Roads and traffic: There is more traffic in Cuba than there was 20 years ago, but still much less than in other countries. Generally trucks and cars brake and wait to move safely around bicycles. Of course there are always a few exceptional drivers who have a special place in hell waiting for them. Some days we were only passed by one or two cars ...
Dump road I love Cuba, but it isn’t always easy. Independent travel here is very doable, but I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. The food shortages are the hardest on the locals, but they are felt by everyone who is not staying at a resort. The Cubans are so generous with what they have, but sometimes they just don’t have things. We have always been ...
The birds we have seen and heard along the Bay of Pigs has been outstanding. Up until yesterday we were lucky enough to see most of Cuba’s endemic birds, with the exception of the Cuban parrot. Gord continues to add that we also haven’t seen an iguana, but I don’t have the heart to tell him they aren’t birds. Yesterday we were surprised by a ...
When we were travelling in Cuba twenty years ago all of the hosts at our various accommodations voiced support for the government. The Special Period, a time of economic hardship after the USSR dissolved and Cuba lost its sponsor, had ended and there was optimism for the future. There are indications that the following years were in fact better, as building standards appear to have ...
Cuba has the most diverse traffic of any place that I have travelled. There are cars, of course, more than there were 20 years ago, but still far fewer than in most countries. The ‘50s classic cars, a stereotype of the country, still do in fact constitute a large percentage of the cars on the road. These cars look better than they did when we ...
The final major battle of the Cuban Revolution was fought in the city of Santa Clara. Under the command of Che Guevara, 340 guerrillas engaged government forces about ten times as large. In an incident that is well remembered in Cuba, a small band of the rebels (perhaps 18) derailed a government train full of troops and armaments through the use of a bulldozer and ...
Yesterday I gave some ibuprofen capsules to a woman working at the art gallery next to our casa particular in Remedios. Her knees were swollen with arthritis, and she was telling us that she can’t get anything for them. I had read before I arrived in Cuba that the pharmacies were empty, but that didn’t prepare me for the sight of the completely bare shelves. ...
Without a headwind we had a pleasant 83 km ride over rolling hills to Remedios yesterday. The heat (30 to 32 degrees every day) is always an issue, but as long as we are off the road by early afternoon we aren’t too dehydrated when we arrive.Remedios is a pretty colonial town near the north coast. It is lightly visited by tourists, though tour buses ...
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text] I feel that Ruth’s blog about looking for lunch in Topes glossed over some aspects of that area, like long walks in the jungle. We spent four nights in Topes, the longest we have been in any one place. This was due in part to our desire to spend more time with our Catalan friends Albert and Marina, but also because we were ...
We have climbed up to Topes de Collantes, at 750 metres in the Escambray Mountains. The road up was as much as a 22% grade, but we were both able to stay on our bikes for the whole climb. This was partly thanks to our lovely adopted son Albert, who offered to carry my heavy stuff in his taxi. Albert convinced us that we should ...