With comments ranging from why to wow we readied ourselves for an adventure, an experience and ultimately a holiday.
We had opened the Gold List edition of Conde Nast in January and read a piece about Havana and a hotel called Tribe Caribe in the Cayo Hueso district, described as the Harlem of Havana with the bustle of street traders and considered to be the centre of the art scene of the city. The photos of the hotel were amazing, all 1950s architecture with new art installations that changed and evolved and the stunning roof top bar and restaurant.
So armed with this very small amount of knowledge we got excited and we found a firm Cazenove and Lloyd (C&L) to help us plan the adventure with a key criterion being to collate a series of experiences that would be fun, entertaining and teach us something about Cuba, more on the firm later.
So there we were heading to Heathrow for a night stay before our early flight, after a lovely journey down to London and across it my first driverless car experience getting from the airport to the hotel was a nice way to mark the start of new experiences for sure, particularly after nearly knocking myself out on the way into the cab!
We arrived bright and early at check in for our Iberia flight to Havana booked through British Airways to a bit of chaos if truth be told. The belts weren’t working on the baggage check in so we had to wait in line have the cases checked in on the computer at this belt then walk down the airport to a different area where the belt was working and load them on to the belt to head off the aeroplane. We laughed; we were expecting a bit of communication chaos when we landed in Havana not as we left T5 at Heathrow!
The flight was a short hop to Madrid and then a couple of hours to while away before our long haul to Cuba. We were excited I was finishing the book Our Man In Havana as we arrived on what had been a slightly more eventful flight than we are used to. It had felt a long way in time and made interesting by the passengers somewhat disregard for the instructions from the steward team, we are maybe indoctrinated on short haul flights in Europe to do as we are told but on that flight it felt like people were learning the rules of the air for the first time, when the toilet door fell off and I had to help fix it back to the plane we had to laugh!
Landing and arriving though, this was the first point when the wonderful team at C&L really showed up for us. They had booked us a red jacket VIP treatment at the airport, we didn’t really know what this meant until we arrived, queues of people, visas to demonstrate, passport control to negotiate and baggage to collect. Not us we had a Gloria Estefan look-a-like meet us in a red jacket, she marched us to the front of every queue, made sure the administration was done and got us out of the other end of the system in less than five minutes. She then sat us in a lounge and went to get our cases, now this was amazing service, we were then delivered to Alberto our driver to the hotel and our first experience of the Cuban classic American car obsession, this one a Chevrolet Bel-Air from 1955, a huge whale of a machine. Driving through Havana early evening as dark had set in was really awe inspiring being able to see the Che Guevara lights and Old Havana Club lights as we sailed into town.
I mentioned the hotel already but worth reiterating the absolute pleasure of our arrival, our cases whisked away by the porter in the 1950s lift, Jefferson who was to become our go to for everything in the hotel completing a very personal check in telling us all about the hotel and what to expect, then offering to meet us on the roof for an arrival cocktail, and of course a rum!
Waking up the next morning was funny, as dawn arrived hearing the different songs the street sellers sing to attract a customer, whether its bread, tomatoes or the trash collection man the sing song sound of their calls felt other worldly in perhaps a way we were not expecting.
The art of the hotel curated by Sactie Hernandez and David Guerra was striking, different in each corner and definitely adding to the atmosphere of the hotel. The breakfast on day one was a mix up of fruit, eggs, ham, cheese, cucumber and eggs however you wanted them, all served on the roof with the noise of the city happening below you.
We took a later start on day one as chance to explore the neighbourhood. The immediacy of just how foreign the country had struck me, so many places still have the influence of what we have done to it, Havana just doesn’t, nothing feels the same and in a good way. Walking around seeing the street art, hearing the conversations, being asked to practice English and at one point seeing fruit delivery in a bucket to a third-floor window via a rope to the most beautiful elderly couple, all part of getting our bearings.
Time to meet Yuniel and Nautilus, Yuniel being our guide for the week and Nautilus being the baby blue Ford Galaxy from the late 1950s, an absolutely gorgeous four door can the size of a boat. Yuniel immediately became our friend with his big laugh, his big square beard and effortless way with the world. Clearly proud of his country but also acutely aware of the difficulties and an embarrassing theme over the next week, thankful for our visit.
Yuniel’s first job was to drop us in the heart of Colonial Havana for a guided historic tour, set us up for understanding Havana and for placing ourselves in the centre of Cuba. We met Alain a professor of Cuban history and a human being who has managed to create the space in his brain for every aspect of Cuban history and clearly has an absolute passion for Havana and its history. He stressed on the outset he was going to take us on a chronological journey using the four squares of Havana as the marker points for the story of his great city, others had said once great, he didn’t he was adamant that regardless of todays issues Havana is still a great city.
There is a lot of tradition in Havana, walk around a tree on a certain day seven times and you will have luck for a year, stroke the beard, finger and foot of ‘el Transeunte’ and you will return to this spot in a better way than when you left and so many more local stories and ideocracies that over the years are now simply part of life in Cuba. All the old British and Spanish cannons now buried turret down in the road as balustrades significant in that they would never be able to be used again by anyone wishing to show aggression.
Each square we visited showed a different era of history. In Havana history is an all-encompassing word for culture, economics, geology, architecture and politics; everything is in a melting pot together and has an influence in and of itself. I have never felt so much energy from old architecture, to some degree perhaps because you can see and feel the aging of every building and how different regimes have accepted different directions. In the cathedral square stands the statue of Antonio Gades a flamenco dancer who loved Havana more than even his home of Spain and decreed that when he died he wished to be interned there but with the statue of himself watching out across the square to the beautiful cathedral. For us a treat, the nativity was all set up inside and looked stunning, for a country only recently moved to celebrate Christmas again it was surprising how many times a father Christmas popped up or a bit of tinsel to brighten the street window.
Alain delivered us to our first restaurant of our stay, a blink and you would miss it stair way to a roof top serving delightful taco’s and Spanish food. El del Frente was a wonderful place to pause reflect on what we had seen and consider the week ahead, me with a local beer and Sarah with a rum served Havana style, large with Pepsi to change its colour not it’s taste!
Once back in Cayo Hueso Yuniel recommended a walk up to the University steps and the area around it which meant we could do that and then wander down to the Havana water fall, a man made sign of Cuban past where you could fair imagine many a 1950s hero having his photo taken.
Our evening was well planned with dinner at Palade La Guardia said to be one of the best restaurants in Cuba with its very gran entrance, quotes from Castro engraved on the wall and yet a relatively opulent setting dark wood, candles every where and photos of many famous previous customers. We had a lovely dinner and had some great photos taken to make sure the memories don’t fade.
Next though was always going to be a highlight, night one and we were already off to a late night Jazz bar. Yuniel dropped us off, made sure we got a great table and then let us know he would wait for us, we thought we would be there an hour and three hours later we thought we had better go home. An incredible five piece with guest singer, saxophonist and a drummer for the last two songs who reminded me of Yusef Dayes one of my favourites (ever). Obviously they did a couple of Buena Vista covers but some of the originals were striking. Always strange for us to see smoking inside, on this occasion though the upstairs reserved to the smoking of huge Cuban cigars, no matter if you are the beautiful heiress in a silk dress or the old grizzly want-to-be gangster then it was very acceptable to be upstairs watching the amazing music with a huge cigar in one hand a large glass of Ron Santiago de Cuba’s finest!
I woke up early, despite the excitement of day one I was still ready to go. I knew that the image from the cover of Buena Vista Social Club was 15 minutes walk from our hotel and that was where much of the album was rehearsed and recorded. El patio de la EGRM was down San Miguel Street (of course it was).
Off I set, map offline and camera in hand. This was my first hand, unedited. Experience of the poverty gripping Cuba thanks to some other countries political decisions that I have to say when you are there feel completely and utterly unjustified. A lack of fuel means a lack of rubbish collections which results in huge piles of rubbish for each neighbourhood where once street corners to gather and share stories were. Every street got a bit darker and a bit more of a reality check for me in my western clothes and my Nikon slung around my neck. Yet I never felt a sense of danger (I don’t think this was naivety), a question about where I was from, an ask to speak to me in English and nothing more. What’s more if you were to take a cheeky glance into these crumbling on the outside homes you would see bright colours and families gathered together making the best of it. The photos were great too, even if I do say so myself.
Day two was a music focused day with a bit of art sandwiched in the middle for good measure. We were visiting Abdala Studio around the coast through a part of Havana that still held onto its gentrification of the late 1950s as this is where the remaining embassies are. Wide streets akin to the USA with stunning buildings on both sides and littered with the flags of the world.
Arriving at the studio it again stuck us just how lucky were to have found C&L as a company to make these arrangements for us. A tour of the studios, a history lesson in the origins of Cuban music and all its permutations and performances from Rodrigo Garcia Ameneiro made this whole part of the day so special.
Learning that during the Castro time there had been no access whatsoever to western music was something I didn’t know along with that even today the curriculum in schools is still the Russian music curriculum.
We were back in Nautilus straight after to be dropped off at Costa Vino, a sea side restaurant with amazing views out to sea and quite possibly one of the best pieces of fresh fish I have ever had, cooked to perfection and toped off with a beautiful bottle of white wine between us, this did feel like we were on holiday!
We both like an art gallery in diverse ways, I like to find my few favourites and spend time with them, Sarah likes to explore the whole thing and expand what she likes and knows. Having a guide for us do this together at The Fine Art museum was a rare treat and Irena was wonderful at spotting our unique needs. The atrium hosted the first part of an exhibition called Medula by Roberto Fabelo who is 70 years old and yet creating art of a much younger vibe was my view. Queuing full size Rhino’s filled a large part of the ground floor all except one grey and moving in the same direction, the one ‘awkward’ Rhino bright red and going in the opposite direction, make of that whatever you will!
I loved understanding how South American iconography influenced the art of Cuba and seeing some of the ‘pop art’ of the revolutionary times gave you a feeling of placing where the artistic community ‘went’ when the revolution started.
After so much learning back to Tribe Caribe and a roof top sunset with Jefferson who was playing Beny More, Ibrahim Ferrer and Sinatra with Antonio Carlos to set the mood for our evening out.
Cocina de Lilliam a Cuban Italian is perhaps the best way to describe it, certainly a beautiful setting for dinner and some more music. Our guide from the studio earlier and his colleague on Bass came to see us, play us some songs and chat to us through dinner, we were worried this was going to be a bit awkward, it wasn’t it was gorgeous and we loved every minute of it. Made even better by my lamb lasagna being so tasty!
Day three was our literature day, namely Ernest Hemingway and a bit of Graham Greene. A quick drop off and a change of 1950s American cars and pick up our new guide for the day, Nelson, who again had both an encyclopaedia like knowledge of Hemingway as well as the ‘gangster’ times of Havana and so much more.
The route to the Hemingway estate was plotted to pass Che Guvera’s house, the last few (redundant) missiles, a shot up U2. We drove through the San Francisco of Cuba through some pot holes that would have been better with a bridge over the top of them and arrived at the Hemmingway estate.
The house is exactly as he left it when he left for Spain for treatment for his illness, sadly he never returned. The place oozes what would have once been 1950s glamour, his boat, his pool, his watch tour and the most amazing stories of his life. He was a rebel and every story sets him in that way but he also cared so much for the people that mattered to him and the people of Cuba really did mean the world to him (and he to them). Having read Our Man In Havana as arrival fodder I committed there and then to make Hemingway a go to read in 2026.
We left the estate heading across the bay to place where Old Man And The Sea was ‘set’, you could feel it in the bar and village it was located in, this was pure Hemingway country and specifically that one story, it almost felt like a ghost of both him and some of the characters were going to make an appearance at any moment.
Back to Havana for our Salsa lesson broken up with a trip to the fort to purchase the obligatory Cuban things; rum, coffee and cigars. Such an experience, buried in the fort is the Cuban version of a tourist shop selling the three things they really want you to ‘export’ when you leave. The coffee and the rum were pure delicious, I cant comment on the cigars but the recipients back here in the UK were keen for sure.
Now, salsa lessons were a bit of a long shot bet, neither of us can dance in any formal way, we both love a boogie but with our own beat going on in our heads! Our teachers were simply beautiful, the dance studio gorgeous and what I was coming to expect in Havana, a dark and dingy door that reveals an amazing space once inside. Partnered to learn four steps and then put them together, we laughed, we amused our teachers with our efforts, we got hot and sweaty and began to count to eight whilst doing nothing with four and eight itself which seemed to be the key. We laughed so much though and had an experience that so few people will have, a roof top Salsa in Havana, done badly but done with a huge smile on our faces.
After so much exercise it felt wrong to not go to Floridita (Hemingway’s favourite bar) for a refresh before going out for dinner and another trip to our little Jazz bar, nearly as good as the first visit but the toils of the day were taking their toll so an earlier night than day one.
Our fourth day in Havana was to be our last and perhaps our most intense. We had asked for a photo tour where we would get to go to parts of Havana and take ‘reportage’ style photos, earlier in the week I had made noises about getting out of colonial Havana for some of it as we had seen a lot of the cities sites, Yuniel had heard me and had arranged with Abel our photography tour guide to get a boat to the other side of the bay to experience a different side of Havana.
Reyes de Morro is vastly different! We had seen poverty and the impact of global political decisions in Havana; the people were in desperate need of help and yet had often found that help, across the bay that felt far less so. It was a religious festival for the patron saint of Reye de Morro when we arrived by boat, so much blue everywhere, walls, flowers and clothes near the church which was by the terminal for the ‘ferry’, a loose term for a powered, packed platform with a fabricated wall around the edge, but remember we had asked for a taste of life outside of Havana.
Abel immediately spotted an amazing shot, kids fishing off the remains of an old ferry terminal the beautiful golden dome of the capital building behind them, a quick shout and we were in action taking some amazing shots of reality.
The old cars felt more rusty, the balconies looked more like they were about to crumble and there was an edge to the atmosphere in part due to the religious festival and in part to it being market day, the one day of the week where the people of this side of the bay could ‘easily’ get food. I say easily advisedly, they squashed into a market space and bartered for whatever was on the back of the trucks, the farm lorries and the carts that arrived, ranging from ‘fresh’ meat just cut off the carcass to bananas to cleaning bleach to second hand shoes and dog food, you could get any of it (in small amounts) for the right amount of Cuban Pesos.
And yet in this signal of deprivation that vision of trial and success was still evident; four under 7s had built go carts with steering and breaks and were tobogganing up and down a hill. Romeo and Juliet playing to each other one off a balcony that looked like it should be condemned the other in an incredibly open fronted bar. Beautiful photos captured and some kind words shared.
It was time to head back to Havana though, we had seen the difference and it was a sobering image, we had thought how much the people of Havana needed our help and yet were making ends meet, here across the bay it was almost Bono worthy of a campaign to help!
Haircuts out on the street, men fixing umbrella, posy’s being made for a festival, a Havana food market, a visit to the church of Havana’s patron saint and so much street art all made up the next two hours which were a whirlwind that showed us the depth of Havana, from China town and its attempts to appeal through to the back yards of some of the state markets in comparison to the more privately run versions. Everywhere you looked you saw people who needed the world to realise what was happening to them through no fault of their own, and yet the mostly had a smile on their faces.
I had asked for this authentic experience, I had asked to take my camera along and capture it and I had been given my wish. It taught me so much in just four hours, more than the history, the art and the music that we had seen but of the strength and virtue that the people of Havana wanted to create.
Lunch was a surprise, as we were dropped off at the end of an alley that felt like Barcelona, beautiful restaurants with a wide choice on the menu and clearly appealing to the tourist but we needed this (I am some what ashamed to say) and Antojos Restaurant and grill was a perfect anecdote for what we had seen.
Time for one last trip in Nautilus back to our hotel for a few hours on our roof editing the photos from the day and reflecting on what we had seen. As we sat their we noticed a change in the clouds, a very dark change, suddenly from nowhere the heavens opened, biblical rain was the phrase used, the streets below turned to rivers at pace and yet people still tried to go out their business for the first little while.
You then started to notice that the people of Havana were also starting to stop, to get to dry spaces and watch the rain, it had almost a comedic value as if suddenly somebody signalled this was just too much, everyone go home and watch the weather.
We had one last dinner in Havana before our trip away, a place quite close called Euphoria, I had intended to try to persuade Sarah to walk there and see some of the bars along the way the rain, not the rain coming down, but the rivers we would need to walk through stopped that so another return trip with Yuniel. The restaurant was lovely, odd two tier seats as an upstairs and downstairs that I had never seen before but nice food and a vast experience watching the world go by as slowly but surely Havana dried out, a little!
Day five was our trip to part two of our holiday, a more relaxed affair to a once very grand beach resort called Varadero. A two and a half hour trip in a diesel Ford from 1968, huge, green, and loud but perfect for relaxing on the ‘freeways’ as we set out on the journey.
Saying goodbye to Jefferson and the team at Tribe Caribe was quite emotional, our lovely chamber maid came to wave us off and thank us for the gifts we had left her, Jefferson asking when we were coming back and as we saw Havana disappear in the rear view mirror we were ready for some time to quietly relax and reflect on what we had seen and where it placed us in the world.
The journey itself was broken by two stand out ‘things’, firstly the mid-way point is denoted by a viewing point over a huge bridge that stretches over the jungle filled valley below which was a real treat to see. The other thing that breaks up any longer road journey in Cuba is the use of rolling check points every so often on the freeway to check the speeds of the cars, of which one out of Havana the percentage of well kept 1950s cars went down but the volume of old cars did not.
As we arrived into the town before our location we ‘sailed’ past two once grand hotels one painted down one side in the Cuban flag and its neighbour in the flag of the revolution all battered by the weather and time and now turned into apartments, many many apartments, still striking to see the power of money in times pre-revolution to build these huge hotels, monuments to time gone by in so many ways.
We arrived at out hotel in time for lunch, our hotel for the next two nights the Mystique Casa Perla. Once a regal home of a monied American and now a boutique hotel with its own immediate access to the beach and a beautiful stairway through the centre of the hotel. Our room was huge, with so much space and whilst we missed the friendliness of Jefferson almost immediately we also loved what we could see. The chef prepared us a beautiful lunch and some gorgeous wine as our ear drums got rid of the memory noise of a 1950s diesel car going through the gears for two and a half hours.
We took a walk down the beach in both directions, huge pelicans, beach volleyball lessons and the indications of what these resorts could have had in times gone by and the attempts to revitalise now were evident everywhere. Boat hires, diving, underwater photography all offered to us, but this was our time to relax, we had just two nights here and we were going to enjoy them thoroughly.
We walked down to the famous Beatles bar in Varadero for drinks before dinner, in places the rain from Havana was still crating ponds not puddles but we got there. Watching the band rehearse some songs for the show later was fun, although there is only so many times you can hear Whiteny segue into Nirvana before you need to leave!
Restaurant 60 in Varadero pays homage to the brands, signs and fonts of the 1950s, fitting given the amount of 50s cars dropping people off, lovely food and some nice local beer again and a bight atmosphere despite the rain of the past day and the forecasted rain that bright outlook was still there.
We decided to go back to the Beatles bar and witness what we had seen rehearsed earlier they nailed it and a whole bunch of classic American rock songs along with it, appealing to a largely Canadian audience so finishing with Bryan Adams of course, it was fun though.
Our last full day and Sarah’s birthday so waking up to presents, messages and a big smile was lovely. The hotel delivered a birthday cake and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday and we were set up for a lovely beach day knowing full well that the weather forecast was awful within about two hours, and true to form almost to the minute the weather arrived from out to sea and again just like in Havana earlier in the week people tried to carry on for a while until eventually it was just silly.
We retried to the bar with our birthday prosecco and read our books to each other and watched the world go by. My phone refused to connect to the internet in this hotel, so I was on full on social media detox too which felt nice. The weather cleared a few times, we got a rainbow out to sea and had enough time to walk up and down a few times, but sadly not quite the day we had planned back in the UK, but there is nothing you can do about the weather ever.
During one of the moments where the rain subsided we took ourselves off to explore the area of Varadero that had been created for tourists, a mini Centre Parcs in reality with different types of food restaurants, bars and shops but with so few tourists visiting it felt a little eerie in truth and a bit like the land that time forgot, so sad.
Our last dinner was to be a birthday celebration at Salsa Suárez where we had a surprise again, balloons a cake and another rendition of happy birthday which was lovely, we were also transported in a Pink Cadillac which was a bit of a dream come true even if we did have to have a very flimsy roof up by this point.
Our next morning was check out time, disaster struck as we went to check out as our flight was unceremoniously cancelled by BA which flung us into how hard it is to do ‘anything’ with limited internet and phone signal. Lucky for us both the C&L team and a friend back home were able to help us, and we booked a ticket ourselves on a slightly later journey that day.
This is where C&L came into their own yet again, they arranged for a later transfer, they arranged for VIP airport access and the lounge and made sure (again) that everything was smooth at the airport, honestly I can’t recommend these folks enough.
And then it came to an end, or after the journey home it did! We had some amazing memories and stories to tell, we had some stunning photographs of what ‘another world’ looks like, we had a taste for rum and coffee and made some friends we hoped to stay in touch with.
As I put some photos up on social media back in the UK I reflected on what the journey meant to us. We had the adventure we wanted, we had the experiences we asked for (and in every case they were better than we could have imagined), neither us felt like we would describe Cuba as our holiday but as an experience and a unique one at that.
Thank you, Cuba,… Mil Gracias!