The best day of the trip so far. But it was nearly the worst. And last. I enjoyed a morning dip and a dawn breakfast of fruit and coffee on the casa’s terrace overlooking Chivirico beach (pic), keen to get going. The sun splashed warm orange on the destination hills and mountains, roughly the same…
Author: Rob Ainsley
Cuba 4: Santiago de Cuba to Chivirico
I was up and out at five, and I wasn’t alone. Mornings are warm and street life starts up early (pic), with plenty of peso kiosks open for takeaway breakfast snacks. They’re cheap, unimaginative and simple, but then so am I. I did the guidebook’s recommended Old Town Walk, on my bike, and left Santiago…
Cuba 3: Guantánamo to Santiago de Cuba
The old road out from the city west was all quiet rural stuff: Leicestershire with palm trees. I turned on to the autopista (‘motorway’): this being Cuba, bikes are allowed. In fact, it was so quiet, with just the occasional 1950s gas-guzzler lumbering by (pic)… …or indeed the odd man on a donkey (pic), that…
Cuba 2: Imías to Guantánamo
Having slipped J— (pic) a few pesos for BIKE REPAIRS and not accomm or breakfast, oh no, I headed west. It was easy riding, flat, windless… and shopless and cafeless. Still, there was some good oceanside riding, with the usual levels of traffic on Cuban main roads (pic). With 25km to go – and pleased…
Cuba 1: Baracoa to Imías
After a 15-hour bus journey from Havana, during which the driver had entertainingly run the air conditioner settings through every climate type from tropics to permafrost, I enjoyed a couple of days in the laid-back port of Baracoa. It was a lovely sunny day when I arrived (pic), with locals and tourists out strolling the…
Cuba -3: Havana
I arrived in Cuba yesterday after a long, tedious flight from Madrid. My bike almost didn’t make it on board with me, thanks to an officious and obstructive woman at Iberia’s check in, determined that it shouldn’t go on. The baggage man was fine with it though, and some friendly, smiley, but unyielding pressure on…
Haworth: Novel experiences
The most literary place in the world is an old vicarage in Haworth. Many countries in the world are proud enough to boast one major author. Well, this West Yorkshire village boasts three: in the 1840s, the parsonage was home to Emily, Anne and Charlotte Brontë. Which means this one building (pop. 6) has produced…
Sri Lanka 26: Negombo
The previous two days, Day 24 and Day 25, I’ve been in Negombo doing delightfully little except eating, drinking and washing. I started exploring the old Dutch canal running north out of the city, but the towpath and adjacent roads soon run out. In any case, the paths are something of an obstacle-course of fishing…
Sri Lanka 23: Jaffna
With an evening train to catch, and my bike entrusted to the Railway Parcel Office, I had another easy day. Most of the activity consisted of reading books and magazines in the British Council library (I could get into Adam Mars-Jones, you know), drinking tea and smoothies in local cafes, and enjoying delicious Rs200 vegetarian…
Sri Lanka 22: Jaffna
With no train out available until the night after tomorrow, I’ve ended with a couple of spare days in Jaffna. Today was a delightfully relaxed affair: everything was shut because it was a public holiday (hence the full trains) and it poured down with rain. So, after a cursory bit of biking round town, I…