Why this ride
408 km from Santiago de Cuba to Santiago de Cuba, about 5 h of riding. The stops in between: La Gran Piedra, Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff, Guantanamo and Yateras. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
San Pedro de la Roca Castle and Yateras
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 408 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 10 h 00
- 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
San Pedro de la Roca Castle → La Gran Piedra
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
- 34 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is La Gran Piedra.
2. 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 comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
3. 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
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff. Next is Guantanamo.
4. 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
Guantanamo, about halfway. Next is Yateras.
5. 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 sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Guantanamo.
6. 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 comes up about 248 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff.
7. 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
about 300 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Archaeological Landscape of the First Coff. Next is back through La Gran Piedra.
8. 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, late in the day. Next is San Pedro de la Roca Castle.
9. 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
The route ends here after 408 km.
Leg by leg
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 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 back through Guantanamo
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 back through La Gran Piedra
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 to San Pedro de la Roca Castle
back through La Gran Piedra → San Pedro de la Roca Castle is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
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