May 2008 Issue - Cycling Utah

30 cycling utah.com MAY 2008
touring
Cuba is a Bicycle Touring Paradise
Above: Ashley Patterson rolling past the "mogotes" in Pinar Del Rio that
have stellar (but illegal) rock climbing.
Right: Che - Always Free.
Story and Photos by Tom
Diegel
Our trip to Cuba started with the
potential of a trip to Panama. I was
intrigued by the concept of paddling
some of the rivers in Panama and
possibly combining that with a bike
trip there, so I visited the library to
pick up one of the Panama guides.
As it turns out, the Cuba guidebook
was right next to it and it piqued
my interest. While I had known of
some old friends who had visited
there and I had seen and liked the
Buena Vista Social Club, it hadn’t
occurred to me to try an adventure
in such an unknown place. But a
quick glance looked intriguing so I
picked up the book and brought it
home.
Each country’s Rough Guide/
Lonely Planet/Let’s Go guidebooks
have a small section on “bicycle
touring”. The Rough Guide to
Panama said that there were very
few roads, but at least they had a
lot of traffic. That didn’t sound that
appealing, so I looked for the same
section in the Cuba book. It said
something to the effect of: “Cuba
is a bicycle tourer’s paradise. 50
years of US embargo has rendered
a society that doesn’t have a lot of
cars, but has an amazing network
of beautiful, small roads”. Now
we were talking. Then I went to
the US State Department’s official
website on Cuba, where it stated in
no uncertain terms that Cuba was a
communist/terrorist state where any
interaction with Cuban people was
likely to be encouraging subversive
action against the US, and we were
likely to be under secret surveil-
lance at all times. This sealed the
deal: we knew that Fidel Castro
was an aging charismatic dictator in
fatigues whose cigar-chomping, epic
speeches, and 50 years of thumbing
his nose at US presidents had resulted
in a uniquely-suppressed society,
but we also knew that the Cuban
people were not terrorists in training
and would likely greet cyclists with
open arms. And for our own country
to deny us the freedom to travel
to this fascinating country in the
efforts of preserving our own freedom;
well, we felt compelled to go.
A couple of other things helped
us along in our decision making; a
book was published last year titled
“The Handsomest Man In Cuba”
(reviewed in the Fall 2007 Cycling
Utah) and another book simply
called “Bicycling Cuba”. The former
is an entertaining account of an
Aussie woman who spent several
months cycling solo all over the
island, and the latter is a guidebook
written by a Vermont-based ‘boomer
couple that has good routes and suggestions
for lodging. We did have
to learn a bit about how to actually
get to Cuba; contrary to popular
opinion, travel to Cuba is actually
legal for Americans who aren’t on
an officially-sponsored trip, it’s just
illegal to spend money there! But
even though no US-based airlines
fly to Cuba, with a little bit of
research and the knowledge that our
neighboring countries have many
flights to Havana per day, it’s not
difficult to find your way there.
Cuba is a 700 mile long island
with a wide variety of topography
to satisfy any level of cyclist. There
are three significant mountainous
areas; the Oriente in the Far East,
the South/Central Mountains, and
– for a couple of hundred miles
West of Havana, Pinar Del Rio. We
chose the latter for its ease of access
from Havana, wide variety of both
beaches and mountains, and reputation
for great beauty and stellar
roads. In addition, despite the fact
that Havana is home to over 2 million
people, the density of the city
and the relatively low volume of
cars made it easy to ride right out of
the center of town without having to
take any additional transportation,
so after a couple of days of walking
around Havana sightseeing (and listening
to bands play the BV Social
Club soundtrack for cheesy gringos
sipping mojitos) we headed for the
countryside.
One of the best aspects of
cycling in Cuba is the lodging.
After the fall of the Soviet Union
Cuba spent most of the ‘90s in what
they call the “Special Period”, which
apparently is a wry euphemism
for “severe economic depression”.
Without the Soviets’ consistent
demand for sugar, the economy –
already ailing from years of the US
embargo – was devastated. As part
of the rebuilding effort, Castro’s
government recognized the value of
tourism and therefore allowed the
inception of “Casa Particulares”;
basically, Bed and Breakfasts where
individual homeowners simply
rented out spare rooms in their