May 12, 2015
Facts about Banes
From Lonely Planet Guide to Cuba
Founded in 1887, this effervescent company town was a virtual fiefdom of the US-
run United Fruit Company until the 1950s and many of the old American company
houses still remain. United Fruit is a name riddled with historical contradictions. On one hand, the company gave the world the Big Mike, the first mass-produced imported banana; on the other, it developed a reputation for meddling covertly in the internal affairs of successive Latin American ‘banana republics’ – including Cuba. These days in the sun-streaked streets and squares you’re more likely to encounter cigar-smoking cronies slamming dominoes, and moms carrying meter-long loaves of bread; in short, everything Cuban that is missing from the all- inclusive resorts.
Friendly Faces
Carlos: We spotted Carlos riding through Banes on a fancy carbon-fibre road bike. Andrew asked him if he knew a really good bike mechanic who could fix Amanda’s bike. Carlos took us to his friends shop, and then went home to get his drill, confident that they could make the repair. After a frustrating hour, the rack is still broken, and the front fork a little worse for wear. Despite the time and effort put into trying to fix the bike, Carlos and his friend refused payment, and everyone parted with smiles on their faces.
Today’s Highlights
Meeting another cycle tourist; the countryside.
Today’s Lowlights
Andrew writes:Terrible cross and head winds; breaking Amanda’s bike even more
Amanda writes:Returning from checking into the casa and hearing a hammer being reefed against something which turned out to be my bike. This was followed by me seeing them drilling into my fork. And not trying to drill straight into my fork, turning it in a rotating motion to make the hole bigger! This is the same hole that my rack is supposed to go into. I told Andrew in few words to stop; while no one but Andrew understood English they all understood that my bike was no longer their science experiment. I fear the magnitude of the damage on our return to Canada.
Cycling Stats
Start point: Mayari, Holguin, Cuba
Destination: Banes, Holguin, Cuba
61.0 km distance, 13.5 km/h average speed, 44.5 max. speed
4:30 km riding time
What happened…
Andrew writes: After such a long day yesterday we weren’t really in much of a hurry to get going today. In my head, I thought that we would make really good time to Banes, since it was only about 50km away. Boy, was I wrong on that front. Punished by a brutal wind much of the way, which was deceivingly also up-and-down (false flats), we didn’t end up getting to Banes until after 3’o’clock.
Along the way we met Peter Hanzel, a retiree from New Zealand. It was one of those meetings where we pulled off onto the side of the road, and just chatted for what seemed like an hour. We probably could’ve kept on too, but for a lack of shade, and beer. Peter had just started his tour in Holguin, and was keen to cycle some of the same stretches of coastline that we did between Guantanamo and Pilon. After Cuba, he’s off to the UK to motorhome to Portugal where he’ll surf all winter, and then next year, he’ll motorhome adventure again in North America. He sounds like our kinda chap. We wish him well, and hope to cash in on his offer for a place to stay at his beach house on the North Island of New Zealand one day.
Our hosts in Banes were tremendous, as most Casa owners tend to be. Manuel and I spent much time in front of his computer, swapping movies and music. He runs a business out of his home supply media to other families in town. Every week, “El Paquete” is released and distributed throughout Cuba on foot, in trucks, horseback etc. It’s basically a couple of gigabytes of Internet media (TV shows, movies, Youtube viral videos, music, music videos etc.) that then gets shared all around the country. Not happy with what there is to watch on the 5 channels of Cuban television, many Cubans are “cutting the cord” and watching bootlegged copies of “The Voice” in Espanol instead. Just another way that things here are just different, but not necessarily in a bad way.
Today’s Photographs
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