HAVANA DAYS AND NIGHTS: Guest Post by Gretchen Woelfle

Havana, Cuba. Restored Plaza Vieja with Sculpture by Roberto Fabelo

My friend and fellow children's book writer Gretchen Woelfle recently returned from an exciting two week cycling trip in Cuba and has graciously contributed this report. 

Our Cycleactive group’s  reward for successfully cycling eleven days over Cuba’s “undulations” (see April 13 blogpost) was five fabulous days in Havana! It’s a seductive city – with exquisitely restored streets and plazas, and just-as-interesting crumbling, un-restored side streets.

Hemingway's studio at Finca Vigia

We spent three nights at Hotel Ambos Mundos, Hemingway’s home in the 1930s before he bought his finca outside the city. A rooftop restaurant and original art-deco details, including a steel cage elevator with operator, provided a charming retro atmosphere. After the group dispersed, a few of us stayed on for more.

Three in a taxi: Tres chic as gringos! (Gretchen in the middle)

Some of our adventures:

• a two-hour tour of Habana Vieja (Old Havana) with a marvelous Cuban guide.

• Museo de Bellas Artes to see how 20^th century Cuban artists merged European influences with a Cuban sensibility.

• taxi ride in a 1950s Chevy convertible to Fusterlandia – a whole neighborhood transformed by painter and mosaic artist José Rodriguez Fuster;

• classical chamber music concert in an old Spanish palacio;

• art galleries and studios of contemporary artists, including

• stunning movie posters from the 1960s-80s – both Cuban and foreign films;

• Taller Experimental de Gráfica, a print-making studio filled with artists whose work is exhibited in a small gallery, and for sale at reasonable prices.

• an outdoor market surrounding the Plaza des Armas selling used books (some in English) and other collectibles

• a Hemingway odyssey to: his room at the Hotel Ambos Mundos; to Cojimar, the unchanged seaside town where he kept his fishing boat and where his corner table in a favorite restaurant is reserved for him; and the lovely Finca Vigia, his home for twenty years, with his books on the shelves, his typewriter in his studio, and the dining table set for dinner. 

• an espresso bar where customers patiently wait along the counter while el barista does it all: washes cups, lines up saucers, makes and serves coffee one cup at a time, collects your money, whips your saucer away as soon as you lift your cup, and repeats the ritual.

• walking along the Prado, a wide boulevard with a central promenade watching children play soccer; friends gather to make music and chat; artists make and sell their work; and tourists and locals soak up the scene.    

• sipping a piña colada and watching the sun set from a rooftop.

• spending the evening at an outdoor café listening to a local band with three friends, then welcoming more and more of our fellow-cyclists who wandered by and joined us.

• conversations with Cubans eager to speak English and discuss their longing for contact with the outside world, the successes and failings of la Revolutión, and their resourceful ways of getting ahead in a difficult economy.

• Nighttime walks along the Malecón (the harbor seawall,) passing local cafés, fishermen, and courting couples. 

Laying pavement. The pavement was laid by evening!

I didn’t get enough of Havana, so I’ll be returning in June for a week to wander the Havana Art Biennial – an extravaganza that fills the city with work by artists from all over the world. I’ll also repeat some of those daytime and nighttime roamings, drink more espresso, seek out more music, and take another 1950s taxi ride.

Two lovely ladies just having fun.

*****

The Other Side of Paradise by Julia Cooke, is full of stories and insights about Cuba today. You’ll learn a lot that you won’t see as a tourist.

I watched Our Man in Havana, starring Alex Guinness, based on Graham Greene’s novel, before and after I went to Cuba. I also read the novel while I was there. It takes place in 1958, just before the Revolution. Both book and film are brilliant.

Lonely Planet and Rough Guides to Cuba for details on travel, the two Cuban currencies, and more.
For more info about Cuba: http://www.cuba-junky.com has tons of good information about many things Cuban.

Havana morning from my hotel room.