CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
393 km from El Cobre to El Cobre, about 9 h 43 of riding. The stops in between: La Gran Piedra, Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff, Guantanamo and back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dos Palmas Contramaestre is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Gran Piedra comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff. Next is Guantanamo.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Guantanamo, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff sits at 182 km, about halfway. Next is back through La Gran Piedra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Gran Piedra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Gran Piedra comes up about 320 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dos Palmas Contramaestre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dos Palmas Contramaestre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dos Palmas Contramaestre closes the day.
Dos Palmas Contramaestre → La Gran Piedra is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → Guantanamo is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guantánamo → back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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 → Dos Palmas Contramaestre is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.