Why this ride
On the way it passes Niceto Pérez, Guantanamo, El Salvador and Yateras.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff and Yateras
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 280 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 01
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
In the hills of southeastern Cuba, between Santiago and Guantánamo, the ruins of old coffee plantations lie hidden in the forest, and they tell a remarkable story. After the slave revolution in Saint-Domingue in the 1790s, which led to the independence of Haiti, many French planters fled to Cuba with their enslaved workers, and they introduced coffee growing on a large scale in the Sierra Maestra foothills. In the nineteenth century, hundreds of cafetales were established, with mansions, drying platforms, mills, aqueducts and slave quarters, using innovative techniques adapted to the steep mountain terrain. The Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba was listed by UNESCO in 2000.
Read the complete Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is where the day begins. Next is Niceto Pérez.
2. Niceto Pérez
Niceto Pérez is a rural municipality in the hills just west of the city of Guantánamo, in the far east of Cuba, a region of sugar cane, small farms and mountains rising towards the Sierra Maestra and the coffee country of the Gran Piedra. It is not a place that features in many guidebooks, and that is part of its interest. The surrounding hills hold the remains of the coffee plantations established in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by French planters fleeing the revolution in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, and the archaeological landscape of those first coffee plantations in the south east of Cuba is listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Niceto Pérez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Niceto Pérez comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Guantanamo.
3. Guantánamo
Most people know Guantánamo for two things: a song and a naval base. The song, Guantanamera, about a peasant girl from Guantánamo, became one of the most famous Cuban tunes in the world, with verses adapted from the poetry of José Martí. The base, leased to the United States since 1903 on the shores of Guantánamo Bay, is a separate, fenced enclave south of the city, and it is not a place you can visit. The city itself, in the far east of Cuba, is a sleepy provincial capital with a grid of low, colourful houses, a central square and a strong musical tradition. It is the birthplace of changüí, a rustic ancestor of son, played with tres guitar, bongos and marímbula.
Read the complete Guantanamo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Guantanamo. Next is El Salvador.
4. El Salvador
In the mountains north of Guantánamo, at the eastern end of Cuba, the Sierra del Purial and the hills around the town of El Salvador rise steeply from the dry coastal plain into a greener, cooler world of forest and coffee. At the end of the eighteenth century, French planters fleeing the slave revolution in Saint-Domingue, today's Haiti, settled in these mountains and built coffee plantations, with stone drying terraces, mills, aqueducts and grand houses, worked by enslaved Africans. The ruins of more than a hundred and seventy of these plantations survive in the Sierra Maestra and around Guantánamo, and they were listed by UNESCO in 2000 as the Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba.
Read the complete El Salvador write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Salvador, about halfway. Next is Yateras.
5. Yateras
Yateras is coffee country in the hills of Guantánamo province, at the far eastern end of Cuba, and getting here feels like leaving the island most visitors know. The municipality climbs from the dry lowlands around Guantánamo city into green, steep mountains, part of the great Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa range that runs along the north-east of the island.
Read the complete Yateras write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yateras sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through El Salvador.
6. back through El Salvador
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Salvador write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through El Salvador comes up about 206 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Guantanamo.
7. back through Guantanamo
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Guantanamo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 228 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Guantanamo. Next is back through Niceto Pérez.
8. back through Niceto Pérez
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Niceto Pérez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Niceto Pérez, late in the day. Next is Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
9. Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 280 km.
Leg by leg
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff to Niceto Pérez
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → Niceto Pérez is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Niceto Pérez to Guantanamo
Niceto Pérez → Guantanamo is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guantánamo to El Salvador
Guantánamo → El Salvador is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Salvador to Yateras
El Salvador → Yateras is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yateras to back through El Salvador
Yateras → back through El Salvador is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through El Salvador to back through Guantanamo
back through El Salvador → back through Guantanamo is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Guantanamo to back through Niceto Pérez
back through Guantanamo → back through Niceto Pérez is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Niceto Pérez to Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
back through Niceto Pérez → Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.