90 Kilometres A Day By Bike
My bicycle friend Peter (retired teacher) and I (Torsten, computer scientist), both from Hamburg, have been riding a two-week bicycle tour through Cuba every year since 2011.
Our first tour started from Varadero via Matanzas, Havana, las Terrazas, San Diego des los Baños, Pinar del Rio to the Viñales valley. On this tour I fell in love with Cuba and its inhabitants.
Cycling in Cuba is a really nice experience for us. Outside of Havana, one actually drives undisturbed by car traffic through beautiful landscapes. Everywhere one meets friendly Cubans and one always finds a Casa.
We always say, when we drink a cold beer in the evening: “What have we experienced again today?” From drinking coconut to quickly having a new haircut sitting on a crate of drinks at a Cuban market in some village. Or we slept two hours in the shade, because the kiosk was closed and we still need 10 liters of water – because there is no further shopping possibility for the next 60 km.
These photos were taken on our tour in 2013, from Baracoa over the Farola to Guantanamo. We slept in a campismo at the Caribbean.
In Cuba on the bicycle I have learned that there is always a solution you just have to have patience.
Torsten Elling