The Sunday Times May 1, 2022 21Travel Cuba
El Capitolio, part
of the Havana
cityscape visible
from the Gran
Hotel Manzana
Kempinski’s
rooftop, below,
one of the stops
on Shelley’s
Harley tour with
Ernesto GuevaraVinalesSierra MaestraHavana VaraderoTrinidadSanta Clara100 miles1 mileGran Hotel
BristolLa Casa
del HabanoChacon 162El Floridita BarHAVANA El CapitolioEl BosquePlaza de la
RevolucionGulf of
Mexicopoignantly, Santa Clara, where
the Cuban Revolution’s final
battle took place and Che’s
remains are interred.
Ever since I learnt that
Ernesto was hosting tours of his
country, I’ve dreamt of seeing
Havana on two wheels.
Unfortunately my romantic
vision is promptly shattered
as I try to get on the Harley —
I’ve never ridden a motorbike
and I misjudge the width of
the rear seat, embarrassing
myself with an inelegant
lurch. Ernesto courteously
suppresses his smile.
We begin at Gran Hotel
Manzana Kempinski’s rooftop,
which has sweeping views
over the old town. Ernesto
points out the key sights — ElShelley Rubenstein takes a
Harley-Davidson tour of
Havana — in the company
of Che Guevara’s son
Following in the tracks of his
father’s epic ride across South
America 70 years ago, Ernesto
started La Poderosa Tours in
2014 — named in homage to his
father’s motorbike, translating
as “the mighty one”. Taking
advantage of the thaw in US
relations during President
Obama’s tenure, Ernesto
had 14 Harleys shipped to
Cuba and began giving guided
tours, along with his childhood
friend Camilo.
The itineraries take in
locations including the tobacco
fields of Vinales, the serrated
peaks of the Sierra Maestra
mountain range, a Havana Club
rum distillery, the powdery
sands of Varadero,
cobblestoned Trinidad and,I
t’s so quiet in Havana
that I’m the only guest at
Gran Hotel Bristol,
in the clammy heart of
the city. “Do you need
a taxi?” the concierge asks with
a hopeful smile as I pass
through reception. The reply
comes as a roar from the shiny
black Harley-Davidson that
has just pulled up outside.
The rider, dressed in black with
thick-framed sunglasses and a
facemask, tosses a helmet in
my direction. It’s Ernesto
Guevara, the youngest son of
Che, and he’s come to take me
on a tour of his city.EASY
RIDERS
Shelley Rubenstein takes a
Harley-Davidson tour of
Havana — in the company
of Che Guevara’s son
steel rendering of his father’s
face on the Interior Ministry
building opposite. Does he
feel anything? “Nah,” is the
response. But he still stares.
We talk about the next tour
he is arranging, which will take
him to Santa Clara. Visiting the
site of his father’s mausoleum
“can be complicated”, he says.
“I try not to mix my emotions
with the riders, so I get them
there and let them see it for
themselves, and I’ll then
sometimes have a private
moment to myself.”
After a drive through El
Bosque, a forest known as the
“lungs of Havana”, we finish up
at another of Ernesto’s
favourite haunts, La Casa del
Habano, a cigar club where he
is welcomed with bear hugs.
Easing into a brown leather
armchair he puffs on another
cigar, and between sips of rum
tells me about the time he
dined with Naomi Campbell
and Paris Hilton at the city’s
annual cigar festival in 2015. He
laughs — the pair had no idea
who he was and never asked
why he was sitting with them.
We take our final ride
together and I dismount like
a pro. As the roar of Ernesto’s
Harley fades into the distance,
peace descends once more
on the streets of Havana.Shelley Rubenstein was a guest
of Havana Club (havana-
club.com), Gran Hotel Bristol
(B&B doubles from £174;
granhotelbristol.com), Gran
Hotel Manzana Kempinski
(room-only doubles from £287;
kempinski.com), So/Paseo del
Prado La Habana (room-only
doubles from £142; so-la-
habana.com) and La Poderosa
Tours, which has six-night
full-board tours of Cuba from
£2,788pp, including motorbike
rental and transfers
(lapoderosa tours.com).
Fly to HavanaCapitolio, its dome slightly
taller than its twin in
Washington; the National
Theatre; and the Vedado
neighbourhood where he was
brought up.
The next stop is Chacon 162,
Ernesto’s favourite bar. It’s a
little early in the
morning for drinks, I
think, but I tell him
I’m in. We zigzag
easily through
Havana’s
labyrinth of
potholed streets.
Motorists toot and
passersby stop and
gawk — some because
they recognise Ernesto; others
in admiration of the thundering
machine we’re riding. We
breeze through Old Havana, a
mishmash of colonial, brutalist
and art deco styles. Pastel-hued
buildings blur in my peripheral
vision, including the dusky-
pink El Floridita, Ernest
Hemingway’s bar of choice.
We arrive at Chacon 162
and Ernesto slides onto his
preferred stool, warmly
acknowledging the staff. He
directs my gaze towards the red
1950 Harley Flathead mounted
behind the bar. When his
friend was opening Chacon 162
he was asked for help, and “my
help was lending him my
favourite bike”, he tells me.
We move outside for a lunch
of citrusy ceviche, and Ernesto
lights a cigar. I search his face
for echoes of Che, but none are
obvious — although I notice
that, like his father, he shuts
down any questions he doesn’t
want to answer with a quip
and a hollow laugh.
Every so often someone
walks past in a T-shirt
emblazoned with Alberto
Korda’s image of Che, above
— the tousled guerrilla fighter
with the determined, faraway
stare. As yet another looms into
sight I ask Ernesto if it’s difficultto encounter this version of his
father daily. He shrugs, saying:
“I was born and raised this way,
so it’s normal.”
Does he have any strong
memories of his dad?
“Nothing,” he says stoically.
Ernesto was two when his
father was killed, and
most of his family
pictures featuring
Che — including
one in which
Ernesto is being
cradled — are in
the public
domain. With
one last puff he
agrees to meet me again
in a couple of days.
Ernesto seems relaxed at
our next encounter, and we
circle the city on his Harley,
passing streets lined with
queues — because of Covid,
food shops in Havana are
restricted to five customers at
a time; case numbers remain
low, but with a countrywide
lack of medical supplies, no
one wants to get sick.
We reach Plaza de la
Revolucion, where more than a
million Cubans gathered to
mourn Che’s death. Ernesto
points out a memorial to the
poet and hero Jose Marti. We
park and walk through the
square, and I notice that
Ernesto is distracted — his
eyes are fixed on the giantErnesto, at Chacon 162JEREMY WOODHOUSE/GETTY IMAGES; OLEKSIY MAKSYMENKO/ALAMY