Cuba w/John on bikes
During Apr 5 through Apr 19, 2005 John and I took a bicycling
trip to Cuba, here are our trip notes, along with some
pictures.
Apr 5 - Leave all my toiletries on the bathroom counter as we
merrily say goodbye to everyone. Long 9 hour drive to Vancouver - 2
stops at Harbor Freight Tools. Walk around Richmond, BC before
settling down and crashing. John has a few fever and chill spells
but he's on the mend.
Apr 6 - 4:30 AM comes early - van to the airport and jump on the
on-time plane to Varadaro. Three Czechoslovakian women next to us
on the plane. Herded into the bar/shopping/cambio area, change some
money. One hour flight to Holguin. Hard disk problem at customs,
they tell me I can't bring it into the country because it's made in
the USA. I show them the "Made in China" label, they say "okay".
They didn't notice the two laptop computers. Assemble the bikes
with minimal help and ride in the dark to town. After a couple of
wrong turns, find Miriams. Edlesis is there and husband Carlos
shows up later. Edlesis is pregnant and due in August. Carlos is a
great guy, reminds me a little bit of Nino. He runs a show repair
shop out of his house. Give him the awl, velcro tape and polish we
brought, he's very happy. Crash at 12 midnight after a long
day.
Apr 7 - John has no fever but a sore throat. Miriam cooks a big
breakfast for us. Hang out - Nino shows up with Elaine, give them
one laptop for Susal, they like it. Try to show them music CD's but
the audio driver needs to be re-installed. Get that done and it
works. Ride bikes over to Loma de Crux, meet Pastor Haviar (7th day
Adventist) and nervous buddy, Omar. Run into Omar's English teacher
Sobrina. Go with her to the 3-4 year old ballet school and watch
the ballet show - it was sweet. Meet Havier's mom and have orange
wine. Stop by at Jose's house and check out his computer. Talk for
awhile and head back to Miriams for chicken, rice and bean feast.
Everyone shows up, including Jose, 93 year old grandma and Downs
daughter with fever and bronchitis.
from Miriam's roof
from Miriam's roof
Apr 7 - Up at 6AM, find Miriam on the couch, we had a feeling there
wasn't room for all of us. Shower in the new bathroom and hit the
road toward the airport and get water. The tail wind is really
nice, it pushes us at 30 km/hr nonstop, hardly have to pedal. Stop
in Cauto Cristo at market and talk with locals, one of which
(Havier) invites us to his house out near the edge of town. Pigs
and chickens and rough "car wheel" bathroom facilities. He wants us
to stay to eat but we escape back to town and meet Carlos the
English teacher and "eat shit" (Cuban for "chewing the fat") with
him for four hours. Buy him a Crystal Beer. Head out of town at
5:30 PM to avoid the intense sun. Go the 30 km to Bayamo. After a
few false starts, find Jesus, casa particular near the train
station. Have lobster, rice, and beans, potatoes, cucumber,
tomatoes. Really good. Walk around town for a bit - what a nice
town! Lots of no-autos-allowed streets. Lots of restaurant and
shops but we're dead tired so head back and crash.
school en route to Cauto Cristo
school en route to Cauto Cristo
kids en route to Cauto Cristo
kids en route to Cauto Cristo
John, Carlos, Rick in Cauto Cristo
Carlos, Rick, Havier in Cauto Cristo
kids outside dollar store in Cauto Cristo
Apr 8 - (NOTE: there are no more pictures, we never found a shop
that sold film that works in John's camera) A knock on the door at
5:15 so we can make the 6:20 train to Yara. The train rocks and
rolls like an amusement ride. I'm laughing my head off, John seems
a bit worried. At one point is really seems as if the train is
going to derail. Eat cookies and pizza and a fried sweet thing in
Yara, which turns out to be a really pretty town with tree lined
streets and a big park with a girls dance contest in progress. Have
a really relaxing ride to Manzanillo and find a great casa but it's
full. Eugene, who speaks pretty good English takes us to another
one that we stay at. It's run by Wilfredo and his wife. This is a
big guy who tip toes around the house like a gentle giant. Go
swimming at a small beach (playita) and have some beers with
Eugene, getting serenaded by some really good Cuban musicians and
their school group. Wilfredo's wife cooks us some really good fish
for dinner along with guiaba pudding. After dinner John relaxes
while I take a walk and meet two gay radiologist students and then
run into Eugene just before coming home.
Apr 9 - Eggs and fruit for breakfast. Cruise town, John gets a
massive haircut and shave. It rains a bit, John goes running while
I ride in search of beaches. Go way past Playita to Ciudad
Pesquera, got way too much sun. Run into Eugene and his friend,
play some frisbee with them. Meet John and decide to go biking but
change my mind after the sun comes out and I realize how red I
already am. Hang out at Wilfredo's. Have fish steak dinner and
watch the sun set from the roof. Head to the plaza and hang out
with scammers Moro and Jesus. Run into Eugene and friend with their
girls, they are all dressed up and look like a double date. Go to a
Tropicana-like show with Moro and Jesus, John likens them the
burlesque. Go back to the square, there are tons of people hanging
out drinking rum. Jesus hits up John for $ before we head back
home.
Apr 10 - 5:30 AM Say goodbye to Wilfredo. Moro's outside with a
written sob story about needing $20 for his grandson. I read the
first sentence and tell him "no intiendo" and we skate out of town
with a bad taste in our mouths. Have a really nice ride to
Media-Luna. An old bi-plane passes over us on the way. We find a
pretty dumpy "cabanas" on the sea. It's only $5 but includes all
the bugs you can eat. We decide to take it. Later find that our
dump has no water and a really smelly bathroom that John abhors. Oh
well, we are in the third world ;-) But it does have A/C. Head
downtown and hang out in the lobby of the local hotel and watch
baseball on TV, Santiago beat Havana. Go back to our cabana and go
for a swim and see an absolutely perfect sunset while standing in
the ocean. We both take a "shower" using one bucket of water. Go
back to town and catch the last two songs of a crank organ playing
music with drums.
Apr 11 - Get an early start to Pilon. Great ride on flat surface
until about 10km before Pilon. Awesome hill at the end, we get up
to 60 km/hr. Meet English student at dollar store, then go into
town. Hang out in the park for a long time. Have fried bread and
and interesting "fudge" called "matrimonios". Eat at restaurant and
have port, rice. Pay to go to the bano. Stop in at the library but
it's really hot. I'm getting hot flashes so go down to the youth
computer club and talk Linux to them in A/C room with six students.
Realize that I reek because we've been biking in 40 degree C heat.
I'm sure everyone smells me. Finally get Knoppix to boot but when I
show them how to install it, it bombs. I've seen this error before
but I can't remember what causes it. Meet the director just as I
leave the place. Walk around the museum grounds because the museum
itself is closed for restorations. After sun goes down enough, ride
to Punta Peidra and get a nice room, everything works, including
hot water! John eats and I have a beer in the dining area, the
waitress is somewhat rude. Hang out outside our room and look at
the stars and listen to the waves.
Apr 12 - Say adios to the security guards and have a somewhat hilly
ride toward Las Crusas. On the way stope and get some loads of
water for a ladies 55 gallon drum while she cooks us some
"frituras". Arrive at Pico Turquino National Park HQ and ask the
guy if we can leave today for the hike up. He says it's not
possible so we wait. All of a sudden Ideites, a guide, shows up and
we are on our way. It's a long haul up 6300 feet and we are soon
soaked with sweat. The plants change and it gets very lush and
tropical. Arrive at Pico de Cuba hut in good time and chill out.
John crashes. He gets up and we both look at the stars for awhile.
Hut manager watches baseball game until midnight, Santiago beats
Havana again.
Apr 13 - My birthday today, I'm 53. Decide not to hike up to Pico
Turquino, it's really cloudy and we need to bike a lot today when
we finally get down. Head down the mountain, run into lots of
university students and workers going up and at the HQ when we get
down. Talk with them a bit and head out in the blistering heat.
Make lots of stops before hitching on a truck. When it's moving
it's great but he's making lots of stops, mostly at peso stores to
pick up empty Vietnam rice sacks. Get off in Rio Grande and bike
the rest of the way to Chivirico. I feel really a bad stomach ache
coming on, probably from the liter of water I drank from the
woman's hut 900 meters up Pico de Cuba. John heads off and looks
for a hotel or casa. Find a $94 upscale hotel up a hill and an
unlicensed $15 casa. Hit the casa, I lay down. He runs around town.
Three ladies live here with a son. Get cleaned up. Give son, Jose,
a Linux CD. He works at a computer club but makes most of his money
on tips at a resort as a waiter. Lay around the rest of the day, I
didn't eat from noon on.
Apr 14 - Stay in bed most of the day. My heart rate is at 91, way
high for me. Walk over to hospital and get my temp checked - it's
normal, 37 degrees C. The walk drains me. Sleep most of the day.
One piece of bread and 3 Oreo cookies the whole day.
Apr 15 - 7 AM Try getting a cab to Santiago, I'm not into riding
just yet - nothing. Tell John to go ahead on his bike and ride, we
plan to meet at a casa in Santiago de Cuba. I'm feeling a bit
better, keep looking for a ride some more. Finally throw in the
towel and start riding towards Santiago de Cuba. It's cloudy so
great riding, not very hot yet. Meet two Canadians on bikes who
have seen John about 30 minutes ago. Stop and get some oranges. Go
about 30 km but it's sunny now so stop at a shelter beside a beach
house where a family is vacationing, they saw John about 20 minutes
ago. Keep riding, it's getting hot. Stop at a roadside "fritura"
spot when a 48 Mercury taxi pulls up. Ask him if he can take me to
Santiago de Cuba but he says he doesn't have room for my bike. He
drives off, gets about 30 feet and stops. We strap the bike to the
back fender of the taxi that has a Soviet diesel engine
transplanted in it and the nine of us take off. I'm in the front
middle checking out the heavily modified interior of the vehicle,
overhead stereo playing Puerto Rican music. We go about 20 km and I
see John and tell the driver. He honks, John waves. The driver
stops a very short distance after to let someone off so I get off
and wait a minute for John to arrive. Have a soda with him and
finish the ride to Santiago de Cuba. Find the casa that was
recommended in Manzanillo, it's run by Luis. It's awesome, this guy
has done so much work to his house. Walk into town and change money
and talk with people. John has dinner while I have half a pizza.
Have a warm beer with wild-hair guy with Brazilian shirt and his
rum drinking friend. They try, unsuccessfully, to get us to try
some of their "good stuff". Go back to our casa and help Luis
sidewalk supervise workers doing some outside iron work for him. At
night, I walk to check out the main square. The buildings are
awesome here, a church dating from 1522! Listen to music beaming
down from an open air second story restaurant. Sit and people watch
in the square.
Apr 16 - Do the walking tour of Santiago de Cuba, come back to a
great omelette breakfast made by Luis. Ride out to botanical
garden, a fantastic collection of native Cuban ferns, also some
orchids and other plants, some sporting frogs. Duck under some
trees at a post office to avoid the rain. Walk to the carnival
museum which chronicles Santiago de Cuba's Mardi-gras-like
celebration in July. Luis cooks up a huge feast.
Apr 17 - Still having some stomach trouble, go on a bread diet. Say
goodbye to Luis and bike to the bus station. Get on a "bougoise
bus" to Holguin, chat with a Melbourne, AUS couple going to Spirito
Santo. He's reading a Michael Moore book. The bus stops at the
Pernik in Holguin, we bike up the fairly busy Holguin -
Guardalavaca road to Rafael Freyre. This town seems just as I
remember it - kind of cute and quaint for a Cuban town. Head up to
Don Lino, it's expensive at $33 with no running water so we head
over to Playa Blanca but no willing casa's. So we head back to Don
Lino and take it. We're next to a couple of very stout Germans with
a tiny Hundai rental. Take a dip in the cool sea, the wind makes it
even cooler when you get out of the water. We must be getting used
to the hot weather to think this is cool! Dry off and walk over to
the west to try to see a sunset but it's blocked by land and maybe
clouds. Have a shot of rum, my first ever in Cuba.
Apr 18 - John runs while I talk with Jose. Take a dip in the ocean
before packing up and heading down to Rafael Freyre. Pizza and
cookies, John gets a shave, I ride around town and get sun burned.
Check out the old sugar mill twice, the security guard won't let me
wander too far in both times. Check out the mills big house and a
local tells me there is an illegal casa particular in town. The
casa guy speaks four languages and goes to Europe every year to
work, amazing. Wander down to the caberet and have a couple of 6
peso beers with the local kids, then check out an American comedy
film at the youth cinema (TV).
Apr 19 - Say goodbye to four language host and his mom and ride out
of town on this very rain soaked morning. Rains on and off as we
pass through Fray Benito and Portilillo. Get to boat dock for
Gibara but there are already 9-10 people waiting. Raining on and
off. Give a woman my Bachelor Ski Resort rain poncho (actually it's
more like a plastic sleeveless T-shirt). John wonders how many
people will recognize it. We don't make it on the first boat, wait
another 2 hours for the 2nd one. Pretty rough seas, John looks
worried. It's raining when we get to Gibara, lots of people in the
street attending "Cine Pobre" (low budget film festival). John
looks for food but the fish sandwich just doesn't cut it. Head for
Holguin, a few hills and not too much traffic. Search for my barber
and painter that live a few blocks from Miriam. Finally find the
painter, but the barber is in Havana. Go through his huge
collection of stuff and buy some. Wait for neighbor barber to
finish but he takes too long. No haircut in Cuba for me this time!
Go to Miriams and strip bikes, take a shower and eat a delicious
meal that Miriam prepares. Give other laptop to Edelsis. Yami shows
up at just as we walk out to the taxi. Say hello/goodbye to Yami
and everyone. Jump in the taxi and we're off. When we get to the
airport he wants $10 even though Edelsis called ahead and got a $7
price. Look for chocolate bar from Baracoa in airport gift shop
that Sandy told me about but they are out of them.