Cuba on 2 Wheels

Index, 1st Ride

Acknowledgements

Endorsements

Prologue

1st Ride 1. Getting There

1st Ride 2. The Rubber Meets The Cuban Road

1st Ride 3. Onward to Santiago de Cuba

1st Ride 4. The Wedding, a Real Communist Party—No politics

1st Ride 5. Santiago de Cuba and Beyond

1st Ride 6. Internment of Che Guevara’s Remains

1st Ride 7. Cuban Election Fever Builds

1st Ride 8. Cuban Elections, Municipal

1st Ride 9. The Former Madhouse of Cuba

1st Ride 10. Special Period Living

1st Ride 11. Cuban Customs Inspection–I Lied!

1st Ride 12. Cuba is a Very Complex Country

1st Ride 13. Secret Agent Cero Sieti (007), Cubano

1st Ride 14. To Hell With Viagra PPG, Cubano Is For The Long Haul

1st Ride 15. Riding Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth)

1st Ride 16. To the Garden of Eden

1st Ride 17. Primero de Mayo—What I Saw In The Plaza of The Revolution

1st Ride 18. Revolutionary Commitment

1st Ride 19. Guantanamo

1st Ride 20. What Have I Got Myself Into?

1st Ride 21. Africa House, Carnival & Moncada

Index, 2nd Ride

2nd Ride 1. Getting There Again, September 2002

2nd Ride 2. My Friend Arnie is a Candidate for Municipal Council

2nd Ride 3. What was Cuba in 2002

2nd Ride 4. Flowers for Camilo

2nd Ride 5. Cuba on 2 Wheels is Finally a Reality.

2nd Ride 6. Going Down the Rocky and Not-So-Rocky Road

2nd Ride 7. Santiago, Biran, and Holguin to Havana (Part 1 of 2)

2nd Ride 8. Santiago, Biran & Holguin to Havana (Part 2 of 2)

2nd Ride 9. Special Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Conference Report

2nd Ride 10. Back to School: My Visit to Mayor General Calixto Garcia Iniguez, Semi-Boarding Primary School, Holguin

2nd Ride 11. Come on Down, Snowbirds, Cuba is Ready for You

2nd Ride 12. Cienfuegos, Nuclear Dinosaurs, Sierra Escambray, Santa Clara, and Che

2nd Ride 13. BMW Motorcycles Come to Town—Havana that is

2nd Ride 14. My Santiago Friends have Fidel and his Mercedes Benz on the Line

2nd Ride 15. Fidel’s Biography—for the January 19, 2003 Election

2nd Ride 16. My Dream Comes True—Thanks to Juan Jose and His Dream.

2nd Ride 17. Ciego de Avila: Orphans, History and City Farming

2nd Ride 18. Gitmo, Where are the Taliban?

2nd Ride 19. There’s Coffee, Nickel, and Cobalt in Them Thar Hills

2nd Ride 20. Eastern Cuba, to Roads Less Travelled

2nd Ride 21. My visit to the Castro Community, Biran

2nd Ride 22. Cueto to Las Coloradas to Santiago: Sugar, Rice, Rain and Rocks

2nd Ride 23. Ride to La Comandancia de la Plata

2nd Ride 24. Parque Nacional la Mensura

2nd Ride 25. International Women’s Day (IWD) in Cuba

2nd Ride 26. Bikers in Cuba

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

I owe so much to friends in Cuba for their generosity and hospitality, opening their hearts to me and helping me with my work. Perhaps I can acknowledge them in the order they came into my life:

Prof. Arnaldo Coro Antich, Radio Havana Cuba journalist: stored my wooden motorcycle crate safely for the return trip; he was an invaluable source of technical information as well as knowledge on world events;

Manuel Montero and Lionel Gonzalez of the CTC (Trade Union Central) for their trust in me making it all possible;

Alberto Medina Betancourt, his wife Ana, and their children Albertico and Anita, all professors of English at the Pedagogical University, Holguin, for opening their home and hearts to me. Alberto has used some of my articles in the teaching of English. I remember Ana for her conversations and her delicious but simple Special Period cooking;

Antonio Azcuy, Prof. Emeritus, Political Economics, University of Havana, who, with his wife Nery Delgado, Professor Emeritus in Statistics, provided me a home while in Havana and for Antonio’s patience explaining Marx’s theory of Surplus Value to me with his limited English. I have to say this alone has changed the way I view the creation of wealth forever;

Mirella Suarez, professor, union leader, and dedicated-to-the-end revolutionary, for inviting me to many activities of her union. She is a model of honesty, hard work and dedication. Mirella’s brother fought in the mountains with Fidel. After the triumph of the Revolution, she volunteered in the great literacy campaign as a teacher;

Miriam Salozen, her husband Bernardo, and their extended family, for allowing me to be part of their very close family while in Santiago. Also, Miriam’s daughter, Doctora Loli, now living in Canada, and Miriam’s son, Jesus, and family, next door;

Rosita Gonzalez, ICAP Canada Specialist, retired, who, while touring Canada for her skill and poise under pressure responding to reactionary anti-Cuba questions from a City of Welland Councilor;

ICAP Specialists Raul Bravo, Javear Domingez, Diamela Prado and Eva Doris for their assistance on my second motorcycle visit;

Ruth Wilson Ferrer, a Historian specializing in African history, is a revolutionary living in Santiago de Cuba. If it were not for Ruth this book would have never seen ink. She saw value in my articles and urged me to bring them to print. Thank you Ruth for your dedication.

And those supporters of my quest in Canada:

My wife, Anna, for her blessing and support for me to realize my dream…twice! Even though she cannot completely understand my obsession, as she calls it;

Sarah Shartel, Trade Union Activist, for setting me on my present course with her Worker-to-Worker conferences and Cuba tours;

Lisa Makarchuk, life-long Cuba solidarity activist, for her help understanding the Revolution from her experiences in Cuba just after the Bay of Pigs invasion and her translation skills;

Ron Boyer of CCFA Niagara for his help and support crating and delivering my motorcycle to Toronto on a trailer with the lights prone to go out too often;

CCFA Niagara for their support of my Cuba on 2 Wheels PowerPoint presentations;

The friends in the Welland County Motorcycle Club, and others, proofreaders of my manuscript.

Professor Emeritus, John Ryan, University of Winnipeg for his proof reading and editing suggestions of my second manuscript before it got put back on the shelf for another seven of eight years.

Peter Beens, retired teacher, who skillfully used ChatGPT to assist with editing the manuscript and edited a number of my photos. Peter is also a fellow member of the local Niagara BMW Riders club.

There are, of course, many, many more, both in Cuba and Canada, to whom I am indebted for their contribution to my efforts, be it a little story, a memorable experience, or their untiring dedication to the cause of Cuba’s fight to survive as an independent, sharing, caring nation.

Endorsements

The need for truth in world affairs, learned early in his life, became for Dave Thomas a zealous search. Along with his inquisitive and indefatigable motorcycle, he discovered the honesty of the people of Cuba, the cooperative humanitarianism of its socio-political system, and the beauty of its geography. In Cuba on 2 Wheels he shares eloquently and engagingly this enlightening experience. Keith Ellis

All the best,

Keith Ellis, Professor Emeritus of Latin American Literature, University of Toronto, Feb. 2, 2013

In the early years of 1990, in what is remembered in my family as one of the hardest days we had lived through during the Special Period, one of my students brought a Canadian friend of his into my home. On that unforgettable day, we had been suffering a blackout since lunchtime. Visitors arrived in the afternoon, left in the middle of the night, and yet there was still no electricity.

Initially, we had no idea we were meeting a very special person who, in a very short amount of time, became one of our best friends. This man is Dave Thomas. Since then, he has visited our country several times. Whenever he comes, he shares with us our shortages and our little advances. We have to highlight that we don’t know any foreigner who loves our Cuba the way he does. For more than twenty years, he has always shown his understanding of the different and difficult situations we have experienced. With his political, ideological, human values and qualities, he also has a special sense of humour, which we always enjoy when we see him.

In one of his organized trips to our country, he let us know about a project, which he had entitled Cuba on 2 Wheels. This book is a direct reference to his experiences all over our country on his motorcycle. We have had the opportunity to read and enjoy some of his articles. These texts are characterized by a direct reflection of the objective and subjective conditions of everyday living, written from the perspective of respect and love for Cuba and its people. For us, teachers of English as a foreign language, they have an added value: the use of perfect and authentic texts in English in the setting of our country, which makes it very understandable and useful for Cuban learners of English.

We would like to finish up these introductory words by expressing our appreciation to Dave Thomas for his solidarity with the Cuban people and their cause and for his persistence over the course of time to defend our Revolution.

Dr. Alberto Medina Betancourt, PhD in Pedagogical Sciences and Full Professor at the University of Holguín, Cuba. April 13, 2013 (Original English)

An amazing look to our reality in the nineties, from an outstanding and special human being.

Lic. Ruth Wilson Fernando Ortiz¨

African Cultural Center, Santiago de Cuba. (Original English)

I met Dave Thomas more than 15 years ago at a meeting of solidarity between Canada and Cuba, and I have exchanged with him over the years. I appreciate that he is a man who has a lot of love in his heart and who knows how to appreciate just causes, hence his love for the Cuban Revolution. During these years, he has travelled to Cuba systematically, visiting the cities and the most intricate places in the country. His motorcycle trips to Cuba are famous, sometimes alone and other times accompanied by other people who have accompanied him. What I have read about his trips shows his experiences, which demonstrate his love for the cause that we Cubans have embraced. Today he is an active defender of the cause of Free the Cuban Five.

Mirella Suárez Ortega Director of the CEDICEC National Union of Workers of Education, Science and Sports (SNTECD) ~2000 (Translated by Google)

Dave Thomas’ book is not just about travel. It reminded me of Anthony Bourdain’s programs on travel because Thomas not only covers his trips geographically but presents a background, historical, social and political, to each place he visited imbuing the information with his unique, authentic voice and style. His chapters provide the reader with breezy accounts that bring alive each area through interesting anecdotes and a deep understanding of the country. As I read about a trip to Pinar del Rio, where I accompanied him, it made me recall the joy and trepidation of leaving the urban life of Havana to experience rural Cuba face-to-face with its idiosyncrasies. The spin of motorcycle wheels on pot-holed roads, the fragrance of the white mariposas, the unending bucolic scenes and warm, human contacts that only Cuba and Cubans can provide are recalled vividly in chapter 16. Seeing firsthand rural Cuba is an exceptional experience but for me, seeing it while on a motorcycle, is a forever memory. I discovered that riding a motorcycle makes one a part of the environment integrated into its life and vibrancy, vulnerable to its elements but also open to its charms. Thank you, Dave Thomas, for your record of that trip and your many other trips in that beautiful country bringing back memories of unforgettable chapters in my life!

Lisa Makarchuk, Educator, Former Cdn. Honorary Consul in Varadero June 30, 2024

Dave Thomas was the first Canadian I spoke to. I remember that his command of Spanish was limited to polite basic greetings. My husband and I had a hard time communicating with him in his English, a little different and not as clear as that of English people.

He participated in an international event at the Cuban Workers’ Union (CTC), where he met my husband.

For many months, he lived with us in our home in the Vedado municipality of Havana. Our home became his base from which to ride his motorcycle to all areas of Cuba, even the Isle of Youth. Dave fell in love with the country, its revolution, and its people. This is how the plan he called Cuba on 2 Wheels came about.

He took photos, made friends, and also wrote about it in all places. Thanks to his enthusiasm, many Canadians have become interested in our country and have come, inspired by his magnificent work, to organize visits and excursions. Particularly noteworthy is the work of the general coordinator of the Canadian Ché Guevara brigade.

Many thanks to Dave.

Nereida Delgado Reyes, Professor Emeritus Biostatistics, Faculty of Stomatology, ISCM-H, Havana, May 1, 2011 (Translated by Google)

The story of Dave Thomas’s journeys through Cuba and his interaction with the Cuba people make fascinating reading for the ‘armchair traveler.’ At least, if not more, fascinating is the opportunity to see this part of our world through the eyes of one of those rare people who think for themselves; I highly recommend Cuba on 2 Wheels to anyone with an inquiring mind.

Patrick O’Hara, Friend and many times motorcycle travelling companion

August 26, 2024–Writing in a straightforward engaging manner, this is a highly informative account of life in Cuba. Riding his motorcycle through much of Cuba allowed David Thomas to see the rural countryside as well as life in towns and cities. In the course of this, it allowed him to view and participate in various important events during this time. This unusual historical account has not been done by anyone else, either in Cuba or in other countries. In addition to the text, numerous photos add immeasurably the story. As he so aptly put: I was riding the roads of a motorcyclist’s utopia.

John Ryan, Ph.D., Retired Professor and Senior Scholar,

University of Winnipeg

Prologue

Cuba on 2 Wheels:

I have visited Cuba so many times I have lost count, but well over thirty since my first visit in January, 1990. Cuba on 2 Wheels began when I arrived in Havana, August 3, 1997, as part of a group of thirty Canadian labour leaders and social activists from across Canada for the International Conference on Globalization and Privatization. My motorcycle was on its way to Cuba by sea container.

I had set myself the ambitious task of living in Cuba for one year to understand the mood and spirit of the people. To accomplish this authentically, I lived in people’s homes as much as possible. I exported my BMW motorcycle to Cuba for that period for transportation and touring purposes.

1st Ride–From August 1997 to August 1998, I traveled to all areas of Cuba, logging 22,000 kilometres on my motorcycle. 2nd Ride–Then, in September 2002, I again returned to Cuba and traveled another 11,000 kilometres, until April 2003.

So many people, from family and friends to acquaintances, have asked me, genuinely puzzled, Why are you so fixated on Cuba?

To answer that, I would have to go way back into my childhood: I am a product of the Cold War; born in 1939, reaching school age just when the nuclear age began and the Cold War heated up with the McCarthy Hearings, the Korean War and too numerous to mention events that resulted in East / West diplomatic crises.

The mantra of the day, and for most of my life that bombarded me from all sides–official media, teachers, friends, workmates, etc.–has been the constant refrain: Democracy is freedom. Communism (used as a euphemism for Socialism) is brutality and oppression or simplistically, We, good! They, bad! It was like religion, a truth not to be questioned for fears of revealing one’s self to be naive or traitorous.

Then, at about age twelve, in the privacy of play with my cousin Roger–same age–Roger said, The Communists are not all bad. They do some good things. I don’t remember the context of our conversation that prompted those words. We were undoubtedly discussing some big news item of the day, like the Korean war.

Whoa! That was the first time I remember something positive being said about Communism. When Roger elaborated on those views, it turned out he had received the benefit of a progressive teacher who had asked his students to recognize the both positives and negatives.

In the years after the Korean war ended in a cease-fire agreement, it seemed the news was full of charges and counter-charges of NATO or Russian planes intruding into the other’s country’s airspace. Of course, OUR side always said, They are lying. We never violate another nation’s sovereignty. Then, one day, the newspaper featured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in the hands of Russian soldiers, wearing big fur hats and his wrecked U-2 spy plane in the background. Denial was not possible. My confidence was forever shaken to discover that my government and the U.S. government would lie to their own people.

Next, as a young railway worker in Fort Erie in early 1962 or ‘63, just married, my union went on strike for better wages. At the time, all non-operating trades (those trades not involved with moving the trains, or non-ops) negotiated together–all unions and all locals across Canada. A strike meant all trains nationwide stopped; an intolerable situation. The government invariably passed back-to-work legislation after only one week on strike, with compulsory arbitration to follow. In this contract, workers were particularly militant.

The eleven non-op. unions collective strike headquarters were set up in Montreal. The hundreds of union locals across Canada had only the telephone numbers of their union’s Montreal strike headquarters but not each other’s numbers. This was to prevent confusing short-circuiting of communication. The night the back-to-work legislation passed, the Montreal strike headquarters was ordered closed, and the telephones disconnected. Immediately, the media, including CBC, reported: There are a few hold-outs, but most workers were returning to work. Of course, we were all angry. Our local voted to defy the legislation and to stay on strike. Our local president started calling Bell Canada Information to obtain telephone numbers of other locals to find out what they were doing. Of about twenty-four random union locals across Canada he called, not one was back to work. Now I understand: News is to confuse, disarm and isolate.

From then on, I set myself a goal to analyze the information I was receiving and then seek out alternate news sources. That led me to shortwave listening. I was amazed at how the news stories common to Canada / the US were spun completely differently, coming from an ideologically left perspective. And other big stories and events went completely unreported in my part of the world.

Now, I began hearing details about the quality of life and everyday living in socialist countries. Those countries claimed dedication to developing the person so that all may have the most dignified, fulfilling life possible. I was impressed, but friends would say it was all propaganda when I mentioned what I had heard on shortwave. The more I listened and analyzed the contradictions–East vs. West–the more I believed the socialist countries were trying to build a better world.

Now, I needed a model to look at in person. The most logical and most accessible to visit from Canada was Cuba: In January 1990 I obtained my first passport. Recently, single again after the death of my first wife, Pearlyne, and my children in the care of an aunt, I went to Hotel Rancho Luna, near the city of Cienfuegos, on the south coast of central Cuba, with a new friend (later to be my second wife, Anna Chen). It was the strangest experience as we brought with us our preconceived ideas of what a Communist country was supposed to be like and our resultant fears. And the fact everything looked like it could use a coat of paint.

We asked all sorts of questions, took many day trips out from the hotel to schools, hospitals, and daycare. While riding a local bus, we saw an unarmed policeman, still in uniform, going home from work and giving up his seat to a small child traveling home from school. I could quickly see that Cuba was something special.

After two more vacation-type trips to Cuba, I met up with Sarah Shartal of Toronto, head of Worker-to-Worker Canada/Cuba Labour Solidarity. I accompanied Sarah’s group of labour activists on two May Day tours, organized with the help of the Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) or Cuban Workers Confederation. These were very intensive and very informative tours. Each day centred on a tour of one or more institutions or factories followed by questions and answers while sitting around a big conference table, examining the workings of the centre in the minutest detail. I never ceased to be amazed at the honesty and candor of the answers.

Some friends still thought I was being shown only what the Cuban state wanted me to see and talked only to those they wanted me to talk to. Now, the only thing remaining for me to do, to totally convince myself and to be able to field all questions at home, was to come and live in Cuba for one year, go where I wanted, and talk to those I could understand (I am unilingual in English). My motorcycle was to be my transportation and thanks to good language training in Cuba, I found a good number of people who could tell me their thoughts in English.

The secondary goal of my project was to look into the feasibility of starting motorcycle tours in various parts of Cuba as a way of building solidarity once client / tourists saw the real Cuba and felt its hospitality.

1st Ride–In August 1997, after retirement, I crated my motorcycle, sent it to Havana by sea container, and then joined a Worker-to-Worker group going to Havana. I was completely ignorant of the work of Cuban exile terrorist and CIA asset, Luis Posada Carrilles, who was sending in agents to bomb tourist facilities at the same time as I was to ask for an extended stay. Fortunately, Manuel Montero, CTC Foreign Relations Director, knew me sufficiently through my participation in Worker to Worker conferences both in Canada and in Cuba to understand the work I wished to do. The CTC supported my extended stay and helped me obtain permission to keep my motorcycle in Cuba for one year.

2nd Ride–Four years later I had the urge to do it again. I returned in September 2002 to April 2003.

The resultant articles on these pages are of my experiences, activities attended, and observations of life in Cuba. They were written to be emailed back to Canada for publication in local newspapers near where I live, as well as to circulate among email friends. No one in Cuba asked to see what I was writing or came to look at what I was doing. However, my very unusual foreign motorcycle was very obvious wherever I went. A Holguin friend once said to me, I heard you were in Santiago last week. How do you know? I ask. My friend from Santiago saw your motorcycle going down the street, he replied.

My BMW motorcycle is a 1991 K75s, an inline 3 cylinder, 750 cc model, the s designating Sport, as in, built for smooth, fast roads, by definition, near the most unsuitable type of motorcycle for Cuban roads. Only a large touring motorcycle would be less suitable.

I obtained my K75s on the European Delivery Plan the last year it was offered in Canada. I took delivery in Munich, Germany, accompanied by my 14-year-old daughter, Alicia, from where we made a circle tour to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, UK, Belgium, Holland, and then back to Munich by way of Berlin.

That same BMW has been coast to coast across the US and Canada before I retired it for long journeys in 2005 in favour of a Kawasaki KLR 650 cc, a lighter bike with better suspension, more suited to my future adventurous travel plans. In 2006, I rode the Kawasaki across Canada to Vancouver Island, then north to Inuvik, NWT. In 2008, I rode to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Both these rides were with good friend, Patrick O’Hara.

Following my experiences in Cuba, I developed a desire to ride south and explore Latin America. That opportunity came to me when I met fellow Retread (motorcycle club of riders over age 40) Ken Reipert of Oakville, Ontario. Ken had the same urge for adventure. We left about January 27, 2007, trailering our bikes to Houston, TX. From Houston, we rode south to Panama City and back to Houston.

Nothing could have prepared me for that trip; once we got south of Mexico, we were buying our way out of trouble at every border crossing, plus roadside traffic stops. In Mexico, we were subject to random roadside military checks two or three times a day. The soldiers were always polite and not intimidating. They would ask us to open a saddle bag they selected. If none of the contraband they were interested in was found, they would assume the other bags were okay, and away we go until the next check. We experienced self-serve gas stations where the attendant stood by brandishing a pistol grip shotgun to deter Pump-and-Run fill-ups.

You may wonder, Why am I telling you this? After a year and a half of riding in Cuba, nothing like this happened! Let me tell you; I got stopped many more times in Cuba than the trip to Panama and back. The difference was that not one Cuban cop wanted a bribe or tried to intimidate. All experiences were friendly, though sometimes confusing due to the language problem. You will read more about my Cuban traffic stops on these pages. Many cops stopped me to look at the strange foreign motorcycle. A lot of stops were caused by the lack of clear or missing road signs, so I was speeding through bus loading zones, blew a hard-to-see stop sign, etc. I was never issued a ticket, though there were many opportunities through my driving indiscretions. They would try to explain what I did wrong and let me go on my way.

We must remember that 1997 was near the depth of the "Period (wartime conditions in time of peace) caused by the breakup of the eastern trading block and the fall of the Soviet Union. This exposed Cuba to the full force of the US trade, economic, and financial blockade, opportunistically strengthened by the 1992 Torricelli Act and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. On top of the economic tragedy, Cuba was experiencing terrorist attacks in the form of hotel bombings, one of which killed an Italian-Canadian. Then,