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Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba
The author offers an entertaining, evocative account of his motorcycling odyssey through Cuba, detailing his three-month, seven-thousand-mile journey, discussing Cuba's troubled history and politics, and offering distinctive profiles of the colorful people he encountered along the way. 25,000 first printing.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 30, 2001
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64 people want to read
About the author
Christopher P. Baker
73 books9 followersChristopher Paul Baker (born in Yorkshire, England, on 15 June 1955) is a travel writer and photographer currently specializing in the Caribbean and Central America. He is a contributor to magazines and other publications worldwide, and is the author of travel guidebooks (for publishers such as Lonely Planet and Moon Publications) and a literary travelog.
Baker was educated at Rastrick Grammar School, in Brighouse, Yorkshire. In 1976 he received a BA (Honours) in Geography from University College London, during which time he participated in a university exchange program at Krakow, Poland; and in two Sahara research expeditions. The following year he attended the graduate Centre for Latin American Studies, at the University of Liverpool, where he received a Masters. He returned to the University of London, received a teaching diploma from the Institute of Education in 1978, and spent brief periods teaching at schools in London between periods of travel in Europe and North America. His first travel article appeared in the Brighouse Echo as dispatches from the United States.
The Lowell Thomas Award 2008 ‘Travel Journalist of the Year,' Christopher P. Baker is one of the world's foremost authorities on Costa Rica and Cuba. He has authored and photographed guidebooks to Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Panama in the National Geographic Traveler series, as well as five other guidebooks on Costa Rica and Panama, plus the Costa Rica Pura Vida! travel app. He is also the author of the award-winning Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba, published by National Geographic Adventure Press. His more than 20 other books include the coffee-table book Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles. He has also written and photographed for more than 200 publications, from National Geographic Traveler to Newsweek, and has given talks about Cuba at National Geographic headquarters, the National Press Club, and the World Affairs Council, among other prestigious organizations. Christopher has been profiled in USA Today and featured on the National Geographic Channel, NPR, and dozens of other radio and TV outlets.
Baker was educated at Rastrick Grammar School, in Brighouse, Yorkshire. In 1976 he received a BA (Honours) in Geography from University College London, during which time he participated in a university exchange program at Krakow, Poland; and in two Sahara research expeditions. The following year he attended the graduate Centre for Latin American Studies, at the University of Liverpool, where he received a Masters. He returned to the University of London, received a teaching diploma from the Institute of Education in 1978, and spent brief periods teaching at schools in London between periods of travel in Europe and North America. His first travel article appeared in the Brighouse Echo as dispatches from the United States.
The Lowell Thomas Award 2008 ‘Travel Journalist of the Year,' Christopher P. Baker is one of the world's foremost authorities on Costa Rica and Cuba. He has authored and photographed guidebooks to Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Panama in the National Geographic Traveler series, as well as five other guidebooks on Costa Rica and Panama, plus the Costa Rica Pura Vida! travel app. He is also the author of the award-winning Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba, published by National Geographic Adventure Press. His more than 20 other books include the coffee-table book Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles. He has also written and photographed for more than 200 publications, from National Geographic Traveler to Newsweek, and has given talks about Cuba at National Geographic headquarters, the National Press Club, and the World Affairs Council, among other prestigious organizations. Christopher has been profiled in USA Today and featured on the National Geographic Channel, NPR, and dozens of other radio and TV outlets.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 19, 2013
This is Christopher Baker's memoir about the three month motorcycle trip he took all around Cuba in the mid nineties. I bought this book at a garage sale or a goodwill because I loved Baker's Moon Guide to Cuba: it was incredibly informative and invaluable when we traveled there several years ago. I was looking forward to hearing about his adventures in a more narrative and less "guide" format, but was somewhat disappointed.
To his credit, Baker makes many interesting observations about Cuban life, politics, and culture during this pivotal time in recent Cuban history (immediately after the Periodo Especial when Cuba was replacing Soviet subsidies when European tourist dollars). He speaks with many people with varying opinions about Cuba and the cause of the problems facing Cuba, and fortunately he lets their words and perspective play a big role in the book, as he, as an outsider, tries to form and reform his own ideas about the country he is visiting. I thought the best moments were when he is dealing with bureaucracy and MININT, the paranoia he expresses and the suspense of how his trip will be affected by these government figures. I wanted to keep reading, to hear about the places he was traveling to next, about the people he would meet.
What was truly annoying about the book, however, were his ego and his libido. Whether he is gunning his Paris-Dakkar motorcycle up the Sierra Madre on a path everyone said was non-navigable, or speaking up on behalf of Cuban-sympathizing Americans in a room full of Castroites, he has this way of writing about his own little macho triumphs that is just irritating. I get it, these moments were important to him, emotionally resonant, real accomplishments. It's hard to write about experiences like these without tooting ones own horn. But perhaps he could have tempered those moments with other more humble moments (though they did pop up occasionally).
Or PERHAPS they would have read differently if I wasn't already rolling my eyes at his descriptions of having sex with yet another Cuban woman. From the moment early on when it is clear his Cuban "girlfriend" was at most seventeen when they started their affair (he was 40), he does not show an ounce of self-consciousness about his very active roll in the practice of "jineteando" (Cubans courting foreigners that they hope will buy them things they can't afford, or give them money, or marry them and take them out of Cuba). He never questions the ethics of bedding these women who seem to throw themselves at him. He is disgusted when he sees teenage prostitutes with fat, old Italians, but never stops to consider that perhaps he is just like them, and not the exception, not the one who is different, who really understands the Cuban condition, the one who really warrants the affections of these women because... I don't know why. Because he speaks Spanish? Because he is handsome? Because he wants to talk to them and take them for a motorcycle ride as well as have sex? He writes about explicit sex tourism with a scornful tone, but can't seem to see that it exists on a spectrum, which he is most definitely on. I don't judge his desires of the motivations (sensual, economic, or both) of his paramours, but the way he writes about, or fails to write about his own conduct in this context, is extremely off-putting.
To his credit, Baker makes many interesting observations about Cuban life, politics, and culture during this pivotal time in recent Cuban history (immediately after the Periodo Especial when Cuba was replacing Soviet subsidies when European tourist dollars). He speaks with many people with varying opinions about Cuba and the cause of the problems facing Cuba, and fortunately he lets their words and perspective play a big role in the book, as he, as an outsider, tries to form and reform his own ideas about the country he is visiting. I thought the best moments were when he is dealing with bureaucracy and MININT, the paranoia he expresses and the suspense of how his trip will be affected by these government figures. I wanted to keep reading, to hear about the places he was traveling to next, about the people he would meet.
What was truly annoying about the book, however, were his ego and his libido. Whether he is gunning his Paris-Dakkar motorcycle up the Sierra Madre on a path everyone said was non-navigable, or speaking up on behalf of Cuban-sympathizing Americans in a room full of Castroites, he has this way of writing about his own little macho triumphs that is just irritating. I get it, these moments were important to him, emotionally resonant, real accomplishments. It's hard to write about experiences like these without tooting ones own horn. But perhaps he could have tempered those moments with other more humble moments (though they did pop up occasionally).
Or PERHAPS they would have read differently if I wasn't already rolling my eyes at his descriptions of having sex with yet another Cuban woman. From the moment early on when it is clear his Cuban "girlfriend" was at most seventeen when they started their affair (he was 40), he does not show an ounce of self-consciousness about his very active roll in the practice of "jineteando" (Cubans courting foreigners that they hope will buy them things they can't afford, or give them money, or marry them and take them out of Cuba). He never questions the ethics of bedding these women who seem to throw themselves at him. He is disgusted when he sees teenage prostitutes with fat, old Italians, but never stops to consider that perhaps he is just like them, and not the exception, not the one who is different, who really understands the Cuban condition, the one who really warrants the affections of these women because... I don't know why. Because he speaks Spanish? Because he is handsome? Because he wants to talk to them and take them for a motorcycle ride as well as have sex? He writes about explicit sex tourism with a scornful tone, but can't seem to see that it exists on a spectrum, which he is most definitely on. I don't judge his desires of the motivations (sensual, economic, or both) of his paramours, but the way he writes about, or fails to write about his own conduct in this context, is extremely off-putting.
September 13, 2007
Maybe it was because I'd heard many of the stories in this book from the author himself, when I met him. Maybe it was because I wanted to hear more about Cuba's women than how erotic they all are. Or maybe it's because I don't really like adverbs all that much. But I just couldn't get through this book. If you're reading, Chris, I'm sorry.
January 8, 2013
Had to give this book up after about 125 pages. The two things that kept me from liking this book was the author's obsession with picking up women in Cuba and his choice of unusual words when a more common word would have sufficed. His interaction with the Cuban people was superficial and nothing made me want to keep reading to the end of the book.
June 10, 2012
Sleazy and dull. This guy has ridden his thesaurus harder than his motorbike. It's great that he sees through the facade of the benevolent revolution to gain an understanding of the realities of the island prison, but a tragedy that he has no insight into how these realities allow him to abuse disempowered black women half his age and feel good about it / make excuses for it.
October 27, 2018
In 1994 Christopher Baker shipped himself and a BMW Paris/Dacar motorcycle to Cuba. He had a contract to write a guidebook on Cuba. The title is a play on words as Fidel means faithful (and the motorbike, the "Moto" took him through some pretty rough terrain for 7,000 miles) and the name of the dictator Fidel Castro. It was a tough time for Cuba as the Soviet Union's aid had stopped, the US embargo and animosity had increased markedly with the shooting down of two private panes. The response, like in all dictatorships, by the Cuban ministries was to clamp down even more. But the people of Cuba, their generosity and ability to enjoy life despite these hardships came through. In the afterword we see the results of these trends a couple years farther on.
It's readable and humourous and seems a genuine portrait of a people overcoming their situation as well as commentary on the state of the Cuban government.
Near the east end of Cuba, Baker has an epiphany about the reasons for some of the strange behaviour of the government but I won't spoil your read by telling it here.
It's readable and humourous and seems a genuine portrait of a people overcoming their situation as well as commentary on the state of the Cuban government.
Near the east end of Cuba, Baker has an epiphany about the reasons for some of the strange behaviour of the government but I won't spoil your read by telling it here.
June 7, 2020
Met the author in a bar in Costa Rica in 2003. Signed a copy of the book. Funny travels. A good read.
May 13, 2024
I got very tired of reading about all his sexual exploits.
July 4, 2025
The penis-led adventures of author through Cuba including pedophilic lusting over a 14 year old girl. Bleeeeccch
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2008
Mostly a fascinating glimpse into Cuban society and history, except when the author seques into his own exploits with Cuban women. He's a little self-indulgent from time to time, but it was easy enough to skip ahead when that happened. He is clearly sympathetic to socialism and communism, even when so obviously presented with the tremendous difficulties that arise under such political systems. For Cuba, one of the most troubling of those is the libertine environment and attitudes of the people...left without any sort of guiding principles to encourage them to be better than their baser instincts would dictate, and without hope from their own government, what is left if a society grounded strongly in physical pleasures. From Baker's account, it seems that few see anything wrong with that, including him, and yet the fallout seems obvious to me. It is a clear warning to people everwhere of the potential downfall of a society left without God or hope or any conception of a life beyond this one.
With all of that, though, I leafrned quite a bit about Cuban history, social mores, and got a feel for the attitudes and variety of Cuban culture. For that, this was a worthwhile book to read.
With all of that, though, I leafrned quite a bit about Cuban history, social mores, and got a feel for the attitudes and variety of Cuban culture. For that, this was a worthwhile book to read.
May 1, 2013
This is a fantastic look into Castro's Cuba. Descriptive and enjoyable read. It's all here - history, geography, culture, politics. Baker presents political opinions from a broad spectrum of Cuban society. His own opinion sways back and forth as he observes varying levels of joy and despair amongst the people he meets. Yes, ok, so he 'enjoys' a few women along the way. The focus on women lessens the further you read, so bear with it even if it's bothering you. I really value what I read in this book, and it allowed me to laugh when I was served a 'salad' consisting only of pale shredded cabbage with no dressing.
July 21, 2008
If you can get past his constant sleeping with women who "just turned 18" (he's 45+) you'll like the book well enough. His need to be flowery with his words can be a bit annoying too but he is a well respected travel writer and does paint a good picture of the realities of Cuba regardess of these other issues... besides, nasty old guys going to Cuba to have sex with girls that are either barely of age or underage is the reality... though I think I would have preferred to witness it from a few more steps away.
March 21, 2018
Christopher Baker's long experience as a travel writer documenting places in Cuba gives him and us perceptions and insights into the culture we could never gain in a trip like that. A not-so-undercurrent is the sexual awakening the journey provokes, which I appreciate the author revealing, because so many speak of it but don't provide details. Here are the details!
June 17, 2013
A good introduction to Cuba (and the author) prior to traveling there! Sure, he doesn't have any qualms with telling of his many trysts with women much younger than himself, but I thought it was done tastefully and think it served a purpose in illustrating one of his points about the culture.
October 8, 2007
Always have been interested in Cuba. Would love to go there and visit. For now, must placate myself with an occasional book such as this. I thought it was very interesting.
April 8, 2009
Baker smuggles a motorcycle into Cuba and then tours the island. An interesting non touristy look at Cuba.
October 31, 2009
A very fun read of one person's journey through Cuba
July 28, 2012
superficial insight into Cuban society. In essence, quite sleazy and a vastly missed opportunity to write something decent.
July 21, 2020
Shame on you Chris for exploiting these women/girls.
August 10, 2011
Boring, boorish, self-involved, and pointless.
April 23, 2017
Read this while traveling in Cuba. Though written in the 90's, many of his observations hold true today and answered many questions for me as I was traveling. It's an interesting read incorporating history with the author's motorcycle adventures through Cuba. What I didn't like, though, is his inclusion of his sexual exploits which may have been more acceptable at the time it was written, but seems passé and just gross in our current times.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews