April 26, 2015
Facts about Parque ̈ Nacional ̈Desembarco ̈del ̈Granma
From Lonely Planet Guide to Cuba
This Unesco World Heritage site consists of 275 sq km of teeming forests, peculiar karst topography and up- lifted marine terraces. The park protects some of the most pristine coastal cliffs in the Americas. Of the 512 plant species identified thus far, about 60% are endemic and a dozen of them are found only here. The fauna is equally rich, with 25 species of mollusk, seven species of amphibian, 44 types of reptile, 110 species of bird and 13 types of mammal. It is also a spiritual shrine to the Cuban Revolution – the spot where Castro’s stricken leisure yacht Granma limped ashore in December 1956.
Friendly Faces
Daniel: Crouched in the bush, beside the road, sat this young man, with his machete. We watched him chop the tops off coconuts, and then pour the contents into a 1L bottle. Intrigued, I got off my bike and approached him. He immediately offered me 3 coconuts with the tops cut off. I tried to pay him, but he refused, emphatically. Amanda and I sipped on the sticky, sweet coconuts, which were quite full of milk.
I handed the coconuts back to Daniel and he cut them in half, revealing the soft, white, meat inside. Then he took his machete and chopped off another part of the coconut, and handed it to me. “Cuchara!”, he told me, which means spoon. He handed one to Amanda also. We spent a few minutes talking with him, eating our coconuts, while Daniel continued to hack away at coconuts, filling up his bottle. As we set to leave, to continue our ride, I looked back and saw Daniel up a tree, collecting more of the delicious fruit.
Today’s Highlights
Riding “naked”; free coconuts; And waving at Jamaica!
Cycling Stats
Start point: Niquero, Granma, Cuba
Destination: Cabo Cruz, Granma, Cuba
End point: Niquero, Granma, Cuba
Distance 63.5 km, 18.7 km/h average speed, 41.8 max. speed
3:24 riding time
What happened…
Andrew writes: We decided to do today’s ride as an out-and-back, to the southern most part of Cuba, Cabo Cruz. The terrain was mostly flat for the 20km to Playa Las Coloradas, where we stopped to dip our toes in to Caribbean. There were dozens of Cuban families, romping in the calm water, with reggaeton music blasting away from a radio somewhere.
As we continued down the road, virtually traffic free, we came upon the entrance to the Parque ̈ Nacional ̈Desembarco ̈del ̈Granma, paid our $5CUC each, and kept riding. I don’t know what was different about the female guard who stopped us, but I found I could understand pretty much everything she said. Perhaps she was accent-free? The same thing again 2km later, when we ended up at a museum, celebrating the location where the yacht Granma deposited Fidel and his 83 friends, back in 1956. There was a woman who came to talk to us, and to charge us admission to the museum, and again, she was quite easy to understand. We declined to pay, and thus kept riding down the road towards Cabo Cruz.
Here, the road became quite hilly, unexpectedly so, and the surface deteriorated quite quickly. With the wind in our face, and the sun starting to reach high in the sky, it was quite warm on the remaining 8km into the village. Once there, we took a few pictures, and then went into the Restaurant El Cabo. It had been advertised as having very inexpensive seafood, but it looked like all of the prices were in CUC, instead of the much cheaper peso. So for instance, fish and rice was listed as $8.00. I couldn’t get anyone to understand that I wanted to know if it was in CUC or peso. There is a HUGE difference! Anyhow, we went back outside to find a cafeteria, and there weren’t any. There was a small stand with a man selling lobster cocktails in a small glass, for $10 pesos ($0.10CDN) each. We each had one and then started riding back.
With the wind behind us, the ride was easy, breezy. We stopped for refreshments from a young man on the side of the road who gave us some free coconuts, and we made it back to Niquero within 90-minutes.
I’m looking forward to tackling the Sierra Maestra tomorrow, and then getting to the east coast of Cuba, hopefully for some fun in the sun and surf!
Amanda writes:
Today’s ride was so nice without the bags as we left them at the hotel. We had some preconceived notions of what the day would be like based on another blog we read. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice Playa Las Coloradas was. The beach was beautiful and I was left thinking I sort of wished we had our stuff to camp there. Although as I sit here in my air conditioned hotel room, it’s okay.
The surroundings were wonderful. Mango trees, banana trees, coconut trees, mangroves and the Caribbean sea. We were able to see amazing colors of the water again and it is always so beautiful to me. I’m really looking forward to riding the coast again over the coming weeks. I was however left with a lingering difference on the coast. Since Andrew has fallen so in love with kite surfing he looks at a coastline through a different set of lenses. We no longer share in the beauty of the water and the surroundings. Instead he assesses the surroundings and the wind to ascertain the feasibility of flying here. As it has been with the sport since he began, it’s not a perspective or vision that we see together and because of that; I almost feel as if I’m viewing the beauty of the shoreline alone. And knowing that he is always looking for a suitable kiting spot almost leaves me not looking forward to coastlines as much as I used to. In any event, at least we are both drawn to the water even if for different reasons. I’ll need to work on my apprehension about his motives for cycling the Coast and try and enjoy it in spite of his endless desire to kite surf.
Seeing the spot in which Fidel Castro ran aground in his boat was an interesting piece of history. I’m not a historian but it was remarkable to see the surroundings in which he landed and I think it must have been somewhat difficult to get through. We also met a delightful young lady who shared some of the history of Fidel’s crossing.