Big Sur

It’s not officially Christmas without Bedders in a santa hat – Feliz Navidad from Baja California!

Michael had recently bought Fan as a working project in San Francisco, and sailed her down to Baja for the winter.

Home-built by a carpenter, Fan is full of character with beautiful wooden details such as these flowers above deck. Michael has plans to renovate her fully in 2012 to bring her up to scratch and ready to sail anywhere!

So, after some last minute stitching work…

…the sails were up and we were underway. We headed north out of La Paz into the Sea of Cortez, the incredibly rich body of water which separates Baja from the mainland and which Jacques Cousteau famously called “the aquarium of the world”.

After a couple of days finding our sea legs (and stomachs), we worked our way along the sheltered coves of Espiritu Santo Island, quickly settling into a tough routine of reading…

…swimming and snorkelling in the incredible turqouise water…

…and perfecting our nautical “gaze at the horizon” poses.

In between, Michael took time to show his novice crew some of the ropes…

…and despite her track record for wayward steering, even let Bedders take to the helm (no punctures this time you'll be pleased to hear).

Despite a sea teeming with marine life and our best efforts, the fish refused to bite…

..but we did get lucky with an incredible afternoon spent snorkelling at a sea lion rookery. The pups inquisitively swam right up to our faces to check out the strange gringos in wetsuits, while the adults torpedoed below us with incredible power and grace.

At the end of each day we were treated to a spectacular Baja sunset show, as the sun dipped towards the horizon…

…before setting the sky alight with a fireshow of reds, oranges and purples.

And what better way to celebrate New Year's Day than an early morning leap into the Sea of Cortez! A very Happy 2012 to everyone – to friends and family back home, but also to all the new friends we met and who helped us along the road in 2011. Here's to more Latin American adventures in the coming 12 months…

We were excited to be back on our bikes again in sunny Cuba after our long Christmas break – despite me falling off the morning this photo was taken!

Setting off from the second largest city in Cuba, Santiago de Cuba, it wasn’t long before we reached rural life. After a gruelling climb out of the city we were soon into rolling fields and laidback cattle.

When we did finally reach a “main” road (this is Cuba’s equivalent of England’s M1), we found it empty. Cuba’s roads are a dream for cyclists: car ownership here is very low and the motorists who do take to the roads are extremely courteous to bikes – they outnumber cars by far as the main form of transport.

James samples peso pizza in one of the first towns we passed through. In the past couple of years, laws have been relaxed to allow Cubans to sell food and drink from the doorways of their homes. A daily staple, we never expected to eat so much pizza in Cuba and certainly not delivered to us from someone’s living room!

The first two days of our tour were fairly easy riding and then it was into the mountains to visit Ché and Fidel’s guerrilla hideaway during the revolution, Commandancia la Plata. Having a guide for this visit is mandatory and so we took part in a tour. The guide was excellent but spoke little English so it was a relief when James offered to translate for the group.

After our fascinating trip into the Sierra Maestra, we then had to climb back out. A 35% incline on this road made it impossible to cycle and here I am pushing with all my might. In the background you can see the steep and wiggly road we took to Fidel’s camp, a mere 45% and the steepest road in Cuba. Needless to say, we didn’t cycle that one either!

Cuba’s main economy used to be sugar (now it’s tourism) and it’s still a lucrative crop; we passed acres and acres of sugarcane fields, mostly being harvested by hand.

Manzanillo, a pretty little Cuban town, was typical of the less touristy places we passed through by bike with many Cubans out and about eating ice cream and sitting in the square watching the world go by.

It is impossible to escape the iconic image of Ché Guevara in Cuba. An Argentinian guerrilla who came to help fight for Cuba’s independence, Ché was and still is the poster boy of the Cuban revolution. Instead of advertisements, all we saw for a month were propaganda slogans and the faces of Ché, Fidel and his brother Raúl staring out at us, inspiring Cubans to keep the revolution alive.

Mmmm! Take one blender and add fruit, milk and ice to make yummy Cuban milkshakes that instantly refresh and revive even the weariest cyclist. 

We frequently passed by horse and carts carrying hay and sugarcane or ancient motorbikes with sidecars. Transport in Cuba is whatever you can put two wheels on and make move…so our bikes looked positively space age compared to some of the contraptions we rode alongside.

Being allied with the USSR for so many years between the 1960s and the 1990s has left a fairly ugly mark on some Cuban architecture. Amongst ruined colonial buildings and decaying grandeur, we found chunky tower blocks and hotels that resembled motorway service stations …didn’t quite fit with the Caribbean backdrop somehow….

…unlike this one, which blended in with its surroundings a little more. What it’s used for is a mystery though; most buildings seemed to keep doors and windows firmly shut and little signage to advertise what they are, even if they offer a service to the public…so it could be anything from a shop to a synagogue!

On the quiet road to Marea del Portillo, we met Edislaidis and her daughter. Her daughter was sick and she was taking her to the nearest clinic with the only available means of transport, her bike. Edislaidis did the pedalling and her daughter balanced precariously on the crossbar. As we cycled around Cuba for fun, this was a reality check that Cubans use their bikes every day as an essential means of transport.

Now here’s a bus stop I wouldn’t mind being delayed at. With that view you wouldn’t mind if the number 26 was running a bit late would you?!

…and if the bus had to go over this bridge, you’d probably have second thoughts about getting on it at all? Collapsed bridges were a fairly common sight along the southern coast, particularly since Hurricane Dennis whooshed through in 2009, but this was one of the more dramatic.

What do Cubans do on a Sunday morning? If you’re in the countryside, expect to see a classic car, parked on the village baseball field, in front of the stunning Sierra Maestra, and the owner preparing to release his five crates of homing pigeons….of course!

Along with peso pizza and batidos, another thing you can buy cheaply from local vendors is delicious homemade ice cream. These two gigantic cones (I did allow James to taste a little of one I promise) set us back less than 50p. It’s a miracle cyclists don’t leave Cuba far fatter than when they arrived!

After 600km and nine days riding, we arrived back at the Plaza de la Revolución in Santiago de Cuba. A fascinating and stimulating journey, it’s whetted our appetite for more Cuban cycling in the future.