In 2019 we decided we wanted a long-ish self-supported bicycle tour. The criteria—it must be warm and must be off the beaten track. Cuba fit the bill. We had visited Cuba s all-inclusive tourists, but never felt we had seen the real Cuba, far away from the beach resorts. We wanted to see it our way—by bicycle. Randy had a route planned, but nothing more. Each night we would source out our accommodations as we rolled into town. We knew there would be challenges in this unique country so we anticipated the possible challenges—bike repairs, spare parts, and even food availability. We also knew we would be among local Cubans and in order to put a few smiles on faces we loaded up our panniers with little gifts and treasurers that we thought might be appreciated.
Preparing: Maps, Guidebooks, Planes & Bicycles
A good tour always starts with a good map. Fortunately for us, Randy loves maps so he’s naturally the one to take the lead on that. We started out with a nice big National Geographic Adventure Travel Map (water resistant too!) and Randy got to work researching and plotting. Much decision making about our route... Continue reading→
Packing like a Minimalist!
Minimalism is key when travelling with all of our gear loaded on our bicycles. Randy is the resident bike mechanic, so he’s prepared for just about anything! Spare spokes, 4 tubes each, spare tires, tools and little pieces of hardware that only he knows how to work with. As far as clothing, we will take... Continue reading→
Packing the Bicycles (Totally Randy’s domain!)
Time to actually get those bicycles disassembled and squeezed into boxes for the flight. Randy’s bike is big, and it takes some engineering ingenuity to make it fit. We’re attempting to travel with no checked baggage other than bicycles so we’ll be squishing helmets, water bottles and everything else we can into that box. There’s... Continue reading→
Hola, Cuba! We are in our Happy Place
Stepped off the plane and were thrilled to bits to see that our bikes arrived intact. Nevermind that in Toronto they made us unpack the boxes and take everything (everything!!) out of the box for inspection. That’s why they say to be at the airport three hours early. Our pre-arranged taxi driver found us and... Continue reading→
Day 1: Holguin to Guardalavaca
Best parts of the day: Sunshine, salt water, dinner for $4 and our Casa that came complete with pet turtles, baby chickens, a crocodile, a parrot, ducks, cats and dogs. Lots of rolling but gentle hills. Riding out of town we noticed a lot of people staring at us, mostly out of curiosity. The roads... Continue reading→
Day 2: Guardalavaca to Banes
The Rich lives of Cubans, Big Hills, Restaurants with No Food That is what characterized our day. It was a fairly short cycling day, just 36km, 480m of climbing. But the heat just made it tougher than one would think. There was just so much to look at along the way. Tropical trees in bloom,... Continue reading→