we got back disheartened, frustrated and with a sense of disappointment for the death of a dream (but tanned).

The Revolution only exists on the billboards spread all over the country. The principles supporting the Revolution feel like a myth, or the branding of a country stuck in its past. The principles identifying the Revolution as solidarity, respect, hard work and commitment are ubiquitous on the propaganda boards, but we did not find much of them in day to day life. In real life you will only find inefficiency, lack of information, lack of food and goods, endless queues, pollution, resignation, and people moving on with the mantra “que puedes hacer? es lo que hay” (what can you do? This is what there is)

So, what happened?

Getting started

Planning - We didn't do much planning. The idea was to reach the main Revolution sites by bike, visit the main cities and do some side trips. Rather than a cycling trip this time it was more a holiday with bicycles. Aware that we would not be able to use the Internet we were going to base our day to day plans on the 2 guides we brought with us but as both of them proved to be full of inaccuracies and mistakes we came to rely on the advice of local people. We would refer to the guides as “the books of lies”.

• Cuba by Lonely Planet, 2016 edition
• Bicycling Cuba by Wally and Barbara Smith, 2002

Bikes - We knew that the roads surface would vary, so that we brought Dharma and Hayduke, the “cross monster” bikes we used the previous year in the Great Divide, which are not very light but are reliable, sturdy and stubborn. We used tubeless tyres and had no problem with flats. The only mechanical issue were a couple of broken spokes almost at the end of the trip, but Paul had spares and managed to replace them.

Equipment – We went light. We had 2 back panniers (half empty), a handlebar bag, and an Exped drybag/rucksack that we would use when going hiking or to the beach. No tent, no sleeping bags and no stove. One pannier had some warm clothes and 1 pair of trainers for our return to the UK, toiletry bag, headlight, towel, flipflops and a few bike/pannier spares. The other bag had light clothes. Paul was carrying tools and me the guidebooks. We had 1x1l and 1x 1.5l water bottles fitted to the bike, and 2 x2.5l bladders in the pannier. This was a very wise choice as we were drinking 2 to 4l of water a day, and occasionally we would not find water for a long while.

Money – We were not sure if the cash card would work so that we brought British Pounds. American Dollars got charged a commission so it's better to bring Pounds or Euros. It turned out that the card was working everywhere (no ATMs in small towns) but there was a limit of 200 CUC per transaction. Me I preferred to change the cash and went through the 2h queue at the banks, Paul gave up and used the card.

Once you have CUC you can then change some of them into CUP (also known as monedas nacional or peso national, with an official exchange rate of 25 CUP = 1 CUC) in the Cadecas. You would use the CUP at street stalls or to buy bread, all the other places accept CUC so I wouldn't change more than 10 CUC at a time.

The trip

We divided the trip in 4 parts: Oriente, the central area, Pinal del Rio and Havana. We cycled a humiliating total of 1500km in 6 weeks, stopping here and there to check out a few spots of historic and natural interest. We were planning to cycle much more than that, but truth is, we didn't find cycling in Cuba very inspiring; the lack of facilities and the traffic didn't motivate us to do more than what we had to. 
 

Phase 0 – Arriving in Matanzas and cycling to Varadero

We arrived in Cuba at the Varadero airport on 11th November and were welcomed by Andris, the taxi driver sent by our host Moraima. The bikes made it too, and their huge and slightly damaged boxes were shoveled and roped in the boot of a beautiful Chevrolet 56 with no concern from Andris. To our amazement we saw how easily problems can be solved here.

Welcome to Cuba!

Putting the bikes together

Warm sun, fresh breeze, palms and see, let the dream begin! We spent 3 days in Matanzas, staying at Casa Rabelo. Moraima, the owner, was kind enough to keep the boxes until our return 6 weeks later, and gave us a lot of advice on places to see and the contact details for possible hosts in the towns we would visit.

Matanzas - asphyxiating diesel fumes welcomed us to this town. Apart from the central square and the thousands of birds that chose it as a sleeping place we didn't find anything particularly exciting here. The Iglesia de Monserrate was a nice walk and offered a good panoramic view, and the Cuevas de Bellamar are worth visiting too, but we would not recommend staying more than 2 days. Nice place to eat is the Buena Vista restaurant and the Jardin bar on the boulevard is a good spot for a mojito and piña colada.

Iglesia de Monserrate

Cuevas de Bellamar

Cycling out of Matanzas with all the traffic, narrow roads and pollution was intimidating, but we finally found the courage and cycled the 45km to Varadero, were we spent a nice afternoon at the beach waiting for our night bus to Bayamo (for more info on the bus see the practical info at the bottom). On top of traffic and black smoke we got the excitement of a 25/30 km/h headwind all the way there. It turns out Cuba is very, very windy and the prevailing direction is East to North East. Still, it was just the beginning so that we were still fully motivated, and some chilling out in the beach helped calm us down.

Cycling toward Varadero

3 hours at the beach before our night bus to Oriente

...will the bikes make it there?

Phase 1: Oriente

After a 14h overnight bus trip we finally arrived in Bayamo at mid morning. We didn't have a place to stay but were lucky to end up at Casa España (Fernando y Lili, Ave. Fco. Vicente Aguilera No 13A Tel: 42-3270 or 153971384) with its nice terrace and outstanding food, we strongly recommend staying there. We also liked Bayamo, no many cars, good vibes, chilled out people and a lot of historic places to explore. 
 

Casa España

View of Bayamo from the casa terrace

Bayamo to Villa Santo Domingo - 68km

The day after we were on the move already, our destination Villa Santo Domingo. This is the starting point to go to the Comandancia de la Plata in the Sierra Maestra, the pioneering rebel camp established by Fidel in 1958. Everyone tried to talk us out from cycling the last 18km, but naively we thought “oh well, we have time and we will take it easy” ...how wrong were we!

The 45km to Bartolomé Masó were flat and nice, no traffic, nice view of the Sierra Maestra on the left, good mood. Then after a turning and a stop at the only stall for a glass of guarapo (which made us sick the day after) we started the ordeal. The road was a “coastal roller” with some sections at 45% gradient, going up and down all the time. We had to push the bikes most of the time going up AND down as the brakes wouldn't cope with the inclines. We would later found out that the total elevation gained of those 18km was 1600m, but the difference in height between the start and end points was only 250m!!! The Cuban road-builders sure have a sense of humour. We did it in the early afternoon sun and Paul was about to get a heat stroke, but with plenty of fluids and the first platanos found since we arrived in Cuba we made it to Casa Sierra Maestra in one piece, and were treated as celebrities (or more likely “here are the nutters”) when they saw us coming.

Cycling (more pshing like) towards Villa Santo Domingo, gaining 1600m over the last 18km in the midday sun, never again!

Aftr 1 week we finally found the first bananas!

our room in Casa Sierra Maestra

As soon as we arrived it started to pour down

As soon as we arrived the sky opened and rain poured down for an hour or so. When it stopped we went to explore the village, which is small and charming and  full of rural life and rebellious history.

Vegetaria improvised dinner: rice, beetroot and fried platanos, all the other had:

We saw this poor guy coming screaming in a lorry a few hours before...he knew what was coming!

Live music at night

Next morning we went for the trek to the Comandancia de la Plata, well hidden in the thick vegetation of the Sierra Maestra. The place was very evocative, it was easy to picture the rebels hiding from the torrential rain in the huts, the image of Fidel thinking with his cigar and preparing his attack strategies and Che working as a dentist with local people. All the way we kept wondering how unlikely their chances of success were, and trying to understand how they managed to succeed. 
 

Breakfast: bread, honey and coffee

Starting the 3km trek to the Comandancia de la Plata with our guide and Scottish weather

Fidel's hut

Hibiscus flower

We managed to get a taxi to do again those 18km (crazy yes but not so fool as to do it twice!)

Bartolomé Masó to Manzanillo (34km)

Manzanilloto Niquero(75km)

We got back from the trek at 1pm, had a bite and got a taxi back to Bartlomé Masó (we are crazy but not completely foolish and there is no way we would have done that bit twice!). Wind in favor, flat, no much traffic, we got to Manzanillo in no time, and had a very pleasant stay at an unofficial casa as the others were full. We rushed around various stores before they closed at 5, and after a few attempts managed to get water and some form of crackers to take away for the following day. Finding food in Cuba is not easy job.

That was a good dinner!

...and breakfast

The day after we went down to Niquero, a small fishing port on the most Southwest part of the island, the starting point to go and see the Grandma landing (the place where Fidel arrived in 1958 with other 82 revolutionaries, described by Che as “less of a landing than a shipwreck with mosquitos”). We stayed at the Hotel Niquero, which was recently refurbished and pleasantly comfortable, so much that we decided to spend 2 nights there.

Bob from Holland, the first cycling tourer we met

Thinking "should we just throw it away?"

Our room in Hotel Niquero, so cosy and clean

The day after we cycled the 22km down to the Granma Museum, were our great guide Lionel walked us to the place of the landing through the mangroves, explaining the hardships the revolutionaries went through on landing. The museum itself was tiny but he gave us many historic details as well as an insight on the merits of the Revolution on people's lives (free education, health system, house, equality...). He was one of the few people we met who was openly supportive of the revolution and ready to make any kind of sacrifices to make it work.

Heading towards the Granma landing spot with our guide Lionel, now there is a nice path but the revolutionaries would have walked the 1.3km in the above mangroves without a single machete

The first and only good map we found

Saturday night in Niquero, people dancing n the street

Niquero to Pilón (44km)

recovering from an indigestion

Our lunch: fried platanos

Checking out the Sierra Maestra

Pilón to Campismo La Mula (75km)

Campismo La Mula to Caletón Blanco (85km)

Caletón Blanco to Santiago de Cuba (33km)

The Southern coast is described as a cycling highlight of Cuba: the sea on one side and Sierra Maestra on the other. The views were good indeed, but we chose to cycle it from the wrong direction and faced brutal headwind all the time. The Oriente is also the hottest part of Cuba and cycling after midday is masochistic. There are a few demanding hills to climb, the road disappears at times and turns into gravel, but at least there is no traffic at all with the major hazards goats and piglets suddenly crossing your way. After Pilón there are not many villages, so that you need to make sure to pack a full load of water and food. It was a tough section but the views of the sea breaking across the rocky road made up for the effort. 

Potholes sign

The speed effect is not speed, it's wind!

We spent the first night in Campismo La Mula and the second night in one of the best casa we had, Casa Consuelo. The wind that night was close to be a hurricane but the views were superb and the meal the best we had in all the trip.
 

The man teaching me how to call the pig (prrrrrrr) to give him the platanos smashed cycling there. We became best frieds.

Admiring the starred sky

Our hut in Campismo la Mula

Very happy because...

the road is paved again!!!!

Casa Consuelo. We originally thought to stay in Chivirico, but we got there early and thought there would be some other casa along the way. Turned out the first casa was this one, after 85km!

Nothing better than a pina colada to end an intense cycling day

This dinner was amaaaaazing, finally a place where you can eat proper vegetarian food! (next one would be in Habana)

The last day was a short cycle to Santiago de Cuba. We expected heavy traffic entering the city and so it was, quite scary at times but we made it, but the prospect of leaving the bike at rest for a few days gave us extra energy.

In Santiago we stayed at Casa Corrado y Aichal in the Casco Historico, which has a nice terrace and apparently is the best vegetarian restaurant in town ( = pasta). Corrado is Italian and it was good to chat with him, but we had the feeling that only Italians were allowed in the casa (a couple of Americans told us they always found the casa full, and the only guests we met there were Italian...).

After an intense search we managed to find 4 small mangos

In Santiago we put on our tourist clothes and went to visit the main sites, best of which were the Moncada Barracks, the view from the top of the Catedral, La Gran Piedra, and, our favourite, sitting in the terrace bar of the Hotel Casa Granda, mentioned by Graham Greene in Our Man in Havana.

Hotel Casa Granda

Moncada Barrack, museum and elementary school

On a taxi to la Gran Piedra, the first patrol station had no patrol, so that Josmal drove to the other side of Santiago queuing 30 min for it

La Gran Piedra looks like...mmmhh...Scotland?

Our foraging mission that day was very successful, we managed to find avocado, tomatoes and bread all in the same morning! (we managed to get a total of 4 avocados in 6 weeks)

Bells and missile outside the Cathedral

View of Santiago from the top of the Cathedral

The morning of our departure we went to check out and Aichal broke the news: Fidel had died. 

The morning Fidel died

She was in shock, and we were quite shaken too, it felt like the final end of history. Love him or hate him Fidel was a prominent historical figure who had survived over 600 assassination attempts which made him appear immortal. The news came as a shock for us too. On top of that we were not sure what it would mean for us on a practical level. The information available in Cuba is restricted to a couple of 10 page newspapers and a few TV channels that repeat the same stories continuously. In the end no major services were disrupted: a 9 days national mourning was declared which meant no music and alcohol, but apart from that life went on as usual.

We originally wanted to keep going through the coast until Baracoa, but it had been devastated by the last hurricane so we decided to head North and spend more time in the Central Cuba.

Getting a ticket at the Viazul office (see bottom for more info)

Getting ready for a 10h freezing bus journey, bye bye Santiago

Phase 2: The central bit

After a sleepless and freezing 10h bus journey we arrived in Trinidad on Sunday morning. We only spent one day in Trinidad and tried to get the most of our stay there. After finding a Casa we took our bikes and went to the beach at Playa Ancón, and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the nice colonial town which was completely overloaded with all the tourists we didn't meet in the previous weeks. 
 

Playa Ancón

Trinidad

Trinidad to Hanabanilla (85km)

When we told local people that we cycled to Hanabanilla through the Sierra of Escambray and Topes de Collantes they looked at us as if we are completely out of mind or superhumans. It was hard but not quite as hard as Villa Santo Domingo as we managed to stay on the bike almost all the time (the 4km up the mirador were just not human but after that we never pushed). We gained something like 1300m in the first 20km of the day. After Topes de Collantes the road unfolded on top of the Sierra and the views were just spectacular. It was by far one of the best cycling days the right balance of putting in a lot of effort and getting something worthwhile in return. We were planning to spend the night in the damp and run-down Hotel Hanabanilla, but when we were offered an unofficial casa at half the price we opted for the cheaper option and stayed with a family who were very cheerful and kind of weird... Not sure what I ate for dinner but I was sick all night, in the morning we were glad to be on the move again!

View from the Mirador

Embalse de Hanabanilla

Our room - see picture on the wall

not ripe, sorry :(

Hanabanilla to Santa Clara (55km)

Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry. If the day before was an epic cycling day today it was horrific. I was about to start crying out of desperation. The 2 lane, no-shoulder road was super busy with heavy traffic and more than once I got a lorry or a bus full speed flying by at less than 10cm from my arm, while at the same time we had to pay attention when overtaking horse carriages and zigzagging to avoid cycling wrecks, dogs, people and god knows what else coming from all directions. By the time we reached Santa Clara my hair went white, if not from fear definitely from the fumes from the lorries and tractors.

The centre of Santa Clara was closed as thousands of people were queuing to go and sign in a book their commitment to the Revolution following Fidel's death. The day after the Caravana carrying his ashes on its way to Santiago would pass through Santa Clara, but nobody was able to tell us more in terms of when, or if, anything was planned. In light of the chaos we decided to spend 2 days waiting and visit the Che Mausoleum in the meantime. At the end the Caravana arrived late in the night, so that at 7am we woke up and rushed out to pay our respects. People were already crowded at the side of the roads, but everything passed very quickly leaving a sense of “and now what?” in everybody's hearts.

Our beautiful casa in Santa Clara

be good, be good, be good...

diet tomorrow?

People waiting for the Caravana with Fidel's ashes

the day Paul got rid of his hat made of 50% sweat and 25% suncream

Santa Clara to Cienfuegos (70km)

The cycle to Cienfuegos passed quickly and unremarkable, kind of flat and boring and for once with the wind on our side. At a distance we could still see the Sierra de Escambray but apart from that not much excitement. Once in Cienfuegos we had some trouble finding a house, and after getting rid of the jineteros (people trying to sell you stuff, or a casa, for a commission), we ended up in Casa Niques by the side of the main square.

We spent 2 full days there, the first one was fully devoted to extend our visa - bureaucracy in Cuba is not easy matter...by the end of the ordeal we hoped it would be denied so that we would get the first flight back home. We then walked down to Punta Gorda and really enjoyed a nice walk in peace on a wide footpath without being assaulted by jineteros.

And after hours of hitting our heads against a wall we got our visa extended!

Walking back from Punta Gorda - Cienfuegos

The following day we cycled to Rancho Luna for a morning at the beach. The plan was to take the 1pm ferry back to Cienfuegos, as per the ferry schedule we were given the day before, on the same ferry we would get on leaving the day after. But did I mention before that things in Cuba are not easy? After getting the first 5min ferry we found out that the 1pm ferry was out of use for days? Possibly weeks? Who knows! So we had to wait the 3pm departure and when we saw it arriving it felt like a scene from the news showing a refugee boat reaching Europe. Unbelievable: people,  bikes, animals, bed frames, you name it. The concepts of Health and Safety and boat capacity are alien to Cuba, and I'm still amazed that we didn't sink. We decided that once was already too much excitement, so that the next day we took the normal road to Playa Girón.

Towards the beach, despite the mountains

heartless!

speechless...

Cienfuegos to Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs (85km)

“If half of the budget spent on propaganda would be spent on proper road signs life would be much easier” That's what I was told in Bayamo and it is so true! On our way out of Cienfuegos we stopped a few times asking for directions, and eventually a guy pointed us to a big road that was not to be found in any of our maps. He said it was a shortcut...a 4 lane road not existing on any map? We were sceptical but we did move towards Playa Girón on this empty, “unexisting” road. Eventually it turned into something that was on the map: a 2 lane road half of which for tens and tens of kilometers was used to dry rice. So it became a single track road and again I got buses full speed overtaking at less than 10cm from me, the joy of cycling in Cuba...

one lane of the road was used to dry rice

Our casa in Playa Girón

Playa Girón is a nice, quite, small touristic village made of Casas, the Museum and a big resort Hotel. You don't really see any Playa but close by there are lots of spots for diving and snorkeling. We had 2 good days there in the beautiful and cosy Casa Aida y Miguel, right in from of the huge billboard saying “Playa Girón, the first victory over Imperialism”  (in case someone forgot about it). The first day we went to see the Museum and the second day Paul did his first scuba diving while I opted for some snorkeling. The colours and shapes of corals and tropical fish was definitely one of a highlight of the trip. In the afternoon we cycled along the coast and found a small piece of beach-shaped heaven just for us.

a mountain goat in the sea...

Transition to phase 3: Finding our way to Pinar del Rio

 

Getting out of the beaten track means getting out of the comfort zone, and since we didn't find much of the comfort zone in the places we already visited we wondered what it would be like getting way, way off the track by travelling from Playa Girón to Viñales in the Pinar del Rio region. It was not easy.

Playa Girón to Jagüey Grande (69km)

Jagüey Grande to San Antonio de los Baños (171km)

We knew that there would be a few casas in Jagüey Grande, but after that there was no sign of accommodation for a good while. We decided to spend a night there and ask around to see if anybody could advise us, but to no avail. Jagüey Grande was a good surprise, the Casa we stayed in was superb as well as the food we found at the Restautante 1946. We had the feeling that the day after would be a demanding one, so that we had no regrets indulging in the huge plate of scampi and an equally huge breakfast, to our surprise in the morning fog.

We had an early start and by 7am we were on the highway. The fog was very welcome hiding the boring flat landscape and the sun, but by 9am it was sunny already, getting hotter and hotter until 1pm. The highway is wide (2 to 3 lanes) and very quiet, but we pushed and pushed to add on km and by 2pm, when we reached San José de las Lajas, we had already done more than 120km. The original plan was to find a place to stay there, but it didn't look too hospitable and after a few failed attempts, we decided to push on and get to San Antonio de los Baños where we knew there was a hotel. Despite the tiredness and the lack of proper food (I managed to find a big baguette of white non nutritional bread, with some jam I found weeks before) we put on the turbo gear and enjoyed rolling up and down those final 50km, reaching the final destination at 5pm. The sight of the hotel was a relief, and although the room was the worst we have stayed in (smell of damp, leaking sink...) we were so tired that we had no problem falling asleep. We happily paid 60 CUC for the pleasure of staying in this ruin. The next morning we woke up early and happy to leave the place and entering phase 3.

Phase 3: Pinar del Rio

San Antonio de los Baños to Las Terrazas (60km)

We had high expectations of Las Terrazas, as it was described as a pioneering eco-village site in the Sierra del Rosario, however upon making our entry, and after some bits of extreme climbing, it took us some time to find our way around. We found Casa Maida and decided to stay there 2 days to recover from the long cycle of the day before. The casa was nothing really special, the room was damp, noisy and dirty and cherry on the cake that night a torrential rain hit the village for 9 consecutive hours. We were kind of stuck there, and at midday after running out of all the available entertainment (reading books and guides, playing chess, killing mosquitoes, doing some planning) we put on our waterproof gear (beach shorts and raincover) and headed to the centre through ponds and ponds of mud to find shelter in the Hotel Moka. In there it was cold but from it we did find the best vegetarian restaurant in all Cuba, El Romero, a few flamingos and we got a good stock of manis (peanuts).

El Romero, finally some good vegetarian food

Stuck in the room due to the 9h of torrential rain

after 9h we went out anyway

The tree coming out of the reception of Hotel Moka

Las Terrazas to Soroa (19km)

We escaped Las Terrazas and headed to Soroa, described as a gorgeous natural area, on a short 19km cycle up an endless climb which turned in breathless downhill. After 3 nights spent in dirty and stinky places we hoped for a nice Casa, but ended up in casa Los Gallegos, a very rustic place which while an improvement from the previous ones was still noisy and not exactly comfortable. At least the holes in the walls allowed for proper ventilation. In Soroa we went up to the Mirador for a nice view on the Sierra, and to the waterfall. We wanted to visit the Orquidario but we run out of time and by now everything started to feel like a rip off: when we went to the hotel to check out the restaurant we found the menu was double the price the same outfit charged just down the road. We decided we would enjoy a pack of crackers in the casa much more.

Soroa to San Diego de los Baños (58km)

San Diego de los Baños is a village made famous for its spa, handily located half way to Viñales and we decided it was worth a stop. Finally we found a very good Casa, with a huge spotless room, a nice terraza and right outside the spa. It was Sunday and the Spa was closed, but Otaño, the casa owner, made a call and we managed to sneak in for a 20min bath. The pool was down a long spiral path and the place smelled strongly of sulphur, it was like descending to hell, but the bath was relaxing and we felt much better after it.

San Diego de los Baños to Viñales (70km)

Finally the last cycling day to Viñales, the area described as a cycling heaven, and the eastern point in our trip. By then our morale was not very high, too many disappointments, rip offs, uninspiring rides to get anywhere, but we still had a sparkle of hope that Viñales would be different and would make us reconsider our cycling experience in Cuba. We started full of hopes and the first 30km were kind of ok, but then we took the final road to Viñales, and the traffic started to intensify. It was a twisting 2 lane road going endlessly up up up and again up, with an endless procession of taxis, buses, tractors and cars overtaking everywhere. It was not a pleasant ride. It was stressful, dangerous and although reaching the top and seeing the Viñales valley with all the mogotes was indeed rewarding, it was not worth the risk. Viñales itself is a tourist village, or tourist trap. We found a nice casa in some hidden alley and enjoyed 2 days of doing nothing apart from visiting some caves and wondering around the village.

How to fix a pothole

After 1h, still waiting to enter the bank

Typical store (check the shelves)

The original plan was to cycle back to Havana through the North Coast, well known for the complete lack of services, and we set off early in the morning. After a pleasant 20km ride through the mogotes I heard a noise, it turned out that 2 spokes had simultaneously broken in Dharma's back wheel. We looked at each other and decided that the bike decided for us, the trip was over. Paul had spares and changed the spokes, but we figured it was too risky to head on a 180 km stretch of nothing and turned back to Viñales and tp get the bus to Havana. At the moment it felt like a failure, but to be fair we were already so disheartened by the whole experience that we didn't really care.

Phase 4: La Havana

Finally at 6pm on 15th December we reached La Habana, we were over the moon! The sky was already getting dark and as the Viazul bus station is very unhelpfully located 5km out of town, we thought it better to get a taxi to the Casa where we would stay. That was the best idea ever, as there was no lights on the roads in the outskirts of town, and we had no clue where we were going to!

Proper PIZZA!!

Malecón

Casa Eliza was handily located in Habana Vieja, by the Museo de la Revolución, so we went straight away to check out the Malecón and in the full moon it was the best view ever. Habana is beautiful. It's different from all the rest of Cuba. Walking in its avenues, squares, small alleys is getting lost in time and history. We walked a lot enjoying its architecture and collection of buildings dating from different periods, and imagined the passing of times in their walls and colours.

A visit to the Hotel Nacional was a must, and we shamelessly used the free tour of its story, the famous “mafia room” and the bunker dating from the Missile Crises.

The mafia room in Hotel Nacional

It was sad to leave La Habana, but at the same time we were relieved at the idea that we were approaching the end of the trip.

Phase 5: Getting back to Matanzas

With a few spare days before our flight and only 95km to get back to Matanzas, we decided to take it easy and spend a few days at the beach. We thus stopped at Guanabo for 2 full days, and had a short break in Playa Jibacoa.

La Habana to Guanabo (29km)

Guanabo to Playa Jibacoa (37km)

Playa Jibacoa to Matanzas (41km)

Guanabo is a touristic place for Cubans, as such it's very cheap and for the first time we had no jineteros around. The beach is not the best but it does the job.  

 Playa Jibacoa on the other hand is made of Campismos and a hotel and has little or no services. We stayed in Campismo Los Cocos and would not recommend it. The toilet and entry hall had no light, and we found out too late of the water restriction, but even when the water was running the shower was not working...The Campismo is made for Cubans, which means reggaeton music top volume day and night. We spent 2h foraging for food and the only thing we could come up with was bread and a 3kg can of green beans - better than nothing right?

Campismo Los Cocos

Our last day was surprising quite good. We set off as soon as possible and started the day with a nice climb at sunrise. We stopped at the Mirador de Bacunayagua for a coffee, waiting for a big shower to pass, then kept going up and down the Via Blanca, apart from 1/2h in a bus shelter waiting for another shower to pass, finally making our glorious entrance back to Matanzas! We were soooo happy to go back to Casa Rabelo, see Moraima again and especially have a proper shower and some edible food. The only thing left to do was packing the bikes and pray to the bike gods that the flight back would be smooth as it turned out to be.

Back to the starting point!

So, what did we learn? This time we learned not to do it again!! 

Practical tips:

Cuba as the cycling paradise? Really, no. Maybe during the Special Period when there were no cars around, but our experience was that you will cycle on busy roads, and that's not fun. A few other reasons why I would not advise anyone to go cycle there are: lack of facilities (forgot a spare? bad luck! Food? You like bread?); apart from the South Coast and a few bits in the Sierras most of the countryside is actually quite boring; no road signs = you better speak good Spanish; with daylight starting at 7am and dark at 6pm, and given it's too hot to cycle between 12 and 2, days are short.

Accommodation - We heard that camping was not the best option. After being there we would not advise people on camping anywhere: most of the land belongs to someone and it's used by grazing animals or to produce food, and the few people we met who wild camped spent the night making sure the bikes would not be stolen. You may be able to use camping gear a couple of times but it's not really worth carrying around the weight. Because the Casas Particulares (a kind of B&B) and Campismos are widely available and affordable we thought it would be more practical to use them. We still think this is the best way but be warned that there are none in some places. For example we ended up pedalling 171km from Jaguey Grande to San Antonio de Los Banos as we could not find any place to stay. Apart from that we had no problem getting accommodation wherever we ended up. Our hosts were always very helpful, and they would know someone in a close-by casa and call them to arrange a stay. If the place was full that person would find another place at some other casa (and usually get a commission for that). As for the Hotels, we would not recommend them. Although they look nice from the outside, the rooms are rotten, stinky and unmaintained. For their price (usually 60 CUC for a double) is much better to get a Casa.

Maps/Signs/Directions: The only topographic maps we found were the military ones displayed in the museums. All the other maps we found were inaccurate to say the least. Some (big) roads are not even shown, like the 4 lane Carretera Nacional 53 (National Road) on the way to Cienfuegos from Santa Clara, which we couldn't find on any map. The road didn't even have a sign saying where it was leading to, only the typical propaganda sign saying something like “pueblo unido en la solidariedad “ (people united in solidarity). This was not an exception. If half of the propaganda boards scattered all over the country would have some road indication instead it would make people's life much easier. Or maybe not, since the few times we actually found a sign with distances, the distances were ridiculously inaccurate. We cycled 20km from Cienfuegos and found a sign to Playa Girón saying 20km. Once in Playa Girón we turned back and saw a sign to Cienfuegos saying 95km. My odometer said 85km. The best way to get the right directions is to ask people, at least 10 people. Getting out, or entering a big town is always tricky (there you will find no signs at all) so that make sure you ask a lot!

Bikes on the Viazul Buses: We travelled by bus 3 times (Varadero to Bayamo- 14h), Santiago de Cuba to Trinidad - 10h, Vinales to Havana - 4h). Buying a bus ticket with Viazul is a postmodern experience: you have no clue of what's going on, or why, from start to finish. If you are lucky you will get at the right ticket office when the person in charge is not having lunch (which can be at 9.30am), and the computer is working (wait, your name will just be written on a piece of paper, why do you need a working computer?). During busy periods it's better to book the ticket 2 days in advance, your name will be written in some list but you don't pay at this stage. You will be told to show up again 1h before the bus is scheduled to go, when you will get the proper ticket and pay, after queuing for 1/2h, again. You will need to pay a supplement for the bikes, that vary from 2 to 8 CUCs, we think according to the distance to be covered. You will need to lower the saddle, remove the front wheel, and it's advisable to carry a long lock to secure the wheels and bikes in the lower compartment (roads tend to be rough). Air conditioning on the bus is on full power, so that if you travel by night make sure you have many layers to warm you up.

Food: If you stay in a casa you will get a big breakfast (usully 5CUC per person) based on juice, fruit, coffee, bread and eggs. Some casa offers dinners too (mainly rice and chicken or fish), if you beg for veg they may put some effort in finding some. Outside the casa, finding some form of proper food was an ordeal. Apart from white bread, rice and tortillas, getting any form of edible food can take ages. We went there thinking it would be the heaven of fruit and veg everywhere, but it took us a week just to see the first bananas! There is nothing such a shop that sells everything. To get bread you need to go somewhere, then for fruit and veg (=bananas, papaya, tomatoes and cucumber) to the market, then there are the State run shops whose shelves are empty, and finally the Panamericana or Caribe shops where you can potentially find some stuff at random, like milk, maybe yogurt, some can of random staff, sometimes jam; or you can wait for the man going around selling whatever he has, from bread, to peanuts, crackers, bananas. Cubans seem to live on bread with cheese and ham, cakes and street pizzas. As a result, we noticed that outside La Habana and the mainly rural Oriente, you see loads of overweight people who have free health system but not the slightest nutritional education and turn diabetic at 30. We still have a big question mark about food distribution in Cuba and how it will cope in the future.The economic monoculture, sugar and lack of industrialization during the Soviet Bloc condemned Cuba to be an island dedicated to tourism and services, and from our viewpoint it's just not working. Hopefully the new chapter that will begin after Raul in 2018 will give some opportunity to economical development, political opening and more freedom, but we will not go back there to find it out.

If you stay in a casa you will get a big breakfast (usully 5CUC per person) based on juice, fruit, coffee, bread and eggs. Some casa offers dinners too (mainly rice and chicken or fish), if you beg for veg they may put some effort in finding some.