Bicycle Touring in Cuba

During December '95 and January '96, while many Americans were contending with an epoch winter, a rebel band skulked out of the U.S. and flew to Cuba with our bicycles for a three week self-contained loaded tour of the forbidden (for U.S citizens), and magical Island.

Cristopher Columbus describing Cuba wrote that he "had never seen anything so beautiful"; the land was the "most lovely that eyes have ever seen, " the "air all night was scented and sweet, an neither cold nor hot." "Everything that I saw was so lovely that my eyes could not weary of beholding such beauty, nor could I weary of the songs of the birds large and small."

We took no guide book and did not have an itinerary in mind when we arrived in Havana. We just did what felt right, which I think was a good decision. We avoided Varadero, Cuba's principle tourist destination resort, believing that one beach resort town anywhere in the world is much like another (i.e., filled with insipid tourists). We never spent a night in a hotel, so I can't tell you what they are like.

This turned out to be a good plan. To be a successful shoestring traveler in the developing world, one needs to be flexible. My experience traveling in the Third World has been that I often spend much of my time overcoming obstacles. Travel in Cuba was so easy that it needs to be put into a special category.

We have a ten year old son who has been touring with us since he was two, and now stokes on the back of an Ibis tandem. For some reason, people respond in a friendly manner to child stokers. This was especially true in Cuba. We were often treated as though we were celebrities. Bicycle tourists are still a rare sight.

You'll have little trouble in Cuba, especially if you have some Spanish language skills.

The road conditions are generally good, the traffic is light, to extremely light, which certainly enhanced the experience of riding. Cuba has embraced the bicycle in a big way, people on bicyles will be seen everywhere.

You will quickly realize that Cubans are well educated, enormously friendly, hospitable, and caring people, to an almost unbelievable degree. I quickly run out of superlatives when thinking about Cubans, they are really extra-ordinary.

> Here are some questions: > > (i) what maps did you use?

I have a 1:1,250,000 from Cartographia in Budapest.

> (ii) how available is lodging and foodstuffs outside of tourist regions?

Well, Cuba is not the constant food-fest of a country that Thailand is, but recently farmer's markets, street food-stalls, family restaurants called "paladares", and rooms in private homes, have come into existence all over the country, . This recent phenomenon makes it quite easy to stay supplied with food and lodging. Additionally, dollar stores called "shoping" (pronounced showPing) where domestic and imported products can be purchased with dollars, can be found in tourist towns and tourist hotels.

On arriving in a town of any size, you will be approached and asked if you need a place to stay. These hustlers will then lead you to a private home. I am sure that any seasoned travler has had many experiences with these hustlers. One thing to note, is that they collect up to 50% commission for leading you to a home. Rooms in private homes range from $10 - $20 dollars. An approach to finding a room that worked for us, was to first go to a paladar and eat something, then to ask the paladar operator to recommend a place to stay. This avoids having to deal with the street hustlers.

Many (most?) of the paladares and private homes have no signs, but just ask any Cuban in the street where one is and they will probably know. The neighborhood-information networks are really incredible. To some extent it is accurate to say that all Cubans are part of one big family. You can literally walk up to any door, knock, and ask about a place to stay or eat. You will either be given directions, or invited in on the spot!

There are two economies that exist side-by-side in Cuba, the peso economy and the dollar economy. One Cuban told me that in Cuba capitalism exists within socialism, and neither works very well. All cubans receive a "quota" of food in addition to a salary, neither of which is very large. Many families go outside the normal food distribution system to the black market or dollar stores to supplement their quotas. This means that there is a very active but hidden market for many items. If you need something, just ask, the locals probably know where to get it.

If you eat in a dollar paladar, you will spend about $4-$5 per person, in a peso paladar about 25-30 pesos (exchange rate 25 pesos/USD$1). Big difference in price. Guess which we prefer?

In the street stalls, small cheese pizzas are good and cheap (5 pesos) as are "batidos" milkshakes. Look for Coppelia ice cream in unlikely places. If you drink, beer and cokes are dear, but rum in the street (25 pesos/litre or 1 peso shot is cheap.)

> (iii) any safety concerns? I was once held up at knifepoint by four guys on a lonely road in southern Portugal, and this has left me rather cautious. I know this sort of thing could happen anywhere, but I like to be safe;

In our experience, Cuba is about as safe a country as you're likely to travel in. Bicycle theft in Havana is said to be rampant, but I am not sure if it is. Let me elaborate: until the introduction of the dollar and tourism in the last couple of years, Cuba was fairly crime free. The current economic crisis and the scramble for dollars is creating a rise in crime, but it is in my perception, still a minor concern compared with other developing countries, or the U.S.

We camped out about 1/3 of the time, in a town park, on a public beach, on a remote beach, in a campesino's yard, in an orange grove, in a pine forest, and under a rural bus stop in the rain. Never a hint of trouble. Cuban's would always warn and discourage us from camping out the way we did, saying that we ran the risk of assault and robbery. When we asked how often tourists are assaulted and robbed in the particular place, they always answered that it had never happened, but that you have to be careful. To Cubans, the odd isolated incident adds up to a crime wave.

In Havana, people that you room with, or paladar operators, will generally insist that you bring your bikes inside the building for security. Also in larger towns, there are "parqueos" where bikes may be reliably stored.

The grumblings of discontent about shortages, are hugely overshadowed by the character of the Cuban people. There is a sense of community, a love of children, racial harmony and integration among Cubans, a spirit of shared destiny, and a love of country that is unknown in the U.S. It is exciting to know that such a place exists, it is so close to us, the possibilities are exciting to contemplate.

> (iv) I'm a Canadian, but we get accustomed to being mistaken for Americans. Is there an anti-US animus amongst the general folk?

Well, there are so few American independent travelers in Cuba, that we were only once identified as Americans by people trying to guess our nationality. On the other hand, it's easy to be mistaken for a Canadian :-) . Once our identity was known, people would smile curiously at us. Most have never talked to, or seen an "American". They have an amazing fascination with the U.S. (they watch Hollywood movies on TV almost nightly). Incredible as it seems considering the draconian U.S. foreign policy position on Cuba, we were never shown anything but the warmest acceptance by Cubans. Remember that there are something like two million (?) Cubans living in the U.S., many are doing quite well. Most Cubans either have or know someone who has relatives outside of Cuba. So in general, they have quite distinct impressions of the U.S. Many would like to come here, many are very happy to stay (but that's a discussion for a different thread). >

(v) where did you travel, and where would you recommend?

We rode for three weeks, which was not enough for us, we did not want to come home. Our trip was two loops.

From Havana we rode to Matanzas (the city) along the coast road which stays very close to that azure Caribbean sea. It is just over 100km, and on the particular day that we rode it, there was a _very_ strong tailwind. Loaded tandems are not usually the fastest bicycles, but the wind "pushed" us down the road so quickly that it felt as if we were flying. San Miguel de los Baños (where we camped in the beautiful garden of the now closed resort) is a small town in a beautiful little green valley studded with palms and bananas, Jaguey Grande(a citrus growing region where we camped in an orchard and stuffed ourselves on fuit while riding here), Playa Larga(camped on the public beach), Playa Giron (no paladar but a wonderful if expensive $10 buffet lunch in the tourist hotel. Camped on a remote beach), Cienfuegos (nice city), Trinidad (nice architecture but too touristy), Topes de Collante (a very steep and rewarding climb which the locals said could not be done on loaded bikes, they were wrong. It seems that everyone in the country knows this road, and were impressed when they discovered that we had ridden up it. Camped under a bus stop in the pouring rain. Nice tropical forest on the backside descent.), Santa Clara. We put our bikes on a private car for the trip back to Havana.

Loop two: Havana, Pinar del Rio, Viñales (a beautiful garden spot of a town) , Bahia Honda, Havana. We put our bikes on trucks on some legs of this loop because we were short on time. I like the road along the northern coast as opposed to the central highway. I liked both loops and would recommend them. I would have loved to travel in the Oriente but time did not allow it. The Oriente is said to be less developed and more mountainous, which is really more our style. Perhaps we should have started in the eastern side and headed west. But we were so anxious to get on our bikes and ride. We are definitely returning to Cuba for another tour.

On the second to the last day out, and about 100 miles from Havana, the upper pulley fell from the rear derailuer cage on the tandem. fell off on a fast down hill. Carefully looking for the pulley walking back up the hill failed to turn it up. We hitch hiked back to Havana on the top loaded truck.

> (vi) is it possible to put a bike on a bus to head out to, say, the east end of the island and then cycle back towards Havana?

There is a train to Santiago, slow (14 hours), but you may have better luck getting your bikes on it than the bus. For the bus, you may need to book a couple days in advance, and be sure to tell them that you have bicycles. You could also fly.

Public transportation in Cuba is _very_ tight because of the lack of fuel. But, it is easy to get rides if you have dollars. We never took a bus or train. In Santa Clara we easily hired a car with a roof rack, at a paladar to take us to Havana for $60. In Pinar del Rio province we stood on the road and hitch hiked with trucks (hold up a few dollars to receive quick attention).

On the outskirts of each town is a bus stop. Most empty public vehicles (including most trucks) have the obligation to take passengers. so you'll see trucks and farm tractors pulling trailers filled with passengers. While we could have used these bus stops, we decided not to, preferring to give the space our bikes would take, to the people. Instead, we pedaled a few kilometers from town and hitch hiked on trucks carrying a load somewhere. Remember that these drivers earn less than $10 month, so be generous.

Happy Trails,

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