Andrew writes: First things first, since everyone keeps asking, “How was Cuba!?”. Cuba was different; it is the only word that really springs to mind. I’m not really sure what I expected from it to be honest, but somehow after two months I just found myself feeling disappointed overall. I wasn’t really a fan of the north. We didn’t make it 24hrs in Vinales before hopping on a bus to Havana. We ended up spending the most time in the Occident in Guanabo, which is 30km east of Havana. Just lots of time on the beach, with an apartment where we could cook our own food.
I would definitely recommend people go ride in the south (Holguin-Bayamo-Manzanillo-Niquero-Pilon-La Mula-Chivirico-Santiago de Cuba-Guantanamo-Baracoa-Moa-Holguin) since that was my favourite cycling part of the trip. Lots of beach time and not very many people, food was cheap etc. I think Cuba offers many reasons for cycle-tourists to visit, yet when asked if I would go again I don’t hesitate to say, “No”. So I’m curious, what has other cyclists going back time and time again?
It could be the safety, Cuba is very safe. Except for one time where a guy came at us with a machete while we were trying to sleep, we always felt safe. The cost? It could be that for someone on “vacation” it can be pretty inexpensive, lodging is $25/night, and food ranges from $2-10/pp for meals. Our daily expenses usually ended up in the range of $50-60 and this was disappointing for us since we want so much to be around $30CDN. Traffic is mostly non-existent, and trucks and buses give cyclists a wide-berth.
We’ve written a bunch of blog-posts over on CrazyGuyOnABike.com, which is a website geared towards cycle-touring. You can see all of our blog posts there in a really easy to read format. We also have uploaded about 900 photos to Flickr. We’ll be adding captions to all of our photos over the next few days/weeks.
Click here for a day by day, blow by blow account of cycling in Cuba.
Click here for our Flickr Photostream.
Perhaps one day in the next month or so while I’m gazing up at the stars, it will all come together in my head about why I both loved and loathed that strange little island of Cuba. In the meantime, let’s give you an update!
After 2 months in Cuba, we arrived in Vancouver after transferring through Toronto, Canada and about 11 hours in the air. Friends of ours (Dorothy and Sven) picked us up, and we spent the next 6 days staying with them in North Vancouver while we got ready to tackle the next part of our trip. The Rockies. Readers may remember that part of the original plan when we set out from Inuvik was to go to Jasper, but we got snowed out because it was too late in the season.
Looking at the weather forecast for Jasper, it looks like it’s still snowing there at the higher elevations, so we have added some of our gear from our trip to the Arctic last year. In total I think our gear weights are 32kg for me, and Amanda has 33kg. This is without food, or water. In addition, I’m going to try bringing the kite board gear, which is another 10kg. I’ll be using an Extrawheel trailer for this.
People have been asking us over the last few days, when are we leaving and how will we get there..We aren’t sure of which route we’re going to take out of Vancouver to get to the Rockies, but we have a few options, all of which are tried-tested-and-true. As for when? Once again, we’re enjoying our time with family and friends and feel very fortunate that we are able to spend this time with them. When we set out almost a year ago, we thought we wouldn’t see anyone for 10 years! Now we’ve been blessed with visiting Vancouver three times in 10 months.
We are looking forward to sharing our next leg of our journey with everyone, and can’t wait to see what the world has in store for us!