Lynette Chiang

I also enjoyed this book immensely - being interested in both cycle touring and Cuba. I fully endorse Nandadevi's review. Having recently visited Cuba (Dec- Jan, 2016-2017) I appreciate the author's adventures there even more. Cycle tourism is increasingly popular in Cuba though I now fully understand why many, like Lynette Chiang, decide to take their own bike rather than rely on those available locally. The trade blockade on Cuba, enforced by the USA, means that money is in short supply and the locals often have to resort to riding ancient, heavy-framed Chinese bikes - often missing mod-cons such as gears or even brakes!… (meer)

Did the manufacturer of her bicycle sponsor her journey? I don't know; but I am satisfied that it was a story worth telling and told fairly well. Ms Chiang is in advertising/marketing in Costa Rica before she sets out to ride around Cuba. She gets by on very little money, and a great deal of goodwill from ordinary Cubans. Mostly this book is about that goodwill, the cheerfulness of people who are not wealthy but not poor. The contrast with wealthy foreigners in Cuba, and the increasing numbers of Cubans who hold that money is more important than friendship, is stark. It is a story about places, a little history, a lot about the locals, some candid observations about herself, and only so much about her equipment as any expeditioner might mention. Like other cycle-touring stories there is a focus on the minutae of life and travelling. She tells it with a great deal of affection for Cuba, and a little regret that she is recording a place and attitudes that are fast changing. In the end, a small story - but colorful and very well told by a writer who is not blind to their own failings and foibles. Recommended as a book about Cuba, and about cycling, and even in a small way a parable about how we travel (by choice and/or by circumstance) through life.… (meer)