Our tour guide is waiting for us with his e-bike at 10:00 in the district Casilda at the junction of Calle Real and Diego Velázquez. There is a small kiosk where you can also take a refreshment. You will surely recognize him by the e-bike and a Cubyke sign or shirt, not the kiosk, but your guide. From there we go together to pick up the bikes (Optionally, an individual meeting place can be arranged with us for closed groups). After a short introduction to the e-bikes, client’s bike adjustments to each individual height and some general information about the roads and rules of Cuban traffic, we are ready to begin our discovery-trip with the e-bikes.
We start our tour to the World Heritage Trinidad, founded by Diego Velazquez in 1514 as the third settlement in Cuba, from Casilda. The early rapid development of Trinidad is due to the gold discoveries on the Rio Guaruabo. To better understand the history, we cross the city's main outskirts with our electric bikes and are certainly admired, not only because we look so good, but also because the Cubans like our modern mediums of transportation. We pass through Playa Ancón and Playa La Boca, where the explorer Hernan Cortez in 1519 asked for provisions and equipment on his discovery trip (to than discover Mexico) and where local fishermen still drive out of the small fishing port in their small boats for fishing barracudas, pargo, tuna and marlin. The time seems to have stopped here, except the hotel facilities and beach bars, there were almost no changes along the beach road. Cycling along the Caribbean Sea and along the Bahia Casilda, where, depending on the water level and season, many waterfowl populate, our tour takes us to the port of Trinidad, which was relocated there to participate in the business of shuttling gold and slave ships between America and Spain. Curse and blessing at the same time were earned in this time in which one not only made successful trade with twilighted persons, but also became the objective of pirate attacks. After a quick trip to the pier for cruise ships, we will refresh ourselves in an open-air bar and learn more about the Cubans' current living conditions. We continue to the view of the Valle de Ingenios, the Valley of Sugar Mills, which, like the city of Trinidad itself, is recognized and protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The former wealth of Trinidad resulted mainly from the successful slave revolt in Haiti, which led many plantation operators from Haiti to Cuba to get there to new wealth, because in particular the slavery on Cuba was still allowed at that time. The prospering agricultural production of tobacco, coffee and, in particular, sugar, which was run by Canarian tobacco farmers, French coffee growers and Spanish sugar barons, led to this unique Trinidad which we now conquer in a contamination-free way. Slowly but surely, we are coming closer to the center of the pompous city. Around the Plaza Mayor, once again, testimonies of the wealth of the sugar barons impress us with the unique, virtually preserved historic old town and the city palaces of wealthy plantation owners. Also historically authenticated and original is the "national drink" of Trinidad, the Chanchànchara that we will test at the bar with the same name, while our lunch is prepared and hopefully served. Afterwards, we will criss-cross the cobbled streets of Trinidad, visit the old train station of Trinidad with some magnificent steam locomotives and maybe a quick lesson in driving them. Then we slide back to our starting point completely noiselessly and perhaps with a heavy heart, even if we would like to spend more hours exploring all corners of Trinidad. To conclude a certainly extraordinary tour, we have some time for a beer, a softdrink “a lo cubano”, a cocktail or whatever you want to process the impressions of the day. Maybe we'll meet again on one of our many e-bike city trips or on our "cross through Cuba tours", to justifiably claim that you have experienced the largest island of the Caribbean in a special, intense and authentic way.