They didn't have much of a plan, just that they would be in Havana for two days when they got there and two days at the end of the trip, from there it was a journey.
Here are a couple of emails from their adventure so far
Enjoy first Mark's then Andre's.
Howdy everybody.
Andre and I have been on the road for 9 days and thus far, no diarrhea.
The cycling in Cuba is simply fabulous. The weather is perfect, people are super friendly and the food is awesome.
We just arrived in Trinidad, which is roughly the center and southern section of the island.
The plan is to continue to the eastern part and worm our way back to Havana in the next two and a half weeks.
Internet at best is really sketchy here. Its really slow and is difficult to find in the cities. If you do find a place, its a long line of people
in front of you.
Will be in touch when I can.
All the best.
Adios.
Mark
The cycling in Cuba is simply fabulous. The weather is perfect, people are super friendly and the food is awesome.
We just arrived in Trinidad, which is roughly the center and southern section of the island.
The plan is to continue to the eastern part and worm our way back to Havana in the next two and a half weeks.
Internet at best is really sketchy here. Its really slow and is difficult to find in the cities. If you do find a place, its a long line of people
in front of you.
Will be in touch when I can.
All the best.
Adios.
Mark
And now Andre's
Hi there After one week on the road we finally found by chance an internet cafe. We are in Trinidad about 80 km east of Cienfuegos. It´s a historical little town with lots of very OLD buildings. I had a little fall today when my bungee cord got stuck in my spokes. I broke 6 spokes and ended up on the pavement with some skin loss. Worst of all was that my back wheel was totally FUCKED. Six broken spokes. unridable. Its hard enough to find an internet cafe, let alone a bike shop in the middle of nowhere. So Ï´m sitting there in the middle of the road cursing my back luck. We are talking Cuban country side here, far away from everything. So I´m in front of a few Cuban houses and a bunch of little kids come running out after hearing the cursing. I´m a sad sack with all my gear spread across the road. The kids, 3 to 10 years old pick up all my stuff and bring in to me by the side of the road. Mark is long gone in front of me, unaware of my predicament. What to do.. A few older kids and some adults come out trying to help. I find some shade and I take the wheel off. There is a lot of back and forth as they speak no English and you know how good my Spanish is.
I manage to salvage two spokes but I´m 4 short and still unridable. This Cuban guy is trying very hard to held telling me he is a ¨mecanico¨ I goes in his house and comes out with an old wheel and pulls off a few spokes but they are the wrong size. Furthermore, my spokes are broken on the freewheel side and I need to take the freewheel off to replace the spokes which requires a special tool. Double fuck...
He gestures no problem. Say what... He takes one of the old spokes off the old wheel and with a pair of pliers and makes one end of the spoke into an S shape and wiggles it through the hub... How come they did not teach me that in bike school. I´m totally amazed at their resourcefulness. He repeats the same 4 times and then brings the wheel in the middle of the yard, puts it in an upside down fork and trues it with my little wrench!!! Totally unbelievable. I can´t believe my luck. I get the wheel back on the bike and it´s as straight as can be. I´m totally impressed. I empty my goody back giving Cliff Bars to all the kids and give the guy 20 CUCs, the equivalent of 2 months wages. He is happy and I´m much happier as my trip is saved.
Things are looking up and I´ll keep you posted.
