EXPLORE
TASTE
REFLECT
CREATE
Many foreigners have been seduced by Cuba. The first was Christopher
Columbus who wrote in his ship’s diary in autumn 1492 on his first voyage to the
New World: “This country is so enchantingly beautiful that it surpasses all others in
charm and beauty…” And in the 20th century, British novelist Graham Greene, actor
Errol Flynn, and most famously the US novelist Ernest Hemingway pitched up in
Havana, where this Caribbean beauty captivated them with her hypnotic allure,
louche atmosphere and the ever present possibility and temptation that anything
might be possible in this storied island.
In search of Hemingway’s haunts, I walk up the Prado, a kilometre-long
promenade between the Central Park and the sea lined with trees, lamps and
marble seats; it’s where elegant Habaneros would parade on the terrazzo pavement
in the 18th century. Today’s promenaders pass art sellers, smudged decorative
ornamentation, an art deco theatre, Moorish architectural accents, and the Hotel
Sevilla where mafia boss Al Capone would stay in the 50s when the mob was busy
transforming the Cuban capital into the Las Vegas of the Caribbean.
Hemingway found retreat from the hustle and bustle of Havana in a farmhouse,
Finca Vigía, 13 kilometres southeast of Havana, which is now a museum. But when
in town he would patronise the local bars.
El Floridita is still trading on its Hemingway fame at the corner of Calle Obispo,
the main thoroughfare of Cuba’s old town, La Habana Vieja. At the long, handsome
scarlet bar, I order the house drink from the uniformed barman, the El Floridita
tipple, an ice-cold daiquiri, made from Havana Club rum, Cuba’s most well-known
rum brand. Hemingway was said to have drunk Bacardi rum in his much-written
about daily diet of cocktails. At El Floridita, the Papa
MAGICAL WORDS
Doble was born after a Hemingway request: it included
The author Ernest
a double dose of rum and no sugar.
Hemingway lived in
Cuba for a number of
The stunning art deco headquarters of the Bacardi
years and the house he
company lies two blocks from El Floridita. The caramel
bought in 1940 still bears
a plaque with his name.
ziggurat crowned by the Bacardi bat motif towers over
Hemingway tours abound
Old Havana. From here I wander into the dense mesh
for those who want to
view Cuban life through
of streets of Old Havana looking for another place of
the author's eyes. For
retreat, this time a temple of religion. The asymmetrical
those who prefer a more
relaxed approach on
Cuban Baroque cathedral fashioned from ironstone
holiday they can enjoy his
and orange coral, and described by Cuban author
novel based on the area:
The Old Man and the Sea.
Alejo Carpentier as “music set in stone” peers over
LEFT AND BELOW
L E F T : The verdant vista
of a tobacco plantation.
Tobacco is big business for
Cuba, renowned for making
the best cigars.
U N I T E D S TAT E S
MEXICO
C U B A , A VIBRANT TREASURE
Population . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.27 million
Most important mineral . . .
Nickel
Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spanish
Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
109,884 square kilometres
U N D E R T H E B A N YA N T R E E
01/06
2016
D H AWA C AY O
LAS BRUJAS
Famous for the coral reefs
which teem with sealife,
Cayo Las Brujas is an
ideal base from which to
explore the island. Opening in July, the 516-room
Dhawa Cayo Las Brujas,
will be a three storey
hotel featuring no less
than three restaurants.
For those those that like
to stay active, a swimming
pool, gym, kids club and
water sports centre are
all key attractions.
PHOTOS: CORBIS; GETTY IMAGES (WALL TILES, CIGARS)
CUBA
the pretty Cathedral Plaza, which is
hemmed in by the columned balconied
homes of wealthy Spanish counts and
illuminated with coloured stained glass
half-moon windows.
After rum and religion, it is time
to revive with another of Cuba’s
homemade indulgences, coffee. At
nearby Café O’Reilly, with its gorgeous
embellished spiral iron staircase, the
aroma of ground coffee floats out into
the street. After a strong espresso, I
watch a vendor grind coffee from the
Escambray mountains in central Cuba
for a line of locals and foreigners.
Some of the first coffee plantations
in Cuba were established in and around
Havana in the middle of the 18th
century and Cuba’s first coffee shop
was set up on a corner of the Plaza
Vieja, La Taberna, in the 1770s. I want
to see whether the coffee was as good
out west where some of the original
plantations were established by French
planters, fleeing the 1791 revolution
in neighbouring Haiti. My thoughts
are confirmed at Café de María, a tiny
alfresco café overlooking the San Juan
Lake in the tiny community of Las
Terrazas, an hour southwest of Havana.
Las Terrazas is Cuba’s signature
green revolution project. In 1968,
thousands of precious wood trees were
planted on the contours of the Sierra
del Rosario mountains, and former,
illiterate charcoal makers were given
new homes. Today, the community is
powered by ecotourism, bird watching,
trekking among the coffee plantation
ruins and bathing in the cool water
natural pools of the River San Juan.
Here in Las Terrazas is an authentic
vegetarian restaurant, El Romero, set
up by Slow Food pioneer Tito Núñez
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