Why this ride
332 km from El Cobre to El Cobre, about 8 h 27 of riding. It goes by way of San Pedro de la Roca Castle, La Gran Piedra, Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff and back through La Gran Piedra.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Dos Palmas Contramaestre and Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 332 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 27
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
El Cobre → San Pedro de la Roca Castle
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 16 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 26 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Dos Palmas Contramaestre
Eastern Cuba has a very different feel from Havana, and the country between Santiago and Palma Soriano shows why. This is the foothill country of the Sierra Maestra, the mountain range where the revolution began in the 1950s, and the land is a mix of cane fields, mango and royal palm, small farms and steep green ridges to the south. Dos Palmas is the name of a locality here, close to El Cobre, home of the great copper-domed basilica where the Virgin of Charity is venerated, and Palma Soriano, the main town of the valley.
Read the complete Dos Palmas Contramaestre write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dos Palmas Contramaestre is where the day begins. Next is El Cobre.
2. El Cobre
Few places in Cuba matter as much to ordinary people as the little town of El Cobre, high on a hill about thirteen kilometres west of Santiago de Cuba. Its basilica, a yellow-and-white church with three domes standing against the green of the Sierra Maestra, holds the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba, a small statue of the Virgin dressed in gold. Believers and non-believers alike treat her as a symbol of the nation, and the pilgrimage on her feast day, the eighth of September, draws crowds from across the island.
Read the complete El Cobre write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Cobre comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is San Pedro de la Roca Castle.
3. San Pedro de la Roca Castle
Where the narrow mouth of Santiago de Cuba's bay meets the open Caribbean, a castle climbs the headland in terraces of stone. San Pedro de la Roca, often called simply El Morro, was designed in the seventeenth century by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Battista Antonelli, from a family that built defences across the Spanish Caribbean. It was meant to shut the door on the pirates and privateers who had sacked Santiago more than once, and its tiered batteries, drawbridges and stairs follow the rock so closely that the fortress seems carved from it. It became a World Heritage Site in 1997 as the best preserved example of Spanish-American military architecture of its type.
Read the complete San Pedro de la Roca Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach San Pedro de la Roca Castle. Next is La Gran Piedra.
4. La Gran Piedra
La Gran Piedra means simply the Great Stone, and that is exactly what waits at the top: an enormous boulder sitting on the crest of the Sierra de la Gran Piedra, over twelve hundred metres above sea level and roughly twenty kilometres east of Santiago de Cuba. You climb several hundred stone steps from the road to reach it, and a metal ladder takes you onto the rock itself. On a clear morning the view runs over forested ridges to the Caribbean on one side and inland across the Sierra Maestra on the other, and people say that on the clearest nights you can see the lights of Jamaica and Haiti.
Read the complete La Gran Piedra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La Gran Piedra, about halfway. Next is Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
5. 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 sits at 105 km, about halfway. Next is back through La Gran Piedra.
6. back through La Gran Piedra
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Gran Piedra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through La Gran Piedra comes up about 238 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle.
7. back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Pedro de la Roca Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 275 km into the recorded legs you reach back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle. Next is back through El Cobre.
8. back through El Cobre
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Cobre write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through El Cobre, late in the day. Next is Dos Palmas Contramaestre.
9. Dos Palmas Contramaestre
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dos Palmas Contramaestre 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 332 km.
Leg by leg
Dos Palmas Contramaestre to El Cobre
Dos Palmas Contramaestre → El Cobre is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Cobre to San Pedro de la Roca Castle
El Cobre → San Pedro de la Roca Castle is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Pedro de la Roca Castle to La Gran Piedra
San Pedro de la Roca Castle → La Gran Piedra is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Gran Piedra to Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
La Gran Piedra → Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff to back through La Gran Piedra
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → back through La Gran Piedra is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Gran Piedra to back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle
back through La Gran Piedra → back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle to back through El Cobre
back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle → back through El Cobre is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through El Cobre to Dos Palmas Contramaestre
back through El Cobre → Dos Palmas Contramaestre is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.