This week’s travel dream: Bicycling through Castro country

Cuba is a “cyclist’s paradise,” said Emma Brown and Jacob Fenston in The Washington Post. Automobiles are actually something of a rarity on the narrow streets of Havana, and even on the busiest national highways, drivers are used to sharing the road with pedestrians, mules, and “anything else that can roll or walk.” In the 1990s, Cuba’s government even imported 2 million bikes, to help cope with a fuel-import crash and the chronic shortage of new vehicles, caused by the U.S. trade embargo on the country. That embargo remains in place, of course, but as journalists, we were able to visit Cuba legally. Biking let us explore a country few Americans get the chance to see—“its hidden valleys, its roadside fried-chicken vendors, its tucked-away-in-a-courtyard music.”

Pedaling along Havana’s “famed seaside promenade,” we headed west out of the capital, passing “crumbling grand hotels and nationalist slogans (Viva Castro! Patria o muerte!) scrawled on pieces of wood and nailed to telephone poles.” Clotheslines full of laundry hung from ornate balconies. Drenched in a “slick of sweat, diesel exhaust, and sunscreen,” we rode by the tobacco fields of Pinar del Río and then stopped for some “hot showers and cold mojitos” at Finca la Guabina, a horse ranch turned eco-hotel. We passed up such curious local attractions as cockfighting and crocodile breeding, and opted to save our energy for the next day’s ride.

In the morning, we rode off “in the slanting sunrise, flanked by galloping horses.” Our destination: the white-sand beaches of Maria la Gorda. We cruised through valleys punctured by giant, boulder-like geological structures known as mogotes. We rode past homesteads with pigs and goats tied in front. Finally we entered Guanahacabibes National Park on the island’s western end. “Land crabs scuttled” at our wheels as the “dense, humid rain forest” broke to reveal the Caribbean Sea, as “gloriously blue as postcards promise.” Then, after giving our “saddle sores” a rest, we rode along the coast back to Havana. Although getting to Cuba still “requires patience,” tourism is growing: We were glad to see this intriguing island now.

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Contact: Bicyclingcuba.com