Day 0 and 1; Improvisation is essential when travelling to Cuba
After the success of my westward Cuba adventure in 2023, I decided to get off the beaten path and take a tour of central Cuba from Santa Clara. The region includes two towns designed to attract tourists (Cienfuegos and Trinidad) and beaches for sun lovers and swimming enthusiasts. There were 7 seats left on the flight for several days and I was hoping that I would board without a problem. But there was a problem because there was a restriction on the flight which meant that they did not accept the transport of my bike straight away. The check-in supervisor was optimistic but I had a bad feeling. So I prepared a plan B; take the flight to Varadero which left ten minutes later. Anyway, we refused to take my bike on the flight to Santa Clara and after assuring me that there was no problem with the flight to Varadero I made a reservation for it. here and proceed to cancel my hotel reservations for Santa Clara and Remedios, modify the information on my Cuban tourist card and make a reservation for two nights at the Txuri-Urdi hotel in Carbonera, located a little over 3 km from Varadero Airport.
The flight was without problem despite the absence of service at the beginning because turbulence was forecast which went unnoticed and I shared a taxi with my flight neighbor Barthélémy, a professor on leave from Drummondville, who had rented a room at Mercedes, a Quebecer who has run a private house for several years in Carbonera.
All this happened yesterday February 28th. Today I got on my bike and took a little ride of a little over 51 kilometers to Matanzas and in the afternoon I did a little snorkeling at Playa Corral. Tomorrow I leave for Jagüey Grande (near Australia) for a night towards Playa Larga.
Here is a summary of my ride with Strava followed by my photos of the day.
