CUBA CHIC
Cuba Chic - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Cuba Chic | |||||
| By: John Maddocks, Issue 26 - Autumn 2006 | |||||
| (Havana, Cuba) | |||||
| THE LAND OF CIGARS AND CASTRO IS ENTICING A NEW BREED OF LUXE-LOVERS AS THE HOTELS OF OLD HAVANA GET A FACELIFT. | |||||
| “Havana is so beautiful that some tourists cry when it is time to leave,” my guide Tony tells me on my first night in Cuba. “I am sure you will cry too.” We are sitting in Tony’s favourite bar, La Lluvia de Oro drinking Bucanero beer. The resident band is pumping out Afro-Cuban favourites and local couples are performing spellbinding salsa moves. The exuberance of the blistering sound and sizzling movement is irresistible. There’s no doubt that the vibrant Afro-Cuban culture is at the heart of Havana’s attraction. It’s a blend of earthiness and sophistication that has been inspiring novelists, poets and songwriters for centuries. To produce this cultural cocktail, take the fineries of Spanish civilisation, mix them with pulsating African rhythms, add a colourful history of piracy, Mafia activity, war and revolution, and stir furiously for 500 years. It’s inevitable that such complex origins will produce striking ironies. The icons of this communist country are the ’50s and ’60s cars once associated with capitalist opulence, and the hotels and mansions built by Mafia bosses before they were forced to flee the country. Despite a continuing American embargo, the US dollar is an official currency and revolutionary Cuba produces the favourite cigars of New York millionaires. Such ironies add to the allure, of course. And nowhere are they more pronounced than in Old Havana (La Habana Vieja), where many buildings symbolising Spanish colonial grandeur are now occupied by some of Havana’s poorest residents. This unique area of stunning baroque and neoclassical buildings, which was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1982, embodies a large slice of Cuba’s glorious architectural history. But harsh economic conditions undercut any artificial sense of reverence for the buildings of Old and Central Havana. Unlike similar sections of European cities, which sometimes feel like museums, the oldest parts of the largest city in the Caribbean are bursting with activity. Men repair ancient vehicles on the street, women hang washing from balconies and street vendors ply their trade noisily. School children make their way home past women talking in doorways, while up on the rooftops pigeon fanciers release birds for their daily flight. I could wander for days in the enchanting back streets of Old Havana, but Tony is intent on showing me some of the more remarkable museums, monuments, churches and art galleries. We start at the Catedral de San Cristóbal de la Habana, which is distinguished by two beautiful but unequal towers. The doors are locked however, so we take a quick look at souvenirs on offer at the market in the cathedral’s plaza. One of the standouts in this part of town is the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, which happens to be the oldest colonial fortress in the Americas. In true Cuban style, there’s a romantic story attached. “That giraldilla (weathervane) on top of the tower was put there in honour of our only female governor, Doña Inés de Bobadilla,” Tony tells me. “Her husband went off to explore Florida in the 16th century and never returned, so she spent the rest of her life scanning the horizon for his ship.” We walk to the nearby Plaza de Armas, which has a wonderful secondhand book market. I spend over an hour perusing the volumes on offer, and finally purchase an early edition of The Century of the Lights by the great Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, who died in 1980. Picking up on my literary interests, and because the temperature is rising, Tony takes me to the nearby Bodeguita del Medio bar, made famous by the patronage of Ernest Hemingway. Tony is well aware of the tourist fascination with Hemingway, who lived on and off in Cuba for three decades from 1932. There is a pilgrimage route that follows his Havana haunts. We order some Mojitos, the cocktails made from white rum, lime, sugar and mint for which the Bodeguita is renowned. “Other writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda came here to the Bodeguita,” Tony informs me. “Mafioso, movie stars, heads of state and revolutionaries have all sat at these tables.” I look at a quote from Hemingway in Spanish hanging behind the bar that translates as ‘My Mojito in the Bodeguita, my Daiquiri in the Floridita’. The Floridita is a nearby bar in Old Havana where the Daiquiri was invented. Hemingway drank there with friends Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy, and his favourite bar stool has even been cordoned off as a secular shrine. Cooled by our Mojitos, Tony and I walk two blocks south of the Bodeguita to the Hotel Ambos Mundos, which was Hemingway’s home away from home for nearly a decade in the 1930s. It’s worth paying a couple of dollars to see room 511, which has been left exactly as it was in 1938, when the writer started work on For Whom the Bell Tolls. | |||||
| Despite its engaging atmosphere of faded charm, the Ambos Mundos isn’t the pick of Havana hotels. Havana is a fine lady whose lacy balconies and fancy facades have been crying out for a makeover. Now many of her hotels have a new elegance. The Hotel Santa Isabel, just around the corner on the Plaza de Armas, is the place to immerse yourself in Spanish colonial splendour. Built in 1867 and originally the stately home of the Count of Santovenia, the Santa Isabel has an elegant courtyard where you can relax in style beside the fountain after walking to nearby museums and galleries. If you’ve just visited the must-see Museo de la Revolución you can have a cocktail here and imagine that the revolution never took place. Many other Havana hotels are worth visiting just for their architectural or historical value. The imposing Hotel Nacional de Cuba, set on a hill in Havana’s Vedado district, combines art deco, neoclassical and neo-colonial styles. The hotel, considered something of a national monument, is replete with 1930s memorabilia, and many stay here for the atmosphere alone. Graham Greene set much of Our Man In Havana in the Hotel Sofitel Sevilla, which was refurbished two years ago. So far, the government-run Habaguanex company has meticulously restored or converted 16 dilapidated buildings into stunning hotels in Old Havana, including the Hotel Florida and the Raquel and the newly opened and elegant Hotel Saratoga. Havana is a city best toured on foot, with occasional taxi trips between sites in the major municipalities of Old and Central Havana, Vedado and Miramar. No one should visit Havana without strolling down the legendary Malecón, a promenade that runs for about seven kilometres beside the Straits of Florida from Old Havana to Vedado. The Malecón is a social focus for Habaneros, and it’s a good place to watch the passing parade. After all, the people are the life force of this fabulous city, with their slick, loud but stylish way of dressing and their easygoing, polite and friendly manner. On my last night in Havana, Tony takes me to one of his favourite paladares, La Guarida in Central Havana, where scenes from the award winning film Strawberry & Chocolate were shot. A paladar is a privately owned restaurant staffed by family members usually enthusiastic about service and food quality. Severe economic circumstances and lack of competition often result in uninspiring cuisine in Cuba, particularly in state-run enterprises. Apart from a few well-known restaurants, such as the Hotel Nacional’s Comedor de Aguiar and the Hotel Meliá Cohiba’s El Abanico de Cristal, these paladares offer the best possibilities. Over snapper fillets served in a delicious orange sauce, and a glass or two of good wine, Tony asks with a smile how I feel about leaving Havana tomorrow. It’s a loaded question, as he knows I’ve joined the long list of Havana’s passionate admirers. I feel sad at the prospect of going, but I tell him in my most convincing tone that there will be no tears when I fly out of this magical city – just a determination to return soon. | |||||
| Details: Air New Zealand code-shares with Mexicana Airlines for flights to Havana via Los Angeles and Mexico City. Bookings, 13 24 76, www.airnewzealand.com.au. There are no direct flights from the US to Cuba. | |||||
| Hotel Santa Isabel, from $185 (US$135) per night for a standard room. Bookings, www.cuba.tc/havana/santaisabel.html. | |||||
| Hotel Nacional de Cuba, from $227 (US$167) per night for a double room to $1330 (US$1000) per night for the Presidential Suite. Bookings, www.hotelnacionaldecuba.com. | |||||
| Hotel Sofitel Sevilla, from $232 (US$170) per night for a standard room. Bookings, www.sofitel.com. The newly opened Hotel Saratoga has 96 glamorous rooms and seven suites, plus a rooftop swimming pool for guests only, http://www.hotel-saratoga.com. Visa application forms are available from travel agents or the Consulate General of the Republic of Cuba in Sydney, (02) 9698 9797. More information, www.cuba.com | |||||
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