I’m thrilled to learn that Motorcycle Classics magazine Editor-in-Chief Richard Backus will be joining me as celebrated moto-journalist Christopher P. Baker leads an unforgettable 12-day ride through western and central Cuba, Oct. 22-Nov. 2, 2017, offered by Cross Cultural Journeys.
As Richard writes on the Motorcycle Classics website: “Cuba. Seemingly frozen in time following the U.S. embargo in the early 1960s, for over 50 years this Caribbean Island nation barely 100 miles off the Florida coast has been a forbidden destination for would-be American travelers. Yet as barriers between the two countries continue to fall, Cuba is once again becoming accessible to U.S. citizens… When travel restrictions for U.S. citizens began to fall a few years ago, we started looking into putting together a tour of this culturally and historically rich country. Change is coming fast to Cuba, and like many people we’re eager to see Cuba as it still is today, a country of immense beauty deeply rooted in its own unique political and cultural history.”
Christopher P Baker and Ernesto (son of ‘Che’) Guevara’s 1948 Harley-Davidson
copyright Christopher P Baker
The “Motorcycle Diaries Redux” itinerary–formally a “people-to-people educational exchange” program–will take you to tobacco country, and to the Bay of Pigs, plus Santa Clara–with its close association to iconic revolutionary (and motorcyclist) Ernesto “Che” Guevara. We’ll even visit the Comandancia de Che (his former headquarters), plus Cuevas de los Portales (a giant cave where Che headquartered during the Cuban Missile Crisis), along with the enchanting colonial city of Trinidad and the snow-white beaches of Cayo Santa María. We will visit the capital city of Havana and head to tobacco growing country of Viñales and Matanzas. We may even get to meet Che’s son, Ernesto… a close friend of Christopher.
Although the focus of Motorcycle Classics is on vintage motorcycles, for this tour we’ll ride modern machinery, with a choice of late-model Harley-Davidson or Suzuki motorcycles. The tour will include approximately 1,000 miles of riding easily navigated by any experienced touring enthusiast, with travel primarily on paved roads with occasional unpaved sections.
One of the first companies licensed to take travelers to Cuba, Cross Cultural Journeys has been leading Americans on legal people-to-people trips to the island since 1998. Guaranteed to be the trip of a lifetime, we encourage interested participants to sign up now as space is limited to just 15 riders.
This October, join Motorcycle Classics Editor-in-Chief Richard Backus and celebrated moto-journalist Christopher P. Baker in partnership with Cross Cultural Journeys for a 12-day motorcycle exploration of one of the most colorful and controversial countries in the world.
