Why this ride
A 303 km round trip from Guantánamo - roughly 7 h 51 in the saddle. On the way it passes Niceto Pérez, Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff, La Gran Piedra and back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
El Salvador and La Gran Piedra
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 303 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 51
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Guantanamo.
2. 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
Guantánamo comes up 23 km in. Next is Niceto Pérez.
3. 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
45 km in you reach Niceto Pérez. Next is Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is La Gran Piedra.
5. 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 sits at 91 km, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
6. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff comes up 113 km in. Next is back through Niceto Pérez.
7. 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
136 km in you reach back through Niceto Pérez. Next is back through Guantanamo.
8. 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
back through Guantanamo, late in the day. Next is El Salvador.
9. 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
The route ends here after 303 km.
Leg by leg
El Salvador to Guantanamo
El Salvador → Guantanamo is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guantánamo to Niceto Pérez
Guantánamo → Niceto Pérez is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Niceto Pérez to Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
Niceto Pérez → Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff to La Gran Piedra
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → La Gran Piedra is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Gran Piedra to back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
La Gran Piedra → back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff to back through Niceto Pérez
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → back through Niceto Pérez is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Niceto Pérez to back through Guantanamo
back through Niceto Pérez → back through Guantanamo is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Guantanamo to El Salvador
back through Guantanamo → El Salvador is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.