National Geographic Traveller India – July 2019

CUBA

JULY 2019 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 71

LUCAS VALLECILLOS/AGEFOTOSTOCK/DINODIA PHOTO LIBRARY

(DINNING)

FACING PAGE:

TASS\UIG/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/DINODIA PHOTO LIBRARY

(ERNEST HEMINGWAY),

CEM CANBAY/AGEFOTOSTOCK/DINODIA PHOTO LIBRARY

(CAR),

KANNAA/SHUTTERSTOCK

(ALPHABETS)

O

nce you’ve grooved to all the

salsa tunes the city croons;

when the old town’s plazas

and cathedrals have been

visited; when you’ve watched lovers and

fishermen at the Malecón, turn your eye

to Ernest Hemingway’s Havana.

After moving to Cuba in 1939, he

and his wife set up home 13 kilometres

southeast of Havana’s old town, and

called it Finca Vigia. It was here that

Hemingway wrote The Old Man and

the Sea, A Moveable Feast and Islands

in the Stream. Today, travellers who

wish to see his bookshelves, eye his

vinyl records—and his gin collection—

can take a tour of the home. His boat,

ElPilar, too stands in the grounds.

Back in Havana, there’s no better

homage to the writer than to make

your days and nights as boozy as you

can. Start with La Bodeguita del Medio,

and watch the bartenders mix rows

and rows of mojitos. Hemingway’s

motto—“My mojito in La Bodeguita,

my daiquiri in El Floridita”—lie

lovingly framed above the bar. The

latter has set its love for the man in

bronze. Enter El Floridita bar and

you’ll see Hemingway’s life-size statue

standing in his favourite corner,

looking approvingly at crowds downing

daiquiris.

Lastly, pop by at Hotel Ambos

Mundos, the art deco structure at the

heart of Habana Vieja (old town). Room

511 is left the way Hemingway last left

it, his typewriter and Louis Vuitton

case untouched. His size 11 shoes are in

there too, along with artworks gifted to

him by Pablo Picasso.

‘My mojito in

La Bodeguita,

my daiquiri in El

Floridita’

CUBA

The walls of La Bodeguita del

Medio, Ernest Hemingway's

beloved haunt in Havana,

carry autographs of Fidel

Castro, Nat King Cole, and

Harry Belafonte.

Havana