Why this ride
The stops in between: Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff, Guantanamo, Yateras and El Salvador. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
La Gran Piedra and El Salvador
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 462 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 11 h 45
- 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. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
2. 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 comes up about 73 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 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Guantanamo. Next is Yateras.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is El Salvador.
5. 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 sits at 153 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yateras.
6. back through Yateras
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Yateras comes up about 293 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 337 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Guantanamo. Next is back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
8. 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, late in the day. Next is La Gran Piedra.
9. 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
The route ends here after 462 km.
Leg by leg
La Gran Piedra to Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
La Gran Piedra → Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff to Guantanamo
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → Guantanamo is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guantánamo to Yateras
Guantánamo → Yateras is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yateras to El Salvador
Yateras → El Salvador is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Salvador to back through Yateras
El Salvador → back through Yateras is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yateras to back through Guantanamo
back through Yateras → back through Guantanamo is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Guantanamo to back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
back through Guantanamo → 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 to La Gran Piedra
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → La Gran Piedra is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.