8. Tortuguilla - Guantánamo. March 11

There are many banana farms here. Very green and extremely beautiful with the mountains on one side and the sea on the other. There is a long downhill on this road, considered mucho peligroso, it contains one bend, not even sharp. 109 dead here, so far. The last 20 k or so to Guantánamo are flat, flat, flat. And hot, hot, hot. Who complained about the rain?
The casa recommended by Oscar is full, so we go to the neighbors. Very nice people, very clean and neat. We shower and dress up for a visit to parque José Marti. He is one of the Big Heroes in Cuba. He lived in the 1800 and was with his writings encouraging the Cuban people to get rid of the Spaniards.
But first we need a pharmacy. Roland has got heat blisters on his bum, I desperately look in our little Spanish for travelers book for a way to explain this. Farmacia is located in the most impressive colonial building around the park. In this enormous hall people are hanging out, sitting, talking, standing at the long counter. I ask for ultimo and we wait for about an hour. So many meters of shelves, and so little on them. It seems like the medications are made, by hand, and then put into brown glass jars. We get one of those jars with a yellow crema. For this they want one (1) peso. As we only have Cuc, they are giving it to us for free.

We get better and better on finding food, and beer, in this country. After some asking and walking we sit in the shade of the big trees in the park, watching people and engulfing two cheese dripping pizzas and two cold Presidente.

Dark clouds coming in, no worries - the ocean is nice and warm

José Marti - the poet of the revolution

Experiencing a Cuban pharmacy. Hand made medicins in brown glass bottles.

The impressive pharmacy building in Guantánamo

Typical breakfast at a casa particulár

9. Guantánamo - Santiago. March 12

"The problem on this 89 k ride will probably not be the hills, but the heat." Quote from the excellent guide book Cycle on Cuba. Written by two very experienced Cuba bikers, so right they are!

Food is great in our Guantánamo casa. Abundant and very, very tasty. Last night we had camarones (scrimps) in a red sauce. The breakfast is wonderful, with a mountain of fresh fruit and bread made of wholewheat. The only time we seen this and not the standardized white that they sell att the state own bakeries. Baking is not on the list of what you are allowed to do to earn your own money.

Leaving town is a near death experience. The air is So Bad. And why does this cyklist have to put out his arm a tenth of a second before he turns ninety degrees left and causes five vehicles including myself to put on emergency brakes.

Hilly means beautiful. Little more traffic than usual, read bad air. But we are going between two big cities. Guantánamo (250 000) and Santiago (500 000). Best is the autopista with loads of room and a special lane for slow vehicles.
We stop for lunch in Maya. Nice little town. It is market day, but nothing to buy. All the stands has run out of Everything.  But we made sandwiches at breakfast and manage to get some cold lemon pop.

There is a tunnel, with a sign saying no bikes. Having heard stories about tourists ending up in Cuban prisons for a number of reasons I suggest we take the detour. Bad idea, we end up in a steep "no road" leading out in the middle of nowhere. After some asking we are back on track and reach Santiago.

Santiago is just terrible with all the traffic and smoke. It takes forever to find our casa which is in an apartment house. Totally pooped, we have to carry the bikes, up, up, up three stairs. A cold beer and a shower, and then life is good again. And this Casa Margarita is very special, we feel like members of the family and are treated with a superb dinner including curry soup, avocado, beets in olive oil. And of course the protein, think it was fish, and the rice, and the fried platanos. And even pudding!

Tomorrow we will give this dirty, smelly, hustling city a chance.

I admit, it was a bad idea not using the forbidden tunnel

Entering Santiago. So this town is supposed to be hygienic and disciplined. LOL

Dressed up for surviving the fumes of Santiago

Our super nice hostess at Casa Margarita

Interesting apartment on third floor with open air, meaning rain comes right into the living room. 

Our bikes are well protected thou. 

10. Santiago - Chivirico. March 13 & 14

Santiago is vivid, colorful, genuine. It's dirty and poor, ugly and teared down. It's like a peeping hole back in time. We eat in a restaurant for 9 pesos and have ice cream in a lovely ice cream restaurant (yes there are ice cream restaurants) for 3 pesos. We follow a self guided tour described in the Lonely Planet guide, highly recommended. Takes us to some stunningly beautiful, and also historically very interesting places. Like the museum of Moncada. This is where the revolution began, the 26th of July 1953. We buy this very interesting book describing what Cuba was like before the revolution - just horrible.
One of today's missions is to buy water and cookies for tomorrow. We have to try in five stores before we succeed. Yeah!

Next morning we leave early, and it's Sunday. So we get out of town without getting poisoned. The city ends quite fast and pura vida takes over. The Cuban countryside at it's best. The calm sea to our left and the lush green mountains to our right. And the Cuban smells. A dead animal half rotten, coffee, damp air, salty sea, horse shit, sun, sweat, diesel, flowers. . .
Today we see more bike tourists than on all our Cuba bike days together, including the 14 days in April.
Chivirico is a sleepy little town (or village) by the sea. The beach is very full of stuff you don't want on a beach so we skip the afternoon swim. Instead we do as the locals, hang out in the park. Listen to soft waves and looking at the kids enjoying the playground.

Enjoying ice cream on an ice cream restaurant. Pay in pesos (-:

View from the church tower

Poor, dirty, colorful, vivid, beautiful - Santiago has it all

Pretty balcony in Santiago

This is where the revolution begun. With an attack on the Moncada fortress

Santiago harbor 

Beautiful and simple - church window

I wonder what kind of Cuba they will create

Watching children playing 1

Watching children playing 2

Bouganvillea

11. Chivirico - Pico Turquino. March 15

This casa we cannot recommend. It is by far the most expensive, and that has absolutely nothing to do with quality. Probably it has to do with competition, or lack of it here in Chivirico.
Today we start late. Only 40 k to our next destination which is a campismo, a Cuban camp site with huts. Tomorrow's goal is to climb Cuba's highest mountain. Pico Turquino, 1974 meters. Does not sound very much, but the climb start at sea level.
We need some hiking food and manage to get into a Panamerican Store which is run by staff that has no clue what service means (like everything that is state owned). But it does not matter because there is nothing in those stores that people really want, or can afford. We buy some crackers and mineral water. For 12 Cuc. That is a third monthly wage for a teacher. Hard to understand this system, (no, the locals don't get things cheaper in those stores) but acceptance is the key to enjoy Cuba. Get rid of expectations, take it as it is, and don't put western logic onto this society. We are guests here. We have no right to criticize.
So, after the shopping, off we go. On the worst road on Cuba according to Lonely Planet. First hour the road is instead the best Cuban road. Mainly because the total lack of cars, lorries, buses etc. But also - it's stunningly beautiful. After 20 k it ends. And turns into the road that God forgot. It starts with a collapsed bridge. So, thats why there are no cars here. Half of the road has been swept down into the ocean. Luckily this is a short day. The campismo is easy to miss. As everything, because there are no signs. We find a graveyard and some stone buildings without roofs, hoping this is not the campismo we ask our way and finally find it. A true little paradise. Just by the se. We get a stone cabin with electric light, cold shower and clean sheets for 16 Cuc including a fan. And they even have a little restaurant just by the sea.

We bike to the base camp of Pico Turquino. Spend some time under a roof with a guide and a cat, rain just pours down and this is the rainiest "dry season" ever the guy explains. If too rainy not possible to climb the mountain, but we arrange to be picked up at 5.30 tomorrow morning, by a lorry.

Italian ladies on a road trip

He is coming up the mountain

Nice tree

Cuba's worst road . . .

. . . has nice views

Pico Turquino base camp, waiting for the rain to stop

12. Pico Turquino. March 16

5.30 it's pitch dark. We are standing at the side of the road wondering if this lorry will turn up. And it does. It's an adventure climbing up to the platform in the dark. Very exciting, the Cuban way of traveling. There is a bunch of young Cubans, also climbing up on the platform. They don't really look like mountain hikers but are very sure they are going to give it a go.
We get a guide and a third companion from US. Roland thinks he looks like a CIA agent.
Pico Turquino is not for the weak. Almost 2000 meters steep climb. Some views on the way up but most of it is just an endless, steep, muddy stairway deep down in a damp jungle gully created by water over time. But this mountain is a rite of passage for Cubans and we are hiking in the Cuban history itself. Here Ché, Fidel and the others hid and fought, and won the victory of revolution for the miss treated people and country under the Batista regime.

The going down is one of the hardest coming down a mountain I've experienced. And I have done quite a few, living in the Rockies and having hiked and scrambled all over the world. Maybe because it is steep and very, very slippery. You can never just relax and jump happily down. Every step is with full brakes. And then you are using muscles not trained when biking. Which we realize next morning when just walking the few steps from the bed to the bathroom is so painful we believe we will not be able to do anything today, just stay in bed.
8,5 hours up and down. We are welcomed by a huge pasta meal that is included in the park fee. And of course two ice cold beer.

Of course we would like to go back to the campismo. The guide, the CIA guy and the young Cubans. They are far, far behind. We have to figure this out by ourselves. Hitch hiking in Cuba is very easy. But not on this road. Because there are no, absolutely 0, vehicles. After an hour or so we give up, walk back to base camp. And here comes the lorry, probably booked by the young group. But they have still not arrived, and when they arrive they will eat, and me and Roland Really Really want to go back. To our cold shower. I manage to bribe the lorry driver, after some hard negotiations, including not pretending being interested at all. Just walking away.
The Cuban way.

We start the climb at dawn

Members of the young cuban group, later very impressed by the old folks (L&R)

Up

Down

On the top. Recognize the guy behind us? Right answer - José Marti. 

A young revolutionary woman dragged this statue up the mountain..

View on the way up