Final - Trip Summary

As always, here are the trip’s most interesting numbers:

• Kilometers ridden:      3,100 kms
• Road/dirt split:            80/20
• Police incidents:          0
• Low speed falls:          2
• Injuries:                       0
• Highest altitude:          1,500m
• Lowest altitude:           0m
• Flat tires:                      None
• Battery failures:           2
• Mechanical problems:  0
• Highest temperature:   92
• Lowest temperature:    65
• Rainy days:                  1
• Museums visited:
• Che Guevara’s mausoleum
• Bay of Pigs museum
• Sugar factory museum
• Tobacco plantation

• Overnights:
• Habana
• Vinales
• Pinar del Rio/ Soroa
• Playa Larga/Bay of Pigs
• Trinidad
• Remedios
• Moron
• Varadero

Actual tracking points from our Satellite SPOT Tracker

Day 13 - Last Day in Cuba

After breakfast we decided to take a quick stroll in old Habana before heading to the airport.  We rode our motorcycles only with our helmets and gloves (no boots, jackets, armor)  to the center of the city to take a last leisurely look.

It was nice riding throughout the city on Sunday with nobody around and with the whole city more relaxed than normal.  Had a last peek at some great buildings, churches, archeological sites, stores, and sat down for our last cappuccinos and guayaba juices before heading to the airport.

Had one more great conversation with our taxi driver ... it is amazing to me how each person in the world is a world in itself ... full of stories, experiences, learnings, perspectives, lessons to be learned ... I am in awe.

We arrived at the airport on time, checked in, and headed to our gate as a rainstorm from hell hit Habana ... spring has arrived!  Luckily our Aeromexico plane had just landed and we were able to take off during a lull in the storm on time and with no incident. 

A good uneventful ending to another amazing motorcycle adventure!

Remnants of the old wall that surrounded the whole city

A great panoramic view of some streets in old Habana

The quiet streets on Sunday morning

Art everywhere

One of the many churches in old Habana

Great architecture everywhere

Our last guayaba juices and cappuccinos in old Habana

Made it to the airport in time for a big tropical thunderstorm    

 

Day 12 - Xanadu and the Splendor of old Cuba

We had a leisure start today and had a long walk by the sea this morning. Lots of Cuban families were already setting camp for a day of fun at the beach. Lots of children. What a beautiful beach.

Before leaving Varadero, we went by the Dupont house, built by the industrialist in 1930 at the very end of the peninsula. The house is also known as Xanadu … a greatly preserved mansion by the sea with a great roof top bar … and great staff that has worked there for 25+ years. Great stories and history.

On our way back to Habana, we stopped by a road side hut that sold “pork and bread” for a quick meal and flan. The rest of the way was mostly on a 4 lane highway next to the sea. We went through the town of Matanzas and other seaside towns as civilization became more real as we approached the capital … more people, more ships, more factories, more buildings, more cars.

We finally arrived to the same house in Habana from where we left 9 days ago. We made it! All safe, all motorcycles in one piece, no broken bones or accidents, no police incidents … just an amazing trip. After kissing the ground, we began the unloading process.

This trip was not only an amazing adventure but also a unique learning experience … we managed to always stay with Cubans, at their homes …. we had great daily conversations about history, politics, philosophy, life, challenges, aspirations with everybody we met … in a way that few motorcycle adventures allow … a soul enriching experience.

As with any place, Cuba has its good and its bad things. Life here is very safe, relaxed, not often tied to a clock or to an urge to make money all the time or to careers and achievements … as many of our lives are back home. On the other hand, it is often hard to plan for a future as things are not easy … and the rules keep changing. We met people that wanted to stay because of the good things and others that wanted more and a better future and were ready to leave.

The stories that impacted me the most were of families often torn apart when grandparents, parents, and other relatives are left behind when children and grandchildren migrate to other countries.

There is sporadic Internet now so they manage to keep in touch but more often than not seeing their family in person is out of the question for years because of restrictions or because it is just too expensive. I always saw a glimpse of sadness in those Cubans that had lost family this way.

Our hosts in Habana have most of their family in the US and now their teenage children aspire to move away also. They have a nice life in Cuba with deep roots and history and are now wrestling with what to do next when and if their children leave. They are fortunate that they are able to travel freely.

As soon as we arrived to Habana, we sat down on the big rocking chairs on the big porch in front of the house and had some beers, cappuccinos, and watermelon juice … we were all dirty, sweaty, barefoot … just enjoying a great relaxed afternoon with our Cuban friends in Habana after a great ride … heaven!

We went to dinner to a nice restaurant inside the “Small Luxury Hotels of the World” property as our last dinner in Habana … met 2 doctors from Mexico studying their ophthalmology and pneumology specialties in Cuba on a full ride scholarship from the government of Mexico … and 3 girls from China studying music (vocals) in Boston … all of us the same … just part of this big worldwide village … trying to figure out our way in this world … trying to get the most out of it … and figuring out why we are here.

A walk on the beach at dawn

Don Quijote at the very tip of Varadero

The great room at Xanadu (Dupont House)

The golf course at Xanadu

The view from the roof top bar at Xanadu

The rooftop bar at Xanadu

Xanadu - right on the beach

Yordi looking into this restricted store at the gas station to see what they have

We made back to Habana

We made it back to Habana

Survived!

Oh yeah - celebratory cigars

Anton's most important acquisition of the trip - a rapper gold chain (actually stainless steel)

Day 11 - A Day at the Beach Relaxing

Today, we left Remedios, and our grand house, after breakfast and headed to Varadero. The husband at our house was an ob-gyn doctor and we talked about health care in Cuba for a while.

Cuba’s international doctors program is interesting. The country apparently generates excess well trained doctors so they export them to other countries like Brasil, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Dubai, and a number of countries in Africa to generate foreign currency for their coffers. Apparently, the government keeps 90% of the payment and the doctor receives only 10% which is barely enough to live in their host country. Doctors are the only person category (I think) that cannot leave Cuba freely.

Our first stop for a drink was in Santo Domingo. We saw a very active and busy town and had some soft serve ice cream made in a machine concocted with parts from the 1800s. It was strawberry and chocolate.

The ethnic diversity in Cuba never cease to amaze me … African, European, American Indian, Chinese, and everything in between … I still have a hard time sometimes differentiating tourists from Cubans. Cubans love to wear Bermuda shorts.

Another interesting fact Cuba has a culture of deep love for cars, motorcycles, and anything with a motor. Cubans are extremely resourceful in keeping those machines running with no real parts. And, I heard that because of the difficulty of bringing vehicles into the country, enterprising Cubans bring them in parts in their luggage … even V8 engines! … and reassemble them here. “Water always flows to where it needs to be.”

I also had the chance to watch Cuban TV with our host family for the first time … a dubbed Brazilian soap opera and a talk show for women … it definitely added another dimension to our experience traveling the country. It made me realize that Cuba is a relatively mature economy with pretty much everything you would expect … but just a little weird … maybe just plain weird.

We finally made it to Varadero which is a long peninsula with beautiful turquoise seas and powdery white sand beaches on both sides. A relatively developed touristy area with lots of hotels, restaurants, shops, taxis from the 1950s … all run by the government. Apparently, the government has been reluctant to give up control of anything here … such a big cash machine.

We checked in at our houses, put on a swimming suit and headed to the beach. Wow! A beautiful fine white sand beach with seas in a variety of turquoise shades of blue as far as you can see. No trash anywhere and the ocean waters where the cleanest I have seen in a long time.

So many childhood memories triggered by simply floating out there and letting the waves rock you up and down. Back to basics. Very relaxing. This is something that resonates deeply within me … but I do not understand why or its meaning yet.

We ate at a nice Italian restaurant overlooking a lake within a park and went to listen to some cover rock band at an outside bar next door before bed.

Tomorrow, we head back to Habana to turn in our motorcycles, pack, and recover before our flights on Sunday.

Leaving Remedios

Having soft-serve ice cream in Santo Domingo

Downtown Santo Domingo

The Home Depot of Cuba

Russian Ladas are very popular

Arriving in Varadero with beautifully restored old cars everywhere

Including very old ones

Made it to the beach in Varadero

People for all over the world

Just living life

Powdery, white, pristine sand everywhere

Our Italian restaurant for dinner in Varadero

Outside the famous Beatles club in Varadero

The band playing

Day 10 - Flamingos, Sugar, and the Long Sand Bar

After leaving our family house in Moron, we started heading West along the North shore through a number of towns and fields. I realized how immune we are by now to the completely different world we were inhabiting now. The rules, the horses pulling everything, the queues, the rundown buildings, old cars, the nice people. All normal now.

We made a stop at a nice government owned resort with a big pool filled with mineral waters with healing powers from the region. Everything here was so much cheaper (e.g., a glass of fresh mango juice here was $0.25 USD vs $2 USD outside). I finally realized that anything run by the government is way cheaper than anything bought from a private business … also, all yellow taxis in Cuba, which look relatively new, are owned by the government and the drivers are all government employees. Interesting.

Getting gasoline is an activity that needs to be planned carefully as gas stations are not many and there is no guarantee there will be any gas or electricity or something that will prevent us from getting some. So far so good. Only one motorcycle has run out of gas on the whole trip.

We decided to visit the Cayo Santa Maria which was connected to the mainland by a 70 km road built on the ocean … just like the keys in South Florida … an amazing, and very successful, tourist project in one of the most beautiful beach settings in the world started by the government in the late 1990s. Today, it has 44,000 guest rooms that receive customers from all over the world. We only made it half way through to enjoy nature and the green-blue-sandy-marshy oceans on both side of the road. A nice experience.

Interesting that as I was riding today, inspiration and clarity helped me better structure my thoughts around finding your purpose in life.

The Buddhist principles of no attachment (to not get attached to material things, thoughts, ideas … to travel light) and no judgement (things are not good or bad, they just are) allow you to develop an ability to better disconnect from daily things to become an observer.

As an observer that is not distracted by world inputs or becoming too wrapped up with unimportant things can help evaluate and select the things that best resonate with our being.

Being selective and allowing these chosen inputs to become part of our soul and our worldview is how you may discover why you were put on this earth over time.

For me, there is one element that seems to resonate with my being at an order of magnitude greater than what other world inputs provide. Thinking of Pam, Alex and David, and our grand babies being together right now, and thinking about Christian and Annabeth having fun in London and Christian not feeling well gets me deep. Family has a unique signature on how it hits my being.

Could it be that family is a core tenet for me from which to find my real purpose? And what connection those that have with exploring the world and meeting people from all walks of life … and what do all this have to do with motorcycles, the freedom, and adrenaline that come with it? Is it just a catalyst to finding the answer?

We probably should get back to motorcycles and Cuba : ) 

Tomorrow, we go to the famous Varadero Beach for some R&R a the beach.

Leaving our hosts in Moron

Arriving to the government-run healing mineral water resort on our way to Remedios

A flamingo in the restaurant?!?

Access to Cayo Santa Maria, the largest and most recent tourist development in Cuba, is restricted

The group in Cayo Santa Maria

Riding the Cayo with ocean on both sides of the road for 70 km.

At the end of the world

Our lunch spot on our way to Remedios

Very shallow seas around the Cayo

Visited a decommissioned sugar mill

Greatly preserved machinery inside the factory turned museum 

Waiting for a glass of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice

A yard full of steam locomotives at the museum

Arriving our our house in Remedios

Inside our house in Remedios enjoying some drinks after a long ride

The central plaza in Remedios

Great cars everywhere

Another view of Remedios

The big room inside our house in Remedios