Why this ride
328 km from Guantánamo to Guantánamo, about 8 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff, La Gran Piedra, San Pedro de la Roca Castle and El Cobre.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Niceto Pérez and El Cobre
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 328 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 04
- 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
La Gran Piedra → San Pedro de la Roca Castle
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 37 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 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 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Gran Piedra.
3. 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
about 98 km into the recorded legs you reach La Gran Piedra. Next is San Pedro de la Roca Castle.
4. 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
San Pedro de la Roca Castle, about halfway. Next is El Cobre.
5. 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 sits at 104 km, about halfway. Next is back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle.
6. 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
back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle comes up about 186 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through La Gran Piedra.
7. 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
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach back through La Gran Piedra. 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 Niceto Pérez.
9. 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
The route ends here after 328 km.
Leg by leg
Niceto Pérez to Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
Niceto Pérez → Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 25 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 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Gran Piedra to San Pedro de la Roca Castle
La Gran Piedra → San Pedro de la Roca Castle is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Pedro de la Roca Castle to El Cobre
San Pedro de la Roca Castle → El Cobre is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Cobre to back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle
El Cobre → back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle is 26 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 La Gran Piedra
back through San Pedro de la Roca Castle → back through La Gran Piedra is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Gran Piedra to back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff
back through La Gran Piedra → back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff to Niceto Pérez
back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff → Niceto Pérez is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.