TR: Biking in Cuba, April 2016

From April 19 - 28, I was in sunny Cuba, on my now-annual southern vacation. Five years ago, I had never been to an all-inclusive resort but can now report that it is not so bad. Kind of like summer camp, with drinks. My wife is a part-time travel agent, and has been organizing group trips to a small resort in the southern part of Cuba, in the Granma province. The Club Amigo Marea del Portillo is not fancy but the rooms are clean, the food is good and the beach is fantastic. Combine that with beautiful scenery and friendly locals, and you have a pretty nice destination. Each trip has a loose theme, and this time, we were biking. We recruited a friend with extensive bike touring and bike guiding experience to lead a few tours with our first cycling group. The group was small but enthusiastic, and over our eight day stay we did three organized rides, building in challenge and with car support. Bear in mind that the age range was from 50 to 79 (except for the 40 year old guide) and the heat was powerful, we did not do anything too extreme.

The picture above is from the beach, this one is from our second floor room, on a hazy morning:



On the first ride, we explored some back roads near the resort and local village of Marea del Portillo:



This was my ride for the week, an early 90s Specialized Rockhopper Expert. One size too big and with a ridiculous long stem and a quirky chain. But man, did it roll nicely. It is still in Cuba, with its new family.



And of course, there were some old American cars:



Our support car was a rented Ghili, made in China, driven by Blue Toes. What a shitbox that car was. We brought the rack down two years years ago and store it at a Cuban friend's house, it helps with our bike distribution project. The first time I installed it on the car, two Cuban dudes offered to help but they clearly had no idea what this contraption was for. "Por la bicycletta," I explained and the light bulb went off.



On our second ride, we ventured west, towards the town of Pilon, 14 km from the resort. Some of us got there, others elected to turn around at the 10 km mark. I was sweep and honourary assistant bike guide, so I rode back with the slow group. No complaints there, the heat was killing me.

We rested near a bus stop:



Then pedaled a bit more and walked up a hill to an empty restaurant with a nice view. The bike guide, his assistant (me) and our shuttle driver all had a beer (one Cuban peso each = 1 USD) but strangely, no one else did. You can see Pilon in the distance, the smokestack is the old sugar mill. Pretty much killed the town when that shut down.



Heading back to the resort:



Our third group ride went east, out the "coastal road." This road is well known among bike tourers as an an incredibly scenic ride with few amenities along the way. In two days, a serious cyclist could ride from Marea to the historic city of Santiago de Cuba, with a stop in Chevirico. We encountered two separate bike tour groups taking short overnight breaks at the resort, both from Germany. One was on a 22 day tour, the other 18. Both had bus support and one had a Cuban guide along. On top of that, we met a solo German bike tourer in the ice cream shop in Pilon on one of our rest days. He was wearing Crocs for bike shoes and seemed a little bushed.

There is always some kind of traffic:



And random livestock to avoid, like sheep (yes, they are short-haired sheep):



Pigs and potholes:



And some cattle:



I did my requisite no hands selfie:



Our oldest rider, Boyd, is 79 and on blood thinners. All things considered, he is pretty fit otherwise and I hope I am riding up this hill when I am 79:



At the top of that hill, we decide to turn around at the 15 km mark. We got back to the resort around noon, in the full heat of the day and I felt that the life force had been sucked right out of me. Of course, the post-ride cerveza probably didn't help.



The next day, we went to the island for white sand, lobster lunch and full relaxation:



There is lots more to Cuba than biking, but it is an outstanding bike touring destination. You can do everything from mellow day trips riding like we did, to 22 day tours like the Germans or even exploratory singletrack MTB like some others I have met. While things are opening up for Americans, the easiest way to get there right now is fly from Canada. During peak tourist season, charter airlines like Sunwing and Air Transat fly from Toronto and Montreal to a variety of resorts and cities. You owe it to yourself to check it out before everything changes.

Wow this is such a cool report. Good on you and Blue Toes for your work with bikes in Cuba.

Can you tell more about how that works?

Harvey wrote

Wow this is such a cool report. Good on you and Blue Toes for your work with bikes in Cuba.

Can you tell more about how that works?

Thanks, it was a fun trip. I may get inspired to post some other pics later.

Short version of the bike project: BT saw on her early trips that Canadians were bringing bikes down and giving them away to Cuban families. With the help of a trusted Cuban friend, she decided to start bringing some down with the groups she was organizing, and getting them to families off the resort. Resort staff do pretty well as far as tips and gifts are concerned, but the rural people have little to no contact with tourists. Our Cuban friend helps with those connections.

Each airline is different, but on Sunwing you can bring a bike down and back for $30 extra, with a weight limit of 44 pounds. No one seems to care if the bike doesn't come back but we do make an effort to keep things low-key. In the last five years, we have gotten over 60 bikes to the area. Giving someone down there a bike is giving the gift of wheels, and serves many people in their family and community. Other tourists are bringing bikes as well, so we are not the only ones. There is quite the culture of gift-giving by Canadians down there, both appropriate and less so.

All the bikes we bring are donated, through a variety of sources. I do some basic repairs if needed, and put them in boxes that I scrounge from the LBS. Each bike has a "shepherd" who takes it as their personal item and pays the $30 (we also accept contributions for bike transport costs). Each shepherd gets to ride the bike when the group is down there, then BT and our friend coordinate distribution in the last few days of our stay.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Harvey wrote

Wow this is such a cool report. Good on you and Blue Toes for your work with bikes in Cuba.

Can you tell more about how that works?

Thanks, it was a fun trip. I may get inspired to post some other pics later.

Short version of the bike project: BT saw on her early trips that Canadians were bringing bikes down and giving them away to Cuban families. With the help of a trusted Cuban friend, she decided to start bringing some down with the groups she was organizing, and getting them to families off the resort. Resort staff do pretty well as far as tips and gifts are concerned, but the rural people have little to no contact with tourists. Our Cuban friend helps with those connections.

Each airline is different, but on Sunwing you can bring a bike down and back for $30 extra, with a weight limit of 44 pounds. No one seems to care if the bike doesn't come back but we do make an effort to keep things low-key. In the last five years, we have gotten over 60 bikes to the area. Giving someone down there a bike is giving the gift of wheels, and serves many people in their family and community. Other tourists are bringing bikes as well, so we are not the only ones. There is quite the culture of gift-giving by Canadians down there, both appropriate and less so.

All the bikes we bring are donated, through a variety of sources. I do some basic repairs if needed, and put them in boxes that I scrounge from the LBS. Each bike has a "shepherd" who takes it as their personal item and pays the $30 (we also accept contributions for bike transport costs). Each shepherd gets to ride the bike when the group is down there, then BT and our friend coordinate distribution in the last few days of our stay.

I always knew Santa Clause lived in Canada.  That's a great program!