A MOVEABLE FEAST
Taking in cocktails, tacos and typewriters, Lydia Swinscoe gets the full Ernest Hemingway experience on a vibrant trip to Havana
Lydia Swinscoe follows in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, visiting the author’s cherished haunts and discovering new culinary delights
There’s no water in the pool where the American actress Ava Gardner once swam – instead, it’s been replaced by dead leaves and dappled sunlight that dances its way across the pale blue tiles as elegantly, I imagine, as Gardner did during her dips. Nearby, a 12-metrelong wooden fishing boat named Pilar sits moored on dry land, another relic at the writer Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban home, Finca Vigía, not far from Havana. Gardner provided Hemingway with company and a drinking companion, but it was the fishing expeditions taken aboard this vessel that inspired his last major work of fiction, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Old Man and the Sea.
Set mostly on the Gulf Stream and in a small village near Havana, the story tells the tale of an ageing fisherman on a tiresome quest to catch a colossal marlin. During my nine-day stay in Cuba, I was so intrigued to see where the book had been diligently typed back in 1951 that I had flagged down a bright-blue vintage Chevrolet Bel Air Impala to drive me into the countryside of San Francisco de Paula, the suburb where Hemingway lived and worked for more than 20 years.
Finca Vigía has been left exactly as it was when the writer lived there – gazelle heads mounted on the bright white walls still watch over the dark wood dining table, and thousands of books sit side by side, crammed into the shelves that line almost every room. Just above the tiling in his bathroom are his daily weight readings, scribbled messily in pencil directly onto the wall, while copies of the New York and Miami newspapers he loved lie strewn across desktops and beds. But I was most enthralled by the areas where Hemingway actually wrote. His Corona 3 typewriter sits on a wooden desk on the top floor of a slender tower adjacent to his house. And though
the view across the palm-trees out towards the sea seems to offer the perfect writing environment, Hemingway actually shunned a conventional set-up, fashioning a high platform for his typewriter so he could stand up to write.
An early riser and a heavy drinker, he would tap away from around 6am until lunchtime, before rewarding himself with whiskey or gin. By his own admission, he drank ‘to make other people more interesting’, and his love of the afternoon tipple ensured he was well-known in the capital’s social scene. A regular at Floridita, a bar in Old Havana, he reportedly once swigged a record 13 double daiquiris in a single sitting; on the menu today is a maraschino and grapefruit daiquiri mixed in his honour. I stopped by for my very own Hemingway Special and was delighted to find a life-size bronze statue of the man himself, leaning against the wooden bar. As waiters wearing bright-red bow-ties manoeuvred skilfully around the glamorous setting, live music began, and the rum went to my head, I absolutely understood what the writer loved so much about Floridita, and indeed, Havana’s carefree vibe.
While Cuba may not be the most obvious Caribbean destination, visitor numbers are on the rise as the travel restrictions on American citizens (implemented by President Kennedy in 1963 four years after Fidel Castro became Prime Minister) have started to relax. Now is the perfect time to visit – not only can you still find salsa music and colourful, crumbling mansions everywhere you go, but also a burgeoning culinary scene and an abundance of great new restaurants. San Cristóbal, with its extravagant decor, filled from floor to ceiling with framed photographs, ancient paintings and numerous shrines to the Virgin Mary, fast became one of my favourite places to eat with its purely Cuban menu featuring cerdo asado (roast pork), fresh lobster and divine yucca dishes. The chef Carlos Cristóbal Márquez Valdés’ creations impressed even Barack and Michelle Obama when they visited in 2016 and ate solomillo a la plancha (grilled sirloin steak). Café El Mercurio provided coffee topped with rum, champagne cocktails were sipped at another of Hemingway’s haunts, Sloppy Joe’s, and La Guarida’s fresh tacos were so good that I returned twice.
When I wasn’t dining out or exploring the bars of the city, I took long, enchanting walks along the Malecón, Havana’s winding seafront promenade, where each day at dusk, locals and visitors alike congregate to eat, drink and dance. I’d meet new friends to chat excitedly over bottles of Bucanero beer,
while couples passionately kissed, breaking their embrace only occasionally to observe the wild seas in which Hemingway loved to fish. One night, under the cover of darkness, the streets along the seafront came alive with an impromptu party as reggaeton music boomed out of a dilapidated building, drowning out the cries of hawkers selling bright, oversize balloons. Once the excitement of the Malecón’s exhilarating atmosphere abated, an old converted factory now known as Fábrica de Arte Cubano lured me in with its displays of modern art, potent cocktails and lively dancing. Open from Thursday to Sunday and hidden in the residential district of Vedado, Fábrica de Arte Cubano provides a varied mix of exhibition spaces showcasing the best of contemporary Cuban art, as well as performance art, cinema and live music, alongside plenty of places to get great food and strong, icy cocktails that I’m sure Hemingway would have approved of.
After hours of dancing, I began to long for my rustic room at Hotel Sevilla and a 1950s Cadillac taxi dropped me home as the sun began to rise. Drinking coffee later the next morning, I watched swallows dart in and around the open windows on the sun-warmed breakfast terrace in harmony with a violin player’s mellifluous tune rising up from the street. Filled with a sense of deep contentment, I began to think that I, like Hemingway, might one day return and stay for good.
Hotel Sevilla (www.hotelsevilla-cuba.com), from about £115 a room a night B&B. Virgin Atlantic (www.virginatlantic.com) flies from London Heathrow to Havana, from about £505 return.