Monday January 5, 2015

A very early start this morning.With a combination of maps, we had worked out that our distance would be about 90 ks. We asked for an early breakfast and we were on the road by 7:00am. It had just got light and was still nice and cool. We had been told by the lady in the InfoTur office that there was a new road and to take it towards Havana. We found that road quite easily and followed a very straight, well paved, flat road for 34kms. At the turn to Playa Giron the sign indicated it was 37kms to Playa Giron. The new road had cut 21kms from our route – yippee. Or so we thought, not quite although the sign said 37kms it was actually 45kms. Even so the new road did knock 11kms off what we thought we were going to have to cycle today. It is always nice to do less than you think you have to as opposed to doing more which is often the case in Cuba.

The route was quite nice for the most part. We cycled through an area of intensive farming. We figured that most of the food produced in this area would be for Havana.

We made good time to Playa Giron and arrived at just after 11:00 am. There was no road sign to indicate we had arrived in Playa Giron only a proliferation of casas. We went to the casa the InfoTur lady had recommended. Unfortunately she was full but showed us to another casa down the road. Our room is small but has windows with screens, we may actually get some fresh air into the room tonight and not have to have a noisy air-conditioning unit on all night.

The casa has an animal in a cage in the garden. It is called a Jutia it is pronounced hutia. It looks like a big groundhog, with teeth like a beaver and a long rat like tail. This thing apparently is good to eat! We are having fish tonight!

Our afternoon of exploration showed Playa Giron to be a bit of a ghost town. There is a beach, an all inclusive hotel, a small commercial centre next to the hotel and a couple of other restaurants. We tried to get food at the beach bar, no cheese therefore no sandwiches or pizzas or spaghetti. We walked through the hotel to the small commercial area. Again no cheese. We had a fried chicken legs with rice for lunch, that was just about it on the menu, they did have pork. The exchange office had no money only Cuban pesos. Once again the very poor excuse of – this is Cuba, is wearing a little thin.

This is a dead town. The fella at the beach bar explained that there had been no rebuilding after the hurricane and they expected more tourists to come to this area, but they never came. The only reason to come to this area is to see the Bay of Pigs, a military museum and the Zapata Swamp, an area of exceptional beauty (according to the tourist office). We will see that tomorrow.

We were going to have two lazy days following today (35 kms each day), but it looks as though we may have to push on tomorrow to Jagua Grande as there is no bank in Playa Larga and we need money.

Sunday January 4, 2015

A lovely rest day exploring Cienfuegos. Yesterday we had explored the downtown boulevard and Jose Marti Square, which Ralf refers to as Joe Marti. Today we walked down Avenida 37 to Punta Gorda. It was a lovely relaxing walk although it did get very hot. At one point I thought I was melting, I was perspiring so much.

The main purpose of the walk was to find the Sculpture Park. The sculptures were made by 17 artists from different generations and different parts of the country, using different materials. It was nice to see that each sculpture had a plaque that had the name of the piece, the artist and the year it was created.

Before the sculpture park we passed the Azul Palacio (Blue Palace), which is now a hotel. The blue palace has seven rooms, I am guessing there is no place to store our bikes, so I don’t think we will stay there.

The Blue Palace is located next to what was the Yacht Club of Cienfuegos. The renamed Club Cienfuegos houses a bar and amusement park.

We noticed a large catamaran with GAdventures on its sail, by the small dock and I asked where it was heading for. It was waiting for its guests to arrive and then was going to sail to Cayo Largo (Cuba), stopping for diving, snorkeling, and fishing along the Cays of the Cayo Largo area. Their guests were primarily from Canada and would be on board for a week. That sounded like a nice weeks vacation, except what happens if you don’t like your fellow guests, you have no way of escaping them.GAdventures is a Canadian company which we used when we cycled Cuba with an organized tour a few years ago.

After the sculpture park we carried on walking down towards the end of the road and the Punta Gorda area. This area is a peninsula which was a very well to do area before the revolution, it became mainly a summer area for many people. Large houses with a view of the sea from both sides of the houses.

We arrived at the Palacio de Valle almost by accident. Eleana our casa host had told us about this place, but with our limited Spanish did not know exactly where it was. It looks like a Moorish/Moroccan influenced house. It was finished in 1917 at a cost of one and a half million pesos. You pay 2 CUC per person to enter the building and a drink on the terrassa is included in the entrance fee.

Our final walk was to the very end of the Punta Gorda peninsula. It must have been a very grand area in its day. Most of the houses are now casa particulars. This one house is empty, I wondered what the price of it would be and how you could renovate it to its original glory.

We treated ourselves to a bicycle taxi back to Joe Marti Square. I felt a little guilty at making the poor guy pedal for us, but we were hot and tired.

We had lunch at the same restaurant as yesterday and chatted to an American who had a yacht in the harbor. Rich had stopped working about nine years ago and had been sailing the Caribbean since then. His plan was to head across the Atlantic next year to the Mediterranean. We talked about Schengen and he will encounter the same problem as Ralf did. We told him that Turkey, Cyprus and the UK is not part of Schengen. This might help him a little with his planning. Rich was a really nice guy and very interesting to talk to. We chatted about Cuba and the changes that we have noticed, but also what might happen with improved relations with the US. We agreed that there were going to be many changes some good and some bad over the next few years. We also chatted about the differences between our trip and his trip. A lot more things to go wrong on a boat than on a bicycle.

After lunch I updated the blog and Ralf went on the hunt for water. Most of the stores were closed, but my hunter/gather managed to get a 5litre bottle before the store closed.

Saturday January 3, 2014

We were on the road at 7:30 am and we had a great tail wind for the first 50 kms. The route took us along the coast for quite a while and we had the mountains to our right.

The road was quite good although a little narrow in areas. There were some nice bays and one had a lovely hotel complex which if I had known about it would have been a nice place to stay.

We met a couple from England who were battling the head wind. We stopped and had a chat. They were riding a tandem because she has MS and it is the only way they can still enjoy cycling together. What an amazing lady to be able to continue cycling. She did say that her husband did most of the work and she sat back and enjoyed the scenery. At least she was still out there trying her best, with such a debilitating disease. What an inspiration.

She warned us of hills to come, but at least we had the tail wind. The hills weren’t too bad until we made the left turn towards Rancho Luna and Cienfuegos. We weren’t sure if we should follow the directional sign or continue on the carretera. We asked a policeman standing at the corner and he pointed us to the left turn. The road turned to hell after we had made the turn and the hills were decidedly more up than down. We couldn’t take advantage of the downs because the road surface was so bad. At one point both Ralf and I thought we should have stayed on the carretera, but by that time it was too late to turn back. We carried on and eventually made another right turn onto a better road which brought us into Cienfuegos closer to the downtown than if we had come via the carretera.

Cienfuegos was founded by a French man (Don Luis de Clouet) and as such the city was laid out in a grid pattern. The Avenues are numbered – even street number go north to south and odd numbers go east to west. The Avenues are straight and it is really easy to find your way around.

We quickly found the casa that Oscar (from Moron) had recommended to us. Unfortunately, she was full and called another casa down the street. While we were waiting for the other casa owner to come to take us to his casa, the first owner gave us a very welcome glass of ice cold papaya juice.

Eleana and Chichi’s casa was only one block away from the other casa and is very nice. It is only five blocks from the main Avenue and the Boulevard. We explored the city briefly this afternoon, finding the Boulevard and the Main Square. There are some beautiful buildings surrounding the main square that are neoclassical as opposed to having a Spanish influence.

This city is very nice in the fact that the sidewalks are wide and the Boulevard is free from traffic.

Cienfuegos also has a big enough harbor that a cruise ship can park here. There was moored their and lots of people milling around the downtown core.

Although we have only just had two rest days in Trinidad, we are taking an extra rest day here because there is so much to see. We are only 255 kms away from Havana, which is about 5 days riding. We still have plenty of things to see so we can take it easy getting back to Havana.

We had a lovely meal in the casa, Eleana said she was a good cook and she definitely is. After dinner we went for a walk down the Avenue, (Cuba’s version of the Champs d’Elisée which was very nice. Then back to the casa to read and an early night.

January 2, 2015 Trinidad Rest Day for Me – Ride for Ralf

I got up with Ralf and had breakfast with him, then I went back to the casa and packed up my panniers and bike and moved it over to Vera’s casa. I went out to update the blog and search for cheap bottles of water. In Trinidad there is a price for tourists and a price for residents. The smaller bottles should be 0.45 cents, for tourists they are 1 CUC. The big bottles should be .70 cents for tourists they are 1.50 CUC. The big bottles are not to be found. I went in several shops and eventually found a small Cuban shop which had a case of the small bottles. I asked how much for the case, he said it was for Cubans and told me where to find a shop to buy the water. I explained to him that there was one price for Cubans and one price for Tourists. He said no the price of the small bottles should be 0.45. I assured him that there were different prices for tourists and Cubans, but only in Trinidad, nowhere else in Cuba had I paid more than 0.45 cents. His colleague went outside, looked up and down the street and came back and nodded. Very quickly I had a case of water put in my bag and I paid the Cuban price. He should not have sold me the water as I was in a store for Cubans, which is why he checked the street to make sure there was no police around.

Ralf’s blog for his ride

Up at 0645 to pack panniers, and take them over to Vera’s Casa, breakfast at 0730. On the road by 0825, and the temperature is already 24 degrees. I would have preferred to be on the road by 0730, but with staying at one Casa and eating at another, it had to do. Leaving Trinidad I made one wrong turn, stopped, and asked a cop for directions, who set me straight. There was 800 meters extra I didn’t want on a 44 kilometer hilly day.

I knew it was going to be a 21 k ride up hill from the turn off from the Central Carretera, with lots of switch backs, tight turns and narrow road. I also knew that it was going to be a steep ride, 900 metresof climbing! I didn’t know that the first 7 k’s were at 14 to 16 degrees, on average.

I passed the spot that Jacky and I turned around at seven years ago, so far so good. But, another few minutes along, I had to get off, take a breath and walked a bit. At the 7 k mark there is a Mirador (look out point), the elevation was 578 meters, and I was 1 hour and 15 minutes into the ride.

I stopped had a cold drink ate some bananas and let a tarantula walk on my hand. It’s just what you do, right!

At the top of the Mirador I met up with some Canadians from Orillia, just up the road from Barrie. They had both been to Cuba many times, but like Jacky and I visited different areas each time. He cycled around Orillia, but, wasn’t too sure about what I was doing. A French couple also wondered what I was doing, so the Grand Adventure story gets told. The French couple were from Provence and living in Quebec for two years, working, but also travelling through out Canada.

Some people take excursions to get here. They use 5 ton trucks.

Time to get moving, out of the parking area and hurtled into the next valley, -14 degrees descent. That’s all well and good, but I have to come back this way. That’s always the problem for me, the out and back rides, because you see what it’s going to be like on your return.

Two more valleys, but, this time the road surface has changed from paved to pouredconcrete with chip rock and it was ribbed, so the trucks and cars can get better traction when the road is wet. The ride up and down the valley wasn’t that bad, on average it was an 8 degrees ride for the next 9 kilometers.

It took me two hours to reach Topes De Collantes, elevation 787metres, with 938 meters of climbing over a 21 k distance. I spent some time at the top, bought more water, now comes the pay off.

Not so fast! The chiprock, the switch backs and the uneven road surface would make sure I did a controlled descent until I reached the Mirador, OK no more than 30 k’s an hour. When I passed the Mirador and was riding on pavement, all I had to watch for was switch backs, max speed 62 k’s.

As I said earlier, two hours to get to the top (Ev 787, 938 meters of climbing, avg: 14/16 degrees). Coming down, however only took 48 minutes. So I’m an adrenaline junky, what can I say. It was a great finish to an otherwise hard ride. Total climbing 1275 meters.

Back to Me

Once Ralf had got back safe and sound we went to eat and had a relaxing afternoon in Vera’s casa. The bedroom has a modern air conditioning unit and is lovely and cool and quiet.

We planned our route out of Trinidad and had an early night.

January 1, 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

A late breakfast (9:00), we had bought some cereal to eat at the casa and we had fruit and coffee to go with it. It makes a nice change from eggs all the time. Ralf has worked out that by the time we leave Cuba we would have eaten almost 160 eggs each in three months. We don’t eat that many eggs in a year when we are in Canada!

We wandered around the downtown again and climbed up the bell tower.

The building houses a museum and of course you climb the tower to see the surrounding area. The museum depicted the history of the revolution in this area. The University students in Havana were trained as the militia and were trained in the hills surrounding Trinidad and the Sierra Maestras closer to the Santiago de Cuba.

Trinidad is the most expensive City we have been to in Cuba. Bottles of water are twice as expensive here than anywhere else in Cuba! Our lunch cost us CUC 21.00, 2 sandwiches, two cappuccino coffees and 2 sodas! The 10% gratuity was added on, this is the first time that it has ever happened in Cuba.

We are eating in the casa again tonight.

We went on the search for some bottled water and bumped into the two Canadians from Yellowknife. We chatted to them for about an hour and then headed back to the casa.

Tomorrow Ralf is going to cycle to Topes de Collantes. Last time we were in Trinidad (eight years ago) we brought mountain bikes with us from Canadian Tire. We attempted the ride to Topes Collantesback then, but were not prepared. We started late, we didn’t have sufficient water and had no idea how far the ride was. We had decided that we were not going to let the hill beat us and we would ride to the top (unloaded).I was going to do it, but then decided that I really didn’t want to cycle 21 ks up a very steep hill with 900 metres of climbing just to say I had done it. Especially as we have a long ride to Cienfuegos ahead of us.

Wednesday December 31, 2014

As we left Sancti Spiritus we noticed this Giant Fish, not sure why as the town is not near the sea.

What an excellent ride today. Some hills but easily managed with some great rollers that by peddling hard down hill we could get up the other side without so much of a change of gears, loved it.

The road surface was good for the most part which also helped when zooming down the hills and “coasting” up the other side. My top speed was 52 kph which I thinkis the fastest I have allowed myself to go in Cuba.

Within the first 20 kms we met up with another Canadian couple from Yellowknife. We chatted to them for a while, they were going to be in Trinidad tonight but I think it would have taken them a bit longer to get here than it did us. She said she wasn’t very good on the hills, we didn’t tell her, she had quite a few hills to climb today.

I did worry about her a bit today, as there is nothing worse than having to struggle up hills and in the heat of the day. It was overcast to start of with, but the temperature reached 30 degrees by about 11:00 and it is tough to cycle hills in the heat.

The scenery once again was lovely we passed this pig farm which surprisingly had lot of pigs in it.

There was one long steep hill to climb before arriving in Trinidad.  The view from the top was very nice and looked down over the valley.

We arrived at the casa that Maria from Havana had recommended to us. We had reserved when we were in Guaimaro, but when we got to her place she didn’t have room in her casa but took her to her brother’s casa up the street. She insisted we have dinner with her and her family tonight, which we really looked forward to. She showed me the leg of pork we are going to have and asked if I thought it was going to be big enough! It was huge. New Year’s eve shared with a Cuban family. Consequently we ate dinner much later than usual at 8:00 pm.

As usual after our shower, we walked into the historic centre. Trinidad is also celebrating 500 years and is a Spanish Colonial City. In the historic centre all of the streets are cobbled streets. We are staying about one block away from the start of the cobbled streets, I am pleased about that because in my opinion there is nothing worse than cycling on cobbled streets.

We had lunch at a quiet little restaurant just off the main tourist streets. The two children in the casa came to join us while we were waiting for our meal of spaghetti. This little girl sang to us, what she lacked in tone she made up for in volume!

Ralf and I played jacks with the little boy.

Dinner was really good and we chatted to them for a while. We had picked up a bottle of sparkling wine earlier on which we had put in the refrigerator in the casa. After dinner we went back to the casa and picked up our sparkling wine and headed back to the square to listen to music and get ready for the New Year. It was a bit of an anti-climax, we opened our “champagne” and watched the firework display 🙂 well two flares and a firework.

We were in bed by 12:30.

Tuesday December 30, 2014

A new route for us heading west towards Sancti Spiritus and then Trinidad for New Years Eve and a couple of days off. We have decided to stay three nights in Trinidad because of the New Years celebrations.

The wind wasn’t exactly behind us today and I felt as if we weren’t going as fast as the last couple of days, but after checking the Garmin we still made good time.

The route was rolling hills and for the first 40 kms the scenery was sugar cane and cattle farms. The traffic appeared to be playing a game of chicken today. Not with us but with each other, trucks passing in crazy places, cars seeming to want to run head on into trucks and cutting in front of other cars at the last minute it was crazy.

Then we entered the lake district area of Zaza, which was very pretty and we could see the mountains of the Guamuhaya ahead of us.

We will be going through the mountains tomorrow towards Trinidad.

Cycling down towards the city of Sancti Spiritus, we spotted this fellow carrying some turkeys.

Sancti Spiritus is another old Spanish Colonial City it celebrated its 500 year anniversary this year.

It has some lovely old buildings and seems quite prosperous. After we had settled into the casa we headed back into the city centre and square.

The Town Hall has a nice staircase leading up to the main door.

Later in the day we spotted a young boy using the marble side of the stairs as a slide.

We spotted two touring cyclists who had just arrived and we chatted to them for a while. They have done a lot of touring and Peter suggested we get a coffee and chat. I suggested that they get themselves settled into their casa and we would meet later for a drink which is what we did. Peter and Lillian use a trailer and a couple of panniers to carry their gear. I asked Lillian how they liked the trailer and she laughed saying she liked it very much. I then noticed that all she was carrying on her bike was a handlebar bag. Peter carried all the gear in the trailer and two rear panniers. I laughed and suggested to Ralf that it seemed like a very good idea. He emphatically disagreed, it would never happen. Peter said that he did it because he was a stronger cyclist and this way he didn’t have to wait for Lillian to catch up with him. I guess we are fortunate that Ralf and I are equally strong cyclists, although Ralf is still stronger than me on hills, but he only has to wait a couple of minutes for me to catch up.

Ralf and I continued our exploration of the city and went into the church.

We noticed a sign that said you could climb the bell tower for 1 CUC. Up we went and Ralf got some great shots of the city from the top.

It was a hot afternoon, and after a couple of hours we headed back to the casa for a siesta.

At 5:00 we met Peter and Lillian (the Dutch touring cyclists). They are a really nice couple and we shared stories of New Zealand, Australia and Cuba. They are heading to Costa Rica in January for five weeks. We chatted about cycling in Thailand and they really enjoy cycling there. I am thinking we will be there in November 2016to carry on the Grand Adventure, part two.

We had a lovely meal at the casa and an early night. Tomorrow we have some climbing to do before we get to Trinidad.

Monday December 29, 2014

We were a little late starting this morning due to the fact that the Casa Particular Police arrived at the casa. They arrive unannounced about once a month to check the books of the casa owners. Unfortunately, yesterday we hadn’t signed the registration book and Gustavo and Charel were in a little bit of a panic as to what to do with us. It was too late as the Inspector had already seen our loading touring bikes out front. The Inspector signed their book off up to yesterday and we had to sign the registration book for today.

This could have turned out badly for Gustavo and Charel with a minimum fine of 250 CUC, but I think the Inspector was in a good mood as Gustavo said there was no problem. I don’t think he will forget to get the paperwork signed again.

We were still on the road by 7:30 and once again we had that great tail-wind. The road was not as bad on our side of the road as the other side of the road. It was still like a washboard for most of the 69 kms and at times it was smoother on the gravel shoulder than it was on the “paved” road.

The road was very busy with trucks and cars. At one time an ambulance came flying past us with lights flashing. Not 200 metres up the road from us the ambulance came to a screaming halt, the back door of the ambulance had flown open and revealed a poor man on a gurney. It was like something out of a Carry-On movie. The attendant leapt out of the front slammed the back door and off they went again at great speed.

We made great time again and arrived in Ciego around 11:00. We are staying at the same casa as before as it is very close to the downtown area.

After going through our usual routine of rinsing out cycling clothes, updating the Garmins and charging the Garmins we went for out for lunch and to update the blog.

As we got close to the Telepunto Office we could see the big crowd milling around the door. I went straight up to the front to make sure I was in the right line (or mass of people) and asked about the internet. The girl at the front pointed to the guard inside, I turned to the milling crowd and asked if anyone was waiting for the internet, no they were all waiting to recharge their cell phones! I asked the guard about the internet and he took me straight to the counter to buy a card. I already had one, but decided to get another while I was waiting for a computer that I could use to connect to the internet.

Can you imagine waiting outside of a store for over an hour to then be allowed inside the store. Then waiting again inside the store again possibly for another half an hour before you can add credits to your phone or pay a bill. I am amazed at their patience, because if I had to do that every month or every time I needed credits, I would not have a phone.

While I was updating the blog Ralf went to the bank to change the 20 CUC notes for smaller denomination notes. We often find that in restaurants or bars they cannot make change on a 20 CUC note. He also wanted to do the same for the Cuban peso notes that we had. He had to go to two different banks to do this. I now believe that my husband has the patience of a Saint.

After updating the blog we wandered down the pedestrian area to buy some water. Again Ralf waited outside until he was allowed inside to buy water. Now I often wandered why they do this until I was in a line inside a store to buy an ice-cream. This little man barged in front of me, elbowed me twice and got served before me. Now as most of you know I am a very patient person. I left without buying the ice-cream, because I was about to smack the little man upside the head and I didn’t want to be arrested in Cuba. Ralf commented that I had no patience and a short fuse. He only just found that out about me after 29 years of being married.

We sat in the square and ate an ice-cream that we bought at a different shop and watched people.

We spotted the bike parking area and these two child seats.

The one on the red bike is for babies and the other one is for toddlers. I am not joking, we have seen babies in these seats and toddlers hanging onto the handle bars on the other seats.

As we made our way back to the casa, we spotted the local bike shop.

Sunday December 28, 2014

We asked the casa owner the quickest way to the carrareta but forgot to tell him which direction we were going! He directed us to the carrareta going back towards Las Tunas. We turned around and followed the signs towards Havana. Surprisingly the road was very busy today with lots of trucks and buses. A lot of them were driving way too fast and some of them came too close for my liking. It’s Sunday for heavens sake where do you need to get to in such a hurry, endangering your own life and man, beast and cyclists.

Again we have a tail-wind and got to Florida before 10:30. Nothing worthy of note to take photos of.

We are staying with Gustavo and Charel again, they seemed pleased to see us. They have already done some more work on the casa. I gave Charel the photos that we took of them last time we were here.

Because we were finished early, we did our washing and then wandered into Town for lunch. By 2:00 it was very hot, so we returned to the casa with a couple of cans of beer to relax and while away the afternoon.

I read a book on the computer and Ralf finished his book. For dinner we ate at the same restaurant as before – we got there before the rush. We were the first in the restaurant at just after 6:00 pm, we were followed by a family of four, then a big group of eight, another family of four with very cute twin boys. Fortunately we were the first to order and had a lovely meal, which was served quite quickly.

Back to the casa and an early night as we have a long day to Ciego de Avila and we know the road is nasty.

Saturday December 27, 2014

An early start this morning as we knew we had a long ride. The temperature at 8:00 am was 20 degrees but had risen to 30 degrees by 9:00. It wasn’t too bad though because there was a nice breeze which kept us cool. Fortunately it was a tail wind so that was good for us. Not so good for Peter and his friend, two touring cyclists, we stopped to chat to who travelling in the opposite direction. We exchanged information about the route we had taken and the casas we had stayed at. Peter has been on the road for 4 months and intends to be cycling for at least another year.

I got stung by a bee today – the nasty little beastie hit me in the face and as I brushed it away it stung me and left its little stinger in my finger. The middle finger of my left hand feels like ETs finger. I said some bad words, as I pulled the stinger out and put some \”After Bite\’\’ on it. Ten hours later and it still hurts.

When we arrived in Camaguey I took a wrong turn and we got a little misplaced. We eventually got on the right road and headed for the casa that we stayed in previously. Unfortunately they are full and Jorge called a friend and we are staying at his place. It is closer to the centre of Town and they have a lovely one year old Rottweiler bitch. She is so friendly and nosy, whenever our door is open she wanders in and checks us out. A big softy, just like Sabra was, the rottie we used to have.

We wandered around the downtown again, had some lunch and got some water. Last time we were here (about a month ago) they were working on repaving the downtown and creating a new square. The repaving is completed as is the new square. It looks very nice.

I was a little tired, so I came back to the room while Ralf picked up his camera and has gone out again. He spotted some young street performers

and one old lady, who was not doing an impersonation of Elvis in red.

We ate at the same Italian restaurant we ate at the last time we were in Camaguey. Third time lucky we got our food at the same time. We decided to order the same, thereby guaranteeing that the order would come out at the same time. It worked, lovely lasagna.

Back to the casa and played with the rottie for a while, she really wanted to get at our shoes. She kept pouncing on our feet, daft dog.