!Cuba por bicicleta¡

So I had flights booked to Cuba for a month. Mmm, a month in the Caribbean. I was looking for something a bit different from the same old thing I was coming across in Central America, something to break the trip up a bit; throw some stones at Castro, stick my fingers up at Bush through the gates of Guantanamo bay, visit the infamous 'Bay of Pigs', explore the key places where the 1958 Cuban revolution took place.

Then I started looking at the prices for things in Cuba; it has a very unique approach to tourism, which has hampered the ability for the tight arsed budget backpacker to do things cheaply. But then an idea started to form, spurred on by my recent camping adventures in Mexico. Why the hell not travel Cuba by bike and camp most of the way?


In the theory of course it was very possible; the hardest part appeared to be getting an appropriate bike sorted in Mexico, and fixing it up so that it could carry me and my belongings around Cuba. But I finally managed it, after 1 day in the city of Mèrida, Mexico searching for a bike shop, and then the huge mission to find a place selling the basic tools to help me maintain it on the road. You would have thought the bike shop would have sold the tools, but that requires a bit of initiative on the part of the bike shop owner, and initiative hasn't exactly made it into the curriculum of any education system in Latin America yet. So a whole hot afternoon was spent searching the town increasing my tool shop vocabulary with things like 'Allen keys', 'variable size spanners' etc.

After Mèrida, my next stop was Cancùn, the city which I am flying out to Cuba from. Cancùn is out on its own in Mexico I think. It seems like its a city in the United States, just the language is a bit different. Everybody drives around big wide gridded streets, 15 lanes wide in unnecessarily big 4X4's, driving short distances between well stocked air conditioned shops, and pedestrianism is just some eccentric past time for the minority. Cancùn is like a proper western city, with proper shops selling proper items. There was no open air market to pick up cheap fruit, veg and street food, so I was forced to go to the supermarket; and wow, what an experience. There was a wonderful bakery, making fresh bread and sweet pastries, a huge cheese counter selling all types of cheese, and the meat section.. oh the meat section. I didn't realise how good things were back in the real world. I treated myself to some fresh bread and a big block of Roquefort blue cheese, and went running back to my hotel room like Charlie when he found the golden ticket!


Anyway, yeah, I'm off to Cuba soon to go cycling. Here's a summary of the equipment I'm taking:

• The bike. The bike is a fairly basic, no frills affair, and was the only one in the shop worth getting. It cost about 55 pounds, which isn't bad for what it is; there's not too many parts made of plastic that shouldn't be. I had a rack fitted to the back to allow me to carry a bag on the bike, and I got the shop to box it up for me ready to take on the plane to Cuba.


• Camping stuff. I'm just taking a sleeping mat and a small excuse for a tent. I was deliberating on whether to take a hammock instead of the sleeping mat, but the sleeping mat won.


• Other stuff. I'm taking an alarmingly small amount of things to live off for one month. Just a small rucksack that I will tie to the rack on the back of my bike with a piece of rope. Its going to be a smelly month!

Internet access isn't all that fast and cheap in Cuba, so don't expect many emails replied to, but I'll try and put in the odd blog entry or too when I get the chance.

!Me voy¡