Geoff Jones

Saturday I decided to make myself a walking tour of Havana, Lamar went off to explore the film festival since he is in TV production and with Gaia maps running I went of to try and never walk the same street twice 🙂

At the world famous, because of Hemingway, Ambos Mundos hotel I found a Taulk tour group having a tour with what sounded like a very interesting person. An architect who works at the Havana old town conservation project (Maybe habaguanex), who then took us into the Maqueta de la Havana, essentially a fully detailed model of the old town.

He then went into some details of the many problems they face. Apparently the project is unique in Cuba and probably the world in that most of their funds come from the tourist tax paid by the hotels and restaurants they own. In other Cuban cities the money goes to central government and then paid out if hey are lucky.

The biggest difficulty they face is that no one ‘owns’ the buildings! The government owns the physical land but after the revolution the state took over the apartments etc (If you didn’t flee you were allowed to keep one city apartment and one country building the rest of your property was taken and essentially given to other folks in exchange for a small amount of money – If you fled you lost the lot!) What this means is that in a block of apartments where upto 20 families are living no one owns the physical outer shell of the building, hence the very poor state of repair.

The project offer to renovate the building for free but they insist that only say 12 families can remain – the others are offered free apartments but not in the old town. So interesting squabbles occur 🙁

The most interesting statement he made which strongly agreed with the opinion I have been forming is that their government has been using the trade embargo as an excuse for the embargo of their mind! No original thinking has been taking place! Like winning the battle and losing the war 🙁

For instance I’ve noticed Nestle have a huge presence here with their freezers in virtually every cafe/store on the island also soft drinks/beer are all marketed in the latest all aluminium cans, which require huge upfront investment. Yet the banks don’t offer normal folks credit for building houses or starting small businesses but a foreigner can offer a slug of money for a special visa and be allowed to buy a building for business. Not good …

Anyway I got thrown off their ‘private’ tour so I continued my meanderings. The scale of renovation is vast eg The Central Station, Capitol building, National Theatre etc etc

Later I saw the end of the first stage of the Titan Tropic GAES Mountain Bike championships all on gleaming highly expensive bikes – but no backup kit! Just an ambulance and a few cars 🙂 They are off to Vinales now.

In the evening to go for a meal I had to run the gauntlet of prostitutes and managed to pick up a stomach bug again 🙁 Over 12 miles walked..

Written early Thursday 3 December

On Tuesday I left Pinar del Rio and managed to bike the 82 miles to La Bajada on the western tip of the island overlooking Cancun in Mexico. So I now have biked the length of the island from the South eastern corner at Baracoa to the North Western corner. For the pedants I know Baracoa is about 20 miles down an unmade track from the actual tip and that La Bajada is a similar distance down a track from the North Western corner.

I left Pinar del Rio Hostal with a business card from it’s owner for the Mercedes Motel in Manuel Lazo. The road was mainly quite good although in the tobacco fields it was planting season so probably not the best time of the year to appreciate tobacco plantations 🙁 although interesting to see the various way that oxen are used in tilling the land.

I arrived in Manuel Lazo to find the so called ‘Motel’ was down a dusty track of an equally bad track. The building was a shack with my proposed room been a windowless bedroom of another bedroom. I drank a beer, mulled it over, and then made my excuses and departed with all haste.

It was another 20 miles down a deserted road through a National Forest a bird watchers paradise, before it suddenly opened up to the sea and beach. A group of ladies nabbed me and took me to a homestay, at least this room had a window, all be it with cardboard shutters and a shower which was a pipe hanging out of the wall.

I pretty well had no choice but to stay, having biked 82 miles 🙁 apparently the area was devastated in the 2005 hurricane although probably it wasn’t much even then! To make up for the lack of amenities the sunset over the ocean was excellent though 🙂

Dinner was served in a neighbouring shack after the generator came on so we had light! (it turned of at 4am). The neighbour said a bus left at 6.20 in the morning. So I arranged brekkie for 5.30am in the pitch black, thank goodness for the bike light 🙂

There was much confusion in the morning about the bus so I just pedalled of in the dark! 3 hours and 41 miles later no bus ever came past me! In Isabel Rubio I found a 1950’s vintage taxi to share with a young Cuban couple. A fare of 8CUC was agreed for me and the bike to do the high speed 36 mile dash to Pinar 🙂 thus saving a good 4 hours of pedalling.

In Pinar I decided to pedal to the cigar and tourist capital of Vinales there was a lovely 400 foot real climb to get into The Vinales Valley with fantastic views to make a great ending to the day. To make it even better I discovered the La Berenjena vegetarian restaurant superb food and smoothies 🙂

After dinner and a Cuba Libre or 2 I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure for 10CUC . 🙂

Today is going to be a relaxing day before I get the bus to Havana in the morning for a weekend exploring the delights of the Capital City. My flight home is on Monday afternoon.

I’ve now biked 1,445 miles (2312Km) in the 28 days I’ve been away so far with 25 days in the saddle that’s about 58 miles per day 🙂 As you can see from the pic it’s just as well I’m stopping as my bike shorts are totally threadbare. The bike has held up well apart from the headstock clamping nut breaking and the rear brake pads wearing out.

Hopefully, once home I will get the pics up and geotagged.