#148 La Habana Vieja and the Hotel Nacional

Havana’s Old Quarter is 2 square miles of monuments, fortresses, cobblestones, and townhouses surrounding the Plaza de la Catedral.  In something I found really interesting about Havana many of the structures in La Habana Vieja have been beautifully preserved (from the 16^th and 17^th centuries), but their neighboring structures are in ruins. 

One of our guides talked about this phenomenon with an analogy to the fleet of perfect classic cars popular throughout the city.  The cars, on the outside, look perfectly preserved. They are the cars from 1950s Americana and they are beautiful. However, if you open the hood and look inside they cease to be classic cars at all. Many have Russian or Chinese engines, many have parts that have been created from scratch by Cuban metal-workers.  Hoses and clamps (and whatever else is in the guts of a car, I have no idea) are stolen from old fridges or other appliances.  And that is Cuba in a nutshell.  The outside looks like one thing, but inside everything is much, much more complicated.

Hotel Nacional is located in the Vedado district (just west of Old Quarter) and overlooks the Malecón (sea wall).  The Malecón is a 4-mile waterfront drive and seawall, that at night is the world’s longest front porch.  It is the place to hang out with friends, drink, play dominos or chess, etc. 

Hotel Nacional is famous for its Art Deco style, Moorish arches, hand painted tiles, and its association with American gangsters, who had “board meetings” there fairly regularly.  Meyer Lansky operated a casino, and his Vegas “partners” lounged at the pool playing poker.  

Our stay in Havana was 2 days so I did 3 excursions, one of which was a late night show at Hotel Nacional to see the Cabaret Parisien and it was quite the spectacle!

 

#147 Hemingway’s Hangouts

What you should know about Hemingway’s hangouts is that they are all bars.  Dude loved a good bar and spent a lot of time in them. 

Hemingway spent most of the 1940s and 1950s in Cuba and his favorite bars provided the inspiration and local color for The Old Man and the Sea and Islands in the Stream.

La Bodeguita del Medio (The Little Bar in the Middle) is famous for its mojito.  This bar is little and in the middle. It was also so crowded that we actually had to drink in the street.

La Floridita is famous for its frozen daiquiri which “Papa” is said to have helped to perfect.  There is also a statue of him in where he normally sat, and again, this bar is crowded! (So crowded that I did not take a photo of the statue.)

Hemingway’s home, La Vigia is about 10 miles outside of Havana.  His wife donated it as a museum and it is preserved the way he left it. He lived there until 1960 when he moved to Idaho – dying by suicide just a year later.
















View from the back porch:






They built this tower for Hemingway to use as an office, but he didn't like it and it ended up basically being a house for their cats.


The pool was undergoing deep cleaning while I was there:


His boat, The Pilar:


The Pilar was docked in Cojimar while Hemingway lived on the island.  We also visited his favorite bar in Cojimar (because, of course, he had a favorite bar there.)







Hemingway's table is roped off:

#146 Key West

The original name of Key West was Cayo Hueso (in Spanish) and translates to Bone Island.  It is said that when the Spanish settled the island it was strewn with the bones of previous inhabitants.  Which is probably true considering the island is actually a coral island and had basically no topsoil and so you weren't able to bury anything.

Key West is closer to Havana (106 miles) than it is to Miami (127 miles) and the inhabitants embrace the unique culture of being not quite the US and not quite the Caribbean.  In 1982 they even briefly declared themselves an independent nation the "Conch Republic".  The Conch Republic is still loud, proud, and celebrated every April.

Harry S. Truman spent a total of 175 days in Key West during his presidency and the Little White House and Truman Annex are a testament to how much time he spent there. 

Many homes have their porch/veranda roof painted "Haint Blue"

Haints are restless spirits of the dead.  Haints can't cross water and the blue is meant to look like water to trick the spirits into not being able to cross into your house.

Ernest Hemingway in Key West




The Hemingway House is famous for its 6-toed cats, all descended from an original white kitten bought for his children, the cats have free reign to the property. The cats do not care about the visitors, at all.  They basically are just quietly resigned to having their picture taken, but please no picking up the cats!

Ernest had mentioned that he wanted a pool (the first on the island), and had even picked out the place for it.  It would be well-fed from a deep cistern.  While Hemingway was away covering the Spanish Civil War his wife, Pauline, had the pool built for $20,000 (about $350,000 now).  When he returned and learned the cost, they argued and he shouted "Well, you might as well have my last cent!" and threw a penny at her.  They embedded that penny in the cement where it fell. 



I did not go to the southern most point and take the obligatory picture.  Maybe if I go back I will, but instead I walked by the original Sloppy Joe's.  When the lease was canceled (or the rent went up; I'm not clear on the specifics), Joe let his patrons basically take everything out. Hemingway ended up with his favorite urinal.  It's at the Hemingway House, but yeah, I'm not getting a picture of that.


Anyway, Joe reopened his bar a block-ish away.


Our guide told us that lots of people go to Sloppy Joe's, but he thinks it is mostly crowded and overrated and pointed us toward some better places.  I ended up at the Hog's Breath.





And then strolled to the original Key Lime Bakery






And strolled around Mallory Square before heading back to the ship.