In 2010, we took our bikes, panniers, and clothes and rode between hotels on the west side of Cuba, from Varadero to Viñales. During our two weeks of cycling and sightseeing, we experienced an historic cold snap, difficulty finding food, fun excursions into the mountains and caves, and challenging cycling terrain. We met wonderful, friendly, and generous Cubans. Let’s dive into learning about Cuba, our journey, and improving our English.

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Story Text

My husband, Chris, and I decided to cycle around Cuba. We had read a book called Bicycling Cuba and their instructions were so detailed that we decided to take on the challenge of taking our bikes to Cuba and doing two weeks of bicycle touring. We figured Cuba would be hot and a great escape from the Canadian winter. 

In 2010, we took our bikes, panniers, and clothes and rode between hotels or hostels in the west side of Cuba, from Varadero to Viñales. We arrived in Varadero, Cuba, on a red-eye with our bikes in tow. 

What a challenge it would be! The trip was a series of errors, mistakes, and struggles, as well as unforgettable moments of beauty and generosity. We learned a lot about Cuban history and I got to practice my Spanish. In my opinion, it was one of the best vacations I ever had. 

On our arrival day in Varadero, we checked into a hotel, put our bikes together, and walked around. We arranged to leave our bike boxes at the hotel while we toured the rest of the country. The next day, we went to the bus depot to buy tickets from Varadero to Havana, where we would start our bike trip. We were told the bus tickets were sold out until the next afternoon! There was plenty of room on some buses, but those buses were for locals only. Even if we had the local currency (which we were not allowed to have), we wouldn’t be allowed to buy tickets.

When we visited, Cuba had two types of currency, one for locals called the Cuban peso (CUP) and one for tourists called the Cuban convertible peso (CUC, also pronounced as “kook”). The government had banned US dollars and pegged the exchange rate as 1CUC to 1USD. The CUC was much more desirable than the CUP because of its greater purchasing power. To give perspective, in 2013, the average Cuban worker was paid 466 CUP per month. That was roughly equivalent to 22CUC or $22USD per month. Anyone who worked in tourism would have access to CUC and thereby would have a much greater income. 

Given that Cuba is a socialist/communist government, there are many social services such as universal healthcare and mandatory education until the age of 15. Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world at 99% literacy. It has high life expectancy, low infant and maternal mortality rates, high childhood vaccination rates, and high numbers of medical personnel. One of its main exports is medical staff! There’s a concept called the Cuban Health Paradox: they have low monthly wages but their health is comparable to those in developed countries. 

However, wages in the country are still depressed. Reportedly, average monthly wages in Cuba are between US$67-188/month.

We decided to get a taxi to take us to Havana at the steep price of $90. A steep price, but one that would keep us on schedule. We asked at our hotel for a taxi and a relatively modern VW sedan showed up. We were surprised at the newness of the vehicle, since Cuba was under a number of trade embargoes and had a limited supply of Western products, including cars. We weren’t sure if it was an official taxi, or a “friend of a friend.” 

We managed to get our bikes, ourselves, and our panniers into the car, mainly because the driver was determined to make our bikes fit into his car. He slammed the doors and trunk down on the bikes several times. That wasn’t a great start and we hoped our bikes weren’t broken. I sat in the back seat with the bike chain ring pressing into my leg, hoping I wouldn’t be impaled on the bike should we get into an accident.

In Havana, we stayed for 2 nights with Jesus, the owner of a “casa particular” that our friend in Canada recommended to us. Each casa particular was like a very simple bed and breakfast. In the countryside, they would feed us dinner, too! Each cost about $20-30/night for 2 people, depending on the location. Jesus was really friendly and the food was great. His home had a lot of windows and was well ventilated, which in warm weather would be wonderfully cooling.

As it turned out, Florida and Cuba did not have warm weather! They were in the midst of the coldest stretch of weather on record since the 1940s. Florida set a record for having 12 days of temperatures highs below 50’f or 9’c, which made it even colder at night! Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage occurred in the agricultural sector in both countries.

Because we could only bring two panniers with limited clothing, our clothes were not enough to keep us warm. The good air circulation in the houses and the lack of blankets meant that we were cold at night. To keep warm, we dressed in our pants and jackets, and snuggled together all night long.

For two days we wandered around Havana, seeing the sites and eating food. On the evening of day 3, we ate at a fancier restaurant where I had shrimp tacos. I didn’t know that it wasn’t a good idea to get seafood in Havana. The meal was expensive and not worth it and it kept on giving the next day!

On day 4, we set off from Havana on our bikes for an 85 km day of cycling. We started off on the main highway. Cuban roads were very friendly to all different kinds of travelers, but we were almost hit by cars a few times. We saw big, old cars constantly picking up and dropping off passengers. These fin-tailed 1950s Chevrolets and Buicks were full of people and called taxis colectivos, or shared taxis.

Cubans frequently traveled in these taxis, getting in and out at any point along the journey. Trucks with open backs frequently stopped to pick up and drop off passengers. As we got into the countryside, we saw all manner of travel: people on rusted out bikes, horse and carts, scooters, cars, trucks, and walking.

After a few missed turns and a few extra kilometers, we made it to Las Terrazas and stayed on a small farm. This family was a friend of Jesus’s, the guy from Havana. That’s how we travelled in Cuba. We didn’t need reservations: the person we stayed with knew someone who had a casa particular, or took people horseback riding, or took people on cigar factory tours. On this particular night, after dinner, my shrimp dinner from the night before came back to haunt me and I had gastrointestinal distress for most of the evening. 

On day 5 we rode to a little villa with a pool on a man-made lake. We continued to freeze, didn’t use the pool, and went to the only available restaurant. The waiter was gruff and didn’t like his job. The extensive menu had almost nothing available. I ordered a chef’s salad for dinner, because my stomach wasn’t feeling great from the previous night’s vomiting and diarrhea. This dinner also came with a starter salad! 

Both salads had lettuce, tomatoes, and canned string beans. The chef's salad thoughtfully added corn, sweet peppers, a few cubes of cheese, some olives, and some rice. For the salad dressing, there was one oil and vinegar set for the whole restaurant.. After I used it, another person asked me for it, and the set made its way around the restaurant. That night, we again froze in our beds.

On day 6, we set off through the mountains on what still, 15 years later, ranks as one of the hardest days of cycling in my life. I was exhausted from my gastrointestinal distress and the poor meal the night before. We didn’t manage to get any food at the breakfast buffet, there was no convenience store, and we only had our backup bars we had brought from Canada. 

As we cycled through the mountains, we observed that Cubans never build roads that go through mountains. All the roads go over a mountain, down to a valley, up another mountain, down another valley, repeat, repeat, repeat. It took us 3 hours to go 20km.

At one point, we encountered a washed out road where about 30 feet of the road was missing and overgrown with plants and ivy. While we stood there trying to figure out if we should turn around or navigate the narrow connection, we saw a man come the other direction on his bike, easily traverse the muddy one foot section, and continue on. So we figured, “When in Rome…” 

Once we crossed that dangerous washed out road, we came to a decision point. Would we go straight and continue climbing in the mountains, or would we go left down to the valley then cycle to our destination on the flat highway? We chose to go left and it took us a quick 10 minutes to get down to the valley. 

We stayed in San Diego de los Baños for two nights, with one rest day. We went bird watching with Ceasar, a Cuban man with a geology degree from a Bulgarian university. He spoke Bulgarian fluently and learned English at home, entirely self-taught. After bird watching, we went to a local cigar factory, took a tour of its two room “facility” and got a demonstration for how they make cigars. It was the first warm day of our trip, and we both wore shorts. 

To get to Viñales, we cycled along the highway instead of in the mountains. We didn’t want a repeat of the day on the struggle bus. On our 60km ride, we rode through vast amounts of scenic farmland, waved to many locals, and watched people farm with an ox and plow. We had an unspoken race with a man on a rusted out bike. He never acknowledged us as he stayed alongside us, dripping with sweat, for about 5km. We managed to find an “El Rapido” convenience store and buy a few sandwiches. A successful day!

At about 5pm, we were on a steep downhill into Viñales when a cyclist came the other way and waved to us. We waved back, but didn’t stop. We figured he was just being friendly! As it turns out, Enrique wanted our attention. He turned around and caught up to us on the uphill. He reported that the casa we were supposed to stay at was fully booked and he was sent out to find us and drop us off at the new casa. Once he dropped us off, he turned around and went to San Diego de los Baños - where we had just come from! It took us all day to get between these two towns and he was starting his ride at 6pm! 

We stayed with Sanya and Paulito for five nights. Each breakfast included farm fresh eggs, ham, some kind of bread, and fresh, ripened-on-the-vine pineapple, guava, and papaya. Each dinner included chicken, fish, vegetables, and dessert. All of the food was produced locally because, as our hosts told us, Cuba didn’t have any way to transport refrigerated goods. 

Historically, Cuba has suffered with periods of food scarcity and starvation. As a country, it imports most of its goods. It exported sugar and received food imports from the USSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuba entered “The Special Period.” State-subsidized rations were curtailed and many people starved. Our hosts in Viñales told us of raising pigs in their bathtub so they would have enough food to eat. Cuba started to emerge from this period when they established closer ties to Venezuela and re-established ties with Russia under Vladimir Putin.

For sightseeing, one day we rode our bikes to check out the mogotes (which look like freestanding hills with steep sides). Another day we rode to Puerto Esperanza. We went spelunking in a cave and horseback riding to a mountain top, where I was bitten by ants on my leg. On the way back from one of our rides, we found a roadside hut where they served rum-based drinks from a coconut, with a straw. 

After our days of adventuring, we sat on the casa’s porch and enjoyed the patch of dirt that was their garden. We drank “Cuba Libres,” the ingredients being rum with “TuKola” (the Cuban version of Coke, because American products are not allowed). The Cuba Libre was served in a small cup with 3 ice cubes, Cuban rum, and a dash of cola for colour. Very strong and very good. In the evenings we watch Spanish tv with the family, and after that we read in bed. 

Eventually we took the bus back to Varadero and we checked into the hotel where we had stored our bike boxes. That day we relaxed on the white sand beach near the blue water, a much deserved day of rest after so much adventuring and cycling. We made our way back to Vancouver the next day.

I experienced Cuba in 2010 and it was in a better economic situation than it is now. In an unprecedented move, the Cuban government has asked the World Food Programme for powdered milk. It is the first time the government has asked the UN for support. I hope Jesus, Caesar, Enrique, Sanya, and Paulito are weathering these hardships.