The Aguas Claras bike tour story
The first Cuban bicycle tour I led in Cuba came about by pure happenstance. In 2004 I was in the middle of an ugly divorce in Canada, during which time I wound up my adventure company, Niagara Safari, for legal reasons tied to the divorce. Shortly afterwards, I heard that a fellow rider in our local bicycle club was trying to organize a bike tour in Cuba, but was having difficulty and had reached out for help in the club newsletter. I offered to help and contacted the Cuban government officials I had dealt with when I operated Niagara Safari to negotiate a price for what is known as a “hub and spoke” bike holiday: one central hotel as the starting and ending point for each day’s ride.
I gathered 16 riders and found a travel agent to help get the tour off the ground. This proved to be a bad idea. The agent not only demanded a huge commission, but also had to be pressured to release the monies collected to pay for the hotel. It took so long to resolve that I ended up paying cash out of my own pocket when we were in Cuba.
However, in the meantime we were off and running. I had found a good Cuban guide who brought along a good bike mechanic. I also brought, Manolo, a good friend from Havana whose participation was key to the success of this tour. Without him, I would have been lost. For instance, when planning the tour we had scouted the route in a car and had planned a great beach visit. This raised two challenges that the Cuban government officials had not addressed when I had set the tour up with them.
First, because the route was a hilly 160 k roundtrip, we would need a support bus for this ride if we wished to stay at the beach as long as possible and not have to ride back to the hotel in the dark. This meant that we had to go into the nearby city of Pinar del Rio where Manolo managed to secure the services of a support bus.
Second, and complicating matters even more, there had been a hurricane a week earlier that had blown away the restaurant on the beach where we planned to spend the day. Back into action goes Manolo, successfully arranging for a “lechon” – a roast pig – to be prepared locally and delivered to the beach, complete with buns and carving utensils. By a stroke of sheer luck, one of my riders was a butcher by trade who carved it up for us. We had great pork buns in a stunning beach setting to cap our day of riding and sightseeing.
In fact, this beach had so much appeal that I had difficulty rounding up all the riders to ride back to the hotel. Two ladies actually refused to leave and get on the bus for the return trip until I took their bikes off the bus, leaned them against a tree and threatened to leave both of them behind to find their own way back! Of course, I would never have abandoned them, but such was the beauty of the beach and the pleasant nature of our time there.
In total, we spent 9 days touring around the scenic Viñales Valley and the bustling city of Pinar del Rio, the heart of the world-famous tobacco industry in western Cuba. At one point, the bar by the hotel pool ran out of beer. In response, Mike Cervone, one of my tour participants, asked Manolo to take him to town where he bought a couple of cases and brought them back. He then opened them up on a table in front of the bar with an accompanying note: “This is an honour system. Put your cash in my can. 2$ each.” Although Mike had marked up the price by doubling what he had paid, he still managed only to break even once the beer was gone. So much for the honour system! That being said, one good thing that came from our pool bar gathering at “Mike’s bar” was the acronym “CanBiCuba” that one of our riders dreamt up and which I have kept as the name of the parent company of our present cycling tour outfit, Bicyclebreeze.
Back then, the Cuban economy was struggling to get back on its feet after the loss of Russian subsidies a decade earlier and times were very difficult for ordinary Cubans. Often, they would congregate at the fence around the hotel begging items such as soap. Since those difficult days, the life of ordinary Cubans has greatly improved, but it is still a good idea to bring small items like soap and toothpaste to give away to folks in the outlying regions of Cuba where scarcity still exists.
On this inaugural bike tour, we attracted the attention of a cycling club that I was later told was run by a local high school. The club members were often seen riding and racing on ancient road bikes that had been given to them by prior visitors. To help them out, we left them another 5 or 6 bikes when we left and continue in our small way at Bicyclebreeze to help them and other cycling clubs across the island with donations of bicycles, bicycle parts, clothes and equipment, including truly scarce items like tubes, tires and bartape. This year we are bringing the club near Aguas Claras team jerseys with the name of the school on them. I also hope to arrange an evening pig roast that will give us the opportunity to meet the club members and to share an evening with them.