3/12 - day 3 (day 1 of BR)

3/11 - day 3 (day 1 BR)

The day began with breakfast and checking out of our hotel. We walked a half block to another high-end hotel for tourists to meet with our Backroads (hereafter BR) tour guides.

The situation in the lobby is always fun. Aside from the obvious give-aways (luggage, bike jerseys) we always like to size up the other members of the tour group: where were people from, were they here with spouses, single, or with unrelated friends (like us), who were likely to be fast riders.

We got on the bus and the tour guides gave us an introduction. James Dennistron (on the left) and Adria Llobet (on the right) were our BR guides. James is half British, half French, but he identifies as British. Adria is from Barcelona. James spends a lot of time in Cuba because he has a Cuban girlfriend. He appeared to be the lead when dealing with local Cubans, possibly because he speaks Cuban Spanish whereas Adria speaks Spanish Spanish.

Every tour in Cuba run by a non-Cuban company must have a Cuban guide. The cynic might say that they are there to make sure we don't do anything we're not supposed to do. In fact, tourists are supposed to keep a log of their activities while in Cuba and turn it over to the Cuban authorities when you leave, but she does that for us. Whatever the underlying reason for why she was there, on the face of it, she provided insights into Cuban culture and like James and Adria, she was delightful. Her name was Yanny. She has two boys, a 16 year old who is trouble and a 9 year old who isn't (yet?).

This reminded me a little of my trip to China in 1972 when our trip was constructed and approved by the China Travel Service. There was always a Chinese handler nearby. This trip was much looser, but it was still pretty tightly controlled.

The BR guides were masters at setting low expectations. The BR pre-trip materials were pretty explicit, but the tour guides’ introduction made it clear that this was not going to be like a typical trip. We were warned that internet access would be even more difficult at the hotel where we would be staying the next two days (so you’re probably reading this much later than the date in the title). They described the AC as sometimes functional, sometimes there was water and sometimes there was none, and when there was water, it was sometimes heated by solar panels. They recommended keeping the hotel windows closed at night because they don’t have screens. 

It's helpful to know that BR had to work with many layers of the Cuban state bureaucracy in order to make the trip happen. BR could not deal directly with local companies to provide the bus service, to provide the sag support, the hotels, the restaurants. Everything is done through a government agency, and money touches many hands between the time that we pay BR and when it lands in the hands of Cubans. It is a more expensive trip than usual, we are getting less quality per dollar, and it is largely a function of bureaucratic inefficiency. 

The ride from Havana to our first hotel in Vinales was two hours, so we stopped at a rest area that looked like this.

There were drinks and snacks and what better way to hydrate than with fresh (REAL) coconut water?!!!

They chop off the top with a machete and stick a straw in it.

Here's what they look like off the tree.

Here's the walkway to and from the parking lot. That's our bus in the back and if you look closely, you'll see some kids near the entrance on the left. They weren't asking for anything, but I practiced my Spanish and gave them a couple of packages of snacks anyway.

We had lunch at a lovely little restaurant that grows most of their own food.

Here’s a picture of the husband pressing sugar cane. It was delicious!

Here’s a picture of the wife who ran the restaurant. The room where we had lunch had enough tables for us. There were a few tables on the porch where there were some other patrons.

Bruscetta for starters. Delish.

Because BR collects information on dietary preferences, I put “vegan preferred”, but I was prepared for just about anything including bringing lactase pills just in case. The BR guides passed our dietary preferences on to our hosts and our hosts often bent over backwards to meet our needs. In a meal such as this one where there was plate service versus family style, they needed to produce at least one plate that was gluten free, at least one that was pescatarian, at least one that did not include pork, and at least three that preferred plant-based. Somehow, my risotto got lost or served to someone else and instead of making another batch of risotto, they brought out a lovely plate of grilled vegetables.

After lunch, we met the rest of the support staff, again, all state employees. Miguel was our driver. We called him the Cuban Mike Pence.

Another guy drove the bus for the bikes. One guy was the bike mechanic. One guy drove a Lada (an old soviet-style econobox) and leap-frogged us when we were riding to help us with directions. He would blast Michael Jackson and was generally hilarious. His English was pretty good. One more guy, "Laz" for short was sometimes on a bike, sometimes not. Here he is giving a bike demo.

And here are our bikes. They are titanium, custom made for BR. This one is Mike's, but they're all the same except if someone requested flat handlebars or we brought our own pedals and/or seats. They were all Shimano mechanical (Ultegra?) since it would be too hard to maintain and repair Di2.

And off we go!

I don't know what these bumps are called, but they remind me of pictures of western China and Vietnam.

Here is the first hotel where we stayed.

Behind this main building where we ate and had demonstrations were little bungalos. Mike had a single. Walter and I stayed at the top of this one which had three units in one structure. It had running water, AC that was too warm on the first night and too cold on the second night, and the entire campus had metered internet. Each guest had a unique code that gave you 60 minutes. If you left your wifi on, you could burn up your allotment even if you weren't using it. And sometimes you couldn't get on at all. (Hence the delay in these blog postings.)

There were at least 22 rooms (ours was #22). There were more but I didn't take a picture of any signs.

The evening's activity was cigar rolling. Here's a picture of the farm from the porch.

Here he is rolling.

Everyone had an opportunity to try one of his cigars. And of course he had bundles for sale. They were pretty high quality cigars and he sold them for less than you could buy them in stores.

None for me, thanks.

After dinner, the sunset was pretty spectacular.

Here are my data from the first part of the day's ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/8705621230

We were stopped by an entrepeneurial guy who tried to get us to stay with him. His wife came out and tried to convince us to stay and eat. They were so convincing, I turned off my Strava. When we realized we weren't at the finish, I started it up again, so here are the data for the last mile: https://www.strava.com/activities/8705621190

Here are some links to the people behind our lunch and dinner:

El Cuajaní (Chef José Luis) - Day 1 delicious lunch

https://www.instagram.com/elcuajani/?hl=en 

World Central Kitchen - The NGO founded by the Spanish chef José Andrés that helped El Cuajaní to provide 300 meals per day after the Hurricane Ian

https://wck.org/ 

Finca Agroecógica Paraiso (Rachel and Wilfredo) - Day 1 hearty and bottomless dinner!

https://youtu.be/PWeFzM1EHtQ

If you watch this video, we had dinner on that porch!