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lahabana Cuban N AT U R E

MAR

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INCLUDING GUIDE TO THE BEST PLACES TO EAT, DRINK, DANCE AND STAY IN HAVANA

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LA HABANA.COM is an independent platform, which seeks to showcase the best in Cuba arts & culture, life-style, sport, travel and much more... We seek to explore Cuba through the eyes of the best writers, photographers and filmmakers, both Cuban and international, who live work, travel and play in Cuba. Beautiful pictures, great videos, reviews, insightful articles and inside tips.

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“This is the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen,” said Columbus when he set foot in Cuba. And little wonder, Cuba has six biosphere reserves, six wetlands declared Ramsar sites and two national parks designated as World Heritage Sites. In addition, the Cuban plant and animal kingdom has over 30,000 species, with 42.7 percent of terrestrial endemism. Quite a record. So this month, Lahabana Magazine has wanted to showcase the enchanting natural splendor of this island through its articles and great photographs. Trekking through Cuba, Viñales, the Botanical Gardens, the Javira Natural Reserve, the Ceiba tree are just some of the topics featured in this issue. Not to miss is the article about photographer Julio Larramendi, who has dedicated a great part of his life to shooting the beauties of Cuba, especially its flora and fauna; or the one on Polymitas, the beautiful Cuban land snails; La Gran Piedra, the highest rock of its size above sea level and the third largest in the world; and Cuba seen from 300 above the ground. Entertainment-wise, there are plenty of events to keep you busy this month. The XXII Festival Internacional de Danza en

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EDITORIAL Paisajes Urbanos: Habana Vieja Ciudad en Movimiento takes place in Old Havana from March 29 to April 2. Organized by Isabel Bustos and Retazos, and headquartered from Las Carolinas Theater in Old Havana, this event brings the streets of Old Havana alive with countless dance groups and performances from both Cuba and around the world. Another event that draws large crowds is the Fiesta del Tambor Guillermo Barreto in Memoriam (March 7-12), a festivity of percussion. Performers from the US, Brazil, Uruguay, Norway and Canada will be participating alongside Cuban musicians. The Havana World Music Festival, which will hold it’s fourth edition from March 23 to 26, has established itself as one of the most popular festivities in the Cuban musical scene. As its artistic director, singer Eme Alfonso, has said, “HWM intends to open a window of Cuba to the world and the world to Cuba.” Elsewhere, Santiago de Cuba will host the XV Festival Internacional de Documentales Santiago Álvarez In Memoriam (March 6-11), an event that highlights the prominent role of the documentary in filmmaking through a competition and ancillary screenings. Also in Santiago de Cuba, the Festival de la Trova Pepe Sánchez (March 1519) takes the city’s streets and parks by storm, while Matanzas gets ready for the Encuentro Internacional Danzonero Miguel Faílde In Memoriam (March 29-April 2). And whatever you do, don’t forget to give flowers to the women in your life on International Women’s Day (March 8). Abrazos! The LaHabana.com Team FEB 2017

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CUBA TRAVEL NETWORK: WELCOME TO RHYTHM

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CONTENTS MAR 2017

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CUBA’S TREASURE TROVE OF FLORA AND FAUNA

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CASTILLO EN LAS NUBES HOTEL, A PLACE IN THE SKIES OF CUBA

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CUBA SEEN FROM SKIES

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VIÑALES WAS BLESSED BY THE GODS

18 23 NOT JUST BEACHES VARADERO TO HAVANA…BY BIKE

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HAVANA’S BOTANICAL GARDEN: A GREEN HAVEN

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THE CEIBA TREE: NATURE AND SPIRITUALITY

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TREKKING THROUGH CUBA: A VERY POSSIBLE OPTION

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THE MERITS OF WAITING

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NATURE IN CUBAN PAINTING

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AN ORCHID PARADISE “BEING A VEGETARIAN IS A LIFESTYLE.” THE JAVIRA NATURAL RESERVE STONE ZOO: SOMEWHERE BETWEEN NATURE AND ART

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PIEDRA: TO 8 4 LATHEGRAN SUMMIT

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BARACOA: THE BIRTHPLACE OF CUBAN CULTURE

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POLYMITAS A CUBAN MISS UNIVERSE

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SEVEN TIPS TO CLIMB CUBA’S HIGHEST MOUNTAIN

103 105 LIVING TO READ 107 DALE PLAY

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

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HAVANA LISTINGS110 HAVANA

The ultimate guide to Havana with detailed reviews of where to eat, drink, dance, shop, visit and play. Unique insights to the place that a gregarious, passionate and proud people call home.

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CUBA’S TREASURE TROVE OF FLORA AND FAU N A by Ricardo Alberto Pérez photos by Mene

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There is nothing in the world like Cuban nature. It forms the backbone of our tangible and spiritual heritage, representing a complex level of symbolism and providing inspiration for generations of musicians, poets and painters. Cuban ecosystems possess an incredibly high level of endemism, well over fifty percent for a range of existing species in both the plant and animal kingdoms. Scientists have found flora and fauna on this Island that cannot be found anywhere else. We can start with the lordly Royal Palm which we find on the country’s coat of arms, standing for liberty and independence. Mature specimens of this tree can reach heights of up to 25 meters and they are topped by a crown of leaves that resembles a feathered headdress. It produces fruit in clusters, known as palmiche: for many years this was a large part of the diet for pigs on the Island. Another palm tree variety, the Palma Corcho, is less common and only grows in certain specific areas but it has been around for a long time. About a thousand of them are growing in Pinar del Río, the western region of Cuba. Originating in the Jurassic Period, this tree has been called a living fossil. Royal Poincianas (or Flamboyants), the red variety coming from Madagascar and the yellow from the Philippines, are a vibrantly beautiful feature of our island’s vegetation. When it is in flower, this tree fills our cities with vibrant splashes of color that are capable of picking up the spirits of any passer-by. The Siguaraya stands out for its lush foliage and slightly green-tinged white flowers. The Yoruba religion has assigned it sacred attributes and it was the inspiration for a very well-known Cuban song immortalized by the talents of singers such as Benny Moré, Celia Cruz and Oscar D’León.

CUBAN ECOSYSTEMS POSSESS AN INCREDIBLY HIGH LEVEL OF ENDEMISM, WELL OVER FIFTY PERCENT FOR A RANGE OF EXISTING SPECIES IN BOTH THE PLANT AND ANIMAL KINGDOMS.

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photo by Julio Larramendi

And who can forget the majestic Ceiba? Present throughout the island, this tree seems to command special attention in any landscape. There are also trees which identify Cuba because of their endemic quality. For example there is the ancient Marañón de la Maestra or mantequero, which has survived from the Cretaceous Period, the cactus Aguacate Cimarrón, two pine tree specimens, Pino de Mayarí and , Pino de la Maestra… the list goes on and on. Most of these can be found in mountainous and hilly areas. A number of species of native orchid call Cuba home as well. Topping the list are the Black and Butterfly Orchids, both growing in Pinar del Río’s Guanahacabibes Peninsula on the far western tip of the country. One can visit the Soroa Orchidarium and Botanical Gardens in Artemisa province and get an accurate idea of the amazing number of varieties from those exhibited there: 130 species of Cuban orchid and 700 from other parts of the world. Orchid collectors from other parts of Cuba come to get them directly from the hilly areas in the interior of the province where they grow in the wild. Even though it is native to tropical areas of Eastern Asia, Cuba has adopted the Mariposa or White Garland Lily as its National Flower. During the battles for Cuban independence in the 19th century, patriotic women used to carry messages tucked away among intricate bunches of this splendid flower. Cuban fauna is impressive for its many unusual and interesting specimens that have survived from ancient times: the almiquí, the manatee, the manjuarí or Cuban gar, the Cuban crocodile, the pink flamingo, the Cuban hutia (Jutía Conga), the iguana and the Cuban boa known as Maja de Santa María.

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These days the almiquí, also called a living fossil, is an endangered species, living only in the wooded areas of eastern Cuba in Baracoa and Holguín. And the freshwater fish, the Cuban gar, is a biological relic since it has survived practically all of its contemporaries. Today we can find it living in the Ciénaga de Zapata, western Pinar del Río and on the Isle of Youth. One of the most remarkable features of Cuban fauna is its visible tendency to dwarfism. Two species provide us with good examples of this phenomenon: the bee hummingbird (Zunzuncito) is endemic to Cuba and is also known locally as Zunzún or Colibrí, and the tiny frog going by the name of Monte Iberia eleuth (Ranita Monte Iberia). The bee hummingbird is the tiniest bird in the world, just 6 cm-long and weighing only 2 grams. It is wonderful to see its elegant presence in patios and gardens. The Ranita Monte Iberia is the smallest specimen within its biological class in the northern hemisphere and measures between 9.0 and 9.8 mm. It can only be found in the Moa-Toa Ecosystem. Other significant native Cuban birds are the Cuban screech owl (Sijú Platanero), the great white heron (Garzón or Garza Blanca), the Cuban blackbird (Totí), the common wood pigeon (Paloma Torcaz) and the mockingbird (Sinsonte). We save the best for the last. Cuba’s National Bird is the Tocororo or Cuban trogon, brandishing our national colors on its splendid plumage. Whenever we manage to catch a glimpse of it in the wooded and hilly regions of Cuba, we are reminded of the very wonderful gifts Mother Nature bestows on us humans.

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CUBA SEEN FROM SKIES by Giovanni Fernández Valdés Fotos: Courtesy of Kako Escalona

Sierra del Escambray, Sancti Spíritus

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lahabana. com Getting to know Cuba at 300 meters in a plane with its door open, and also to photograph it, is an experience that Carlos Ernesto Escalona (Kako) would like to repeat over and over again. To observe the transformations of nature from the air, to see Cuban cities from above, has given this young photographer a chance to apply his knowledge and especially to discover a different island, with all its contrasts, shadows, forests and estuaries flowing into the sea. Carlos Ernesto was invited to take part in a Mundo Latino Documentary Production Company project, in coordination with international and Cuban agencies, to make a pictorial record of how the drought is behaving throughout the country. After all the government permits were granted and after giving all the exact coordinates for the places they would “visit” in the AN-2 plane, Escalona and his work mates managed to fly over the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Pinar del Río and La Habana, and from the Ciénaga de Zapata they went as far as Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.

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Costa Sur, Sancti Spíritus

Kako told us how he felt as soon as they told him about the plan: “I thought how I would be able to merge two of my personal interests: flying and photography. And so I rapidly asked when we would be in the air.”

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Carlos Ernesto had been the director of photography on the documentary films Ella Trabaja (2006), Al sur de Matahambre (2008) and Hombres de Cocodrilos (2013). One of his passions is to attempt to produce an anthropological and sociological vision in every one of his photos. That’s the reason why he is very concerned about thoroughly researching the background before launching into any new work. “When they talked to me about this project,” Kako told us, “what I knew about aerial photography was thanks to the American Cinematographer Manual where one section explains the basic elements. The manual also dealt with geographical latitude and how light plays a role because tropical light is not like the light in other parts of the world.”

Central Tuinicu en Sancti Spíritus

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KAKO ESCALONA INSISTS THAT THIS AERIAL ADVENTURE CHANGED HIS ENTIRE PERSPECTIVE ABUT CUBA:HE WAS ABLE TO SEE THE MARKS LEFT BY HUMAN CIVILIZATION AND THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN MODERN AND ANCIENT WAYS OF BUILDING.

Delta del río Zaza, Sancti Spíritus

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lahabana. com “Another reference for me was Robert Haas’ Through the Eyes of the Condor, published by the National Geographic. Haas took aerial photos all over Latin America and it provided me with clues about what I would see later on when I was in the air for the three days of the job,” said Kako. One of Carlos Ernesto’s challenges was doing the best he could onboard an AN-2 plane, a difficult task when you consider that the biplane doesn’t provide much comfort when it comes to taking any kind of picture. “Since there are two levels, you don’t have much space where you can shoot, only at the door for the parachutists and if you do a wideangle you are going to see the plane’s wings. You have to really coordinate well with the pilots. At that time you can’t just give them a photography lesson but you have to convince them that you need to go at it two or even three times to look for the best lighting, the best view, the proper light exposure…and there is also the matter of the shadows, just to mention a few of the elements.”

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At the relatively young age of 33, Kako has given chats and lectures in the United States at Nebraska-Lincoln University, and New Jersey College and in Cuba at the University of Havana, the Higher Institute of Art and the Creative Photography School of Havana. This photographer-professor who totes a green knapsack with his laptop and camera has the habit of speaking carefully and slowly and one of his great distinguishing traits is his good sense of humor. One of the experiences that impressed him was when he was in Sancti Spíritus and the forest rangers wanted to get some photos taken while they were on a plane involved in training exercises on techniques used for fighting forest fires: “They burned some tires on the runway and we started shooting from inside the AN-2. Haas’ book was really helpful in terms of his advice on how to film another plane. The pilots of all the planes had to be synchronized. What an experience! It was something like choreography that had to be planned in detail on the ground and eventually we got what we wanted.” Escalona insists that this aerial adventure changed his entire perspective abut Cuba: he was able to see the marks left by human civilization and the contrasts between modern and ancient ways of building. He also says that it was not the same thing FEB 2017 16

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“seeing the rice fields to the south of Jíbaro, one of the largest ones in Cuba, from land as it was to observe the symmetry of those same fields from the air.” He was also impressed when he noticed how the peasant huts, the bohíos, blended in with the natural setting of their farms. As Kako tells us: “Flying at 300 meters makes everything incredible. Besides, I discovered places that, after seeing them from the air, I wanted to go out and visit them on land, such as the town of Máximo Gómez in northern Chambas, in Ciego de Ávila Province. There is a jetty there that must have been functioning in the past to transport sugar cane from the town’s sugar mill and it had a unique look of tranquility and naturalness to it.”

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Va r a d e r o t o Havana…by bike

by Charlie Thompson How better to round off a weekend spent relaxing in a self indulgent all-inclusive Varadero hotel (the excellent Iberostar Varadero) than to ditch the car and get on your bike for the return trip to Havana. Almost the Thomas Cook alternate shuttle. Exiting Varadero at 8am, the idea of having drunk and smoked a little less over the weekend is prevalent and there is the temptation to check out the Viazul bus schedule. The golf course is lush and empty; the Southern side of the peninsula catches the sun. On and past the glitteringly bad two-star hotels which deck out Varadero’s entrance. It is going to be a long day--perhaps a little early for the reliable Western blowing wind to push me back to Havana. FEB 2017 18

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Who needs the wind? Certainly not the guy who passes me on an older racing bike. He is de ciclismo and slows to have a chat. “Where are you from, where are you headed?” He suggests I should make it to Havana in five to six hours. He, on the other hand, would expect a time slightly under three and a half hours. Average speed, a little over 50km per hour, or about twice what my speedometer registers on a good day. Yeah.

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Past the toll booth, I was half expecting to pay a small fee for the bike but am quickly waved through, and onto the bypass. Well actually not a diversion but a long and perfectly flat somewhat windswept road connecting Varadero with the next town of any note, Matanzas. This is a speedster’s route. The wind at your back, good road and lack of any incline lets even me burn up the 35 kilometres in a little over an hour. Past the airport (20km), past the Varadero Tropicana and onwards to the outskirts of Matanzas. Time for the first rest stop at the ever reliable El Rápido cafeteria, decorated with garishly bright colours, and able to provide only the worst quality ham and cheese sandwiches. As ever, though, the coffee is excellent and I can restock on liquids as the beer from the weekend continues to sweat out. Time also I guess for a cigarette or two.

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On through the suburbs to Matanzas proper. The bay is magnificent. The city itself somewhat optimistically known as the Athens of Cuba is charming as far as it goes. Old colonial buildings hug both sides of the bay, the oil terminal pumps out fumes further along the coast and the bridge carrying the railway lines looks set to collapse under the weight of a bike let alone a locomotive. Leaving Matanzas, the ballgame has changed. It is a ruinous climb to my health, straight up then moderately so, then up steeply again and around the corner. A slow ponderous climb takes 30 minutes and leaves me ready for another pit-stop. This has got to be the toughest hill climb of the day. Fortunately, there is another café roadside to put the feet up and watch some slightly more serious cyclists speed off in tight formation in the other direction. Luckily, the road is now up on the plateau of the Yumurí Valley. The scenery is gorgeous and with the tailwind, it seems virtually all downhill to Bacunayagua. This is where Matanzas Province crosses into Mayabeque Province. More interestingly, it is one of the most scenic views in Cuba as the longest bridge on this route takes you hundreds of meters above a curving river which makes its exit at this exquisite bay. Perched above the road is a good café with a great lookout which fills up with tourist buses. Of no matter for me as that extra 30-meter climb puts me off and I settle down again for another cigarette and double espresso at another roadside café. The waitress kindly offers to snap my picture, a routine which needs repeating several times. Very natural. Next stop, Jibacoa. Past the Puerto Escondido gas plant which guards the hilltop to a long sweeping downhill stretch. Traffic remains light but constant. It bugs me as I hurtle down and I start burning up the brakes trying to retain some semblance of control as the bike picks up speed. Onwards and downwards head firmly planted in front, not left not right. I am sure that the scenery is nice but I need to get over the next hump. FEB 2017 20

lahabana. com The next sweepingly long downhill stretch is populated by the banana salesmen of this area. One after the other they offer large bunches of slightly under-ripe fruits for a dollar. I flop down besides them and start on devouring a half dozen. Someone once told me that potassium was good and that bananas are full of the stuff. This being Cuba it is impossible for more than one Cuban to remain silent for longer than 30 seconds and the guys keep up a constant banter and running discourse on the finer strategies of flagging down passing traffic. The girlfriend of a competitor seems to be running interference 30 meters down the road with a short top and sweet smile—they are not amused.

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Onwards, past the entrance to the Sandals resort and over the bridge which marks Jibacoa beach, packed in the summer but deserted now. A small bay with a long worn out jetty with Cuba’s typically charming crystal clear blue waters whisper persuasively into my ear to down tools and jump in. It is a short hop to Santa Cruz del Norte, site of the Havana Club rum refinery; the stench of molasses fills the air. I am waved down by what seems like a cyclist in a bright yellow jersey. On closer inspection it seems that his bike has an engine, a peculiarly Cuban invention and certainly seeming like a blatant misrepresentation to me. He invites me to the weekend Santa Cruz del Norte to Bacunayagua (and back) race. “Be there at 9:30am to register.” I try and explain that I only cycle West with the wind at my back but give up on his understanding of my butchered Spanish and suggest that I will try and make it (in another life).

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lahabana. com Santa Cruz del Norte marks the end to the scenic ups and downs and the road now flattens out completely. Leaving town, one side of the road is closed, although with typical Cuban lack of information there are no signs or real attempt to separate the traffic now sharing one side. Pot luck. Hugging the right hand side, I have real doubts over whether the oncoming traffic is going to keep to its own lane—a perception quickly confirmed. Get me out of here! While the sea glitters to the right hand side, a huge power station, oil rigs and oil tank farms dominate the left hand side. The power station is huge. It dominates the landscape and is a source of amazement for me that anyone could get it to work let alone productively. It looks 200 years old and in imminent danger of having a coronary. Alongside this behemoth, the road also deteriorates, which leaves the bike bouncing off the ruts in the surface. Nothing like a midday bike-ride in the baking Caribbean heat. A further 15km down the road lies Guanabo. This is Havana’s sea-side town and offers a great opportunity for lunch at what must be one of Cuba’s best pizza restaurants, Piccolo. It is 2pm. Perhaps I was better off with bananas since the garlic pizza sits heavily in my stomach and after cruising through town I am onto a short but steep hill climb back to the main road. Cramps rip through my leg and I start hopping awkwardly up the slope much to the amusement of passers-by.

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This is now the real beach stretch, mile upon mile of fine sand and cooling water. Down to the right lies Santa María Beach, Mégano Beach, Tarará. And up where I am, the traffic is building and the hills seem to be growing. Past the omnipresent police checkpoint—can you really do anything on a bike to get stopped?—past the glaringly run-down apartments of Alamar and into Havana City. Unfortunately, the gateway to the City passes under the bay through a long tunnel, which bikes are prohibited from entering and this necessitates a long detour around the bay. The ugly Vía Blanca, traffic lights, traffic. Through Regla, Guanabacoa, past the Havana refinery and on into the city via the back door. Around the bay, past the docks and the creaking railway tracks into Plaza de San Francisco, Old Havana. Home sweet home. Time for a celebratory coffee and cigarette. Barely eight hours from Varadero. Not quite a winning time. And still I am not done since I have to get to the Western suburbs. The Malecón is busy but the wind has me flying now and I can smell some proper food. Past the Nacional Hotel and out to the West of the city. Fifth Avenue runs through Miramar and is too important to allow bikes, which requires another detour up to 7th Avenue until that inconveniently runs out at Calle 70. Of no matter, I am virtually there, I can go up and down backstreets. Time to call the wife and kids to bring out the balloons and streamers. I will be back home in two minutes—it is 4.56pm. “Did you win Daddy? Can I watch more TV?”

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Not just beaches

by Victoria Alcalá

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There is a quote by Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera that we have heard time and time again in reference to the most unsuspected angles of political and social life on the Island: “That damned circumstance of having water everywhere.” I suppose that some of the leading lights in our tourist industry would gladly change the adjective “damned’’ for “blessed” thinking about all of those people escaping the winters of their countries to submerge in the “balmy” tropical waters that Cubans consider to be “chilly” other than during the months of July and August. But perhaps even for them the circumstance holds the touch of a curse because so many beaches and so much sun tend to overpower the infinite possibilities of the other aspects of Cuban nature that contribute so much to the “smokeless industry”: natural parks, ecological reserves, fauna made up of around 16,500 described species with a high degree of endemism, and flora that boasts of 6,300 varieties. All of this awaits the person who wants to enjoy nature not just for scientific pursuits, but as a means to de-stress, for a spirit of adventure or the simple pleasure produced by beauty in its purest form, without running the risk of bumping into any highly dangerous species. FEB 2017 24

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Relatively close to the traditional tourist resort areas, sites are awaiting us, inviting us to partake in bird-watching, hiking, bicycle tours, horseback riding, exploring underwater caves and meeting the local inhabitants who in many cases are well prepared to not only guide visitors but to also provide for a mutually propitious encounter with the surrounding natural setting. Some fifty kilometers west of Havana, in the province of Artemisa, lies the Sierra del Rosario, a hilly terrain that was the first Biosphere Reserve recognized by UNESCO in Cuba. It harbors the community of Las Terrazas—a place that perhaps has the most experience in practicing sustainable tourism—and Soroa with its famous orchid garden and picturesque waterfall. Nature is somewhat more “domesticated” there but it is worth our while to spend some time looking at the gorgeous landscape and the over one hundred species of birds, half of which are endemic to Cuba.

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SPECTACULAR DOME-LIKE LIMESTONE OUTCROPS CALLED MOGOTES, DECLARED CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF HUMANITY

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In Pinar del Río Province, north of its capital city, Viñales Valley, with its valley spattered with unique, spectacular dome-like limestone outcrops called mogotes, declared Cultural Landscape of Humanity by UNESCO and endowed with fauna that is often exclusive to the region, offers hotels such as La Ermita and Los Jazmines overlooking the valley. There is also the Rancho San Vicente with its sulfurous waters and so many private homes in town where one can stay and plan excursions to the mogotes and caves that are considered to be the most extensive in Latin America. For those who are interested in cigars, a tour has been designed which takes in the lands where the best tobacco in the world is grown, in the municipalities of San Luis and San Juan y Martínez, in the center of the province. When it is tobacco harvesting time, the farmers will gladly explain to you, in situ, the demanding process required to obtain the top quality leaves. And if you go on to the far western end of the Island you will find the Guanahacabibes Peninsula National Park, Biosphere Reserve, important corridor for migratory birds, where you can also see the gems of Cuban fauna such as the tocororo, the National Bird of Cuba, the diminutive and glorious hummingbird called zunzuncito or the multi-colored parrots, all in their practically virgin habitat. Add to that beaches which rightly belong to paradise and the International Maria La Gorda Diving Center.

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lahabana. com Heading eastward, after making a stop to contemplate the splendid Yumurí Valley in Matanzas Province, very close to Varadero, we find the Bellamar Caves, a complex of caverns having over 23 kilometers of galleries and spectacular formations that have been famous all the way back to the 19th century. Southern Matanzas Province holds the Ciénaga de Zapata National Park, the greatest wetlands in the insular Caribbean, Biosphere Reserve and Ramsar Site, with remarkable flora and fauna, especially its endemic and migratory birds and the habitat of the Cuban crocodile, which can be seen, very safely, in its much visited breeding farm. In the towns scattered throughout the Zapata Peninsula, you can stay at any of the hotels or choose to rent rooms in private homes and hire local guides for tours and diving expeditions. From the interesting city of Trinidad in Sancti Spíritus Province, one of the most popular tourist destinations, it is a short hop over to the Topes de Collantes, Protected Natural Landscape, located in the Escambray Mountains. Covered by profuse vegetation dominated by the aroma of the eucalyptus, this area has abundant endemic fauna, natural

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THE HUGE BUENAVISTA BIOSPHERE ITS AMAZING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INCLUDES THE GREAT WETLANDS OF NORTHERN CIEGO DE ÁVILA, WORLD FAMOUS FOR ITS FLAMINGO POPULATION. trails winding through the hills, dramatic changes in altitude and camera-ready waterfalls. When ranking waterfalls, one of the most admired ones is El Nicho, less than 50 kilometers from the lovely city of Cienfuegos. In the province of Sancti Spíritus at La Picadora, Mayajigua, a novel experiment is taking shape: several families are renting rooms to tourists and getting them involved in everyday life in the community: milking cows, planting, harvesting crops, stripping palm leaves and more, and also participating in local cultural and leisure activities. The huge Buenavista Biosphere Reserve covers parts of the central provinces of Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila and an area of the Sabana-Camagüey cays. Its amazing biological diversity includes the Great Wetlands of Northern Ciego de Ávila, world famous for its flamingo population. FEB 2017 27

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The eastern end of the Island is home to some of the Island’s most rugged and spectacular sceneries. Santiago de Cuba province’s Turquino National Park has the highest mountains in the archipelago: Pico Real del Turquino (1,974 m), the Cuba and the Suecia peaks add to the attractive features of its biodiversity the fact that they provided settings for some of the most important historical events in the second half of the 20th century. Climbing up to the summit of Turquino along well-marked trails has always been a favorite excursion for young Cubans. International tourism has joined in, and accommodations have been set up in both private and government inns along the way. The Baconao Biosphere Reserve in southern Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo provinces has sections of coastline and mountains that are rich in a variety of animal and plant life. La Gran Piedra, an enormous rock estimated to weigh 75,000 tons, pre-Columbian sites and the ruins of coffee plantations founded by French colonists from Haiti declared as UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site provide spectacular surroundings.

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The Desembarco del Granma (Landing of the “Granma”) National Park in Granma Province was the first Cuban site to be registered by UNESCO as a Natural Heritage Site, and it is considered to be the best conserved example in the world for its systems of marine terraces. Not only is it a significant reserve of endemic flora and fauna but it also possesses archeological importance for the remains of aboriginal cultures found there. The Alejandro de Humboldt National Park is included by UNESCO on its list of World Heritage Sites and it takes in territories in Guantánamo and Holguín provinces, having the greatest plant diversity of the Cuban archipelago and of all the Caribbean islands. FEB 2017 28

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A high degree of endemism includes the rare almiquí. The area is much admired for its forests, rivers, mountains, cascades and coral reefs: half of it is covered by the Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve, crossed by the river of the same name and with attractions such as the summit called Yunque de Baracoa (because of its silhouette in the shape of an anvil), the great Moa Cavern and Taco Bay.

THE LOCAL POPULATION IS AWARE OF THE IMPORTANCE, FOR THEIR OWN LIVELIHOODS, OF PRESERVING THEIR NATURAL HERITAGE AND THEY TAKE PART IN MANAGING IT.

Obviously, these are not the only places to indulge in ecological tourism. The Island is full of spots, some practically unknown, where you can come into direct and responsible contact with nature. In some of the places we have mentioned, the local population is aware of the importance, for their own livelihoods, of preserving their natural heritage and they take part in managing it. In other places, nature is simply part of the “landscape” and people try to take advantage of it in any way that comes to mind. There are also business “whizzes” who, in their eagerness to attain quick profits, forget about their project’s sustainability and so, because they fail to set limits, they become unconscious predators or they invent traditions such as “indigenous ceremonies” that have more in common with a 1950s Pow Wow cartoon than with the actual practices of our original inhabitants. But still, it is a worthwhile project to look for that other Cuba, the one than is less advertised and less cosmopolitan but, because of just that, much more genuine.

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H AVA N A’ S B O TA N I C A L GARDEN: A G R E E N H AV E N

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A visitor to Havana soon discovers that the city is fun-loving and lively. However, not everyone is aware of the fact that a few kilometers from the city center there are “dead spots” where one can relax from car, bus and truck horns that seem to go off for any reason; the endless chatter; and the music that seems to follow passersby from street to street and house to house. One of these refuges of silence is the Jardín Botánico Nacional (JBN), or National Botanical Garden (Carretera El Rocío, km 3½, Calabazar), very close to Parque Lenin and just across the road from EXPOCUBA, the country’s largest exhibition center. The garden began to be built in 1968, and although it was officially inaugurated in January 1989, it opened to the public on March 24, 1984 thanks to the direct participation of workers, students and professors of the University of Havana, and students of technical institutes, who worked intensively for many months. Following a master plan rigorously established on scientific bases, they planted trees and grass, and developed the phytogeographic zones and special collections in the approximately 600 hectares that are home to about 4,000 identified species, and almost 150,000 specimens. FEB 2017 30

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PLANTS ARE ORGANIZED INTO TWO MAIN COLLECTIONS: THE INDOOR COLLECTIONS WITH OVER 600 SPECIES, 250 GENDERS AND 90 FAMILIES.

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Inherited from the former Botanical Garden of Havana, which used to be located in the grounds of the Quinta de los Molinos, the Garden’s Herbarium is a collection of nearly 200,000 specimens of plants and fungi from Cuba, and some collections from Mexico, French Guyana, Ecuador, Spain, Germany, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela, Virgin Islands and Florida, USA. The Herbarium, as well as the Scientific Collection of living plants, are extremely valuable to a specialized audience and are available to scientists, students and researchers. Plants are organized into two main collections: the indoor collections with over 600 species, 250 genders and 90 families, and the field collections in which plants are divided into two main areas, the Cuban phytogeographic zone and the international phytogeographic zone. The indoor collections are housed in three pavilions that are each nine meters tall. The first pavilion, known as the Crystal House, contains plants from tropical and subtropical arid regions, including the very popular cactuses. The second greenhouse exhibits plants from tropical rainforests in an environment of high humidity and 50% light. And the third pavilion is dedicated to the lush vegetation from the mountain tropical rainforests, as well as a number of plants of economic interest, such as cocoa, coffee, black pepper and vanilla, in an environment of high humidity and 25% light. Outside the greenhouses, there is a beautiful collection of ornamental aquatic and terrestrial plants.

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The Cuban phytogeographic zone contains a representation of the vegetation that can be found on the island with approximately 3,500 species of plants native to Cuba, while the international phytogeographic zone contains tropical trees from Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, Australia and Oceania. One of the most important attractions in the JBN is the Palmetum, a collection of palm trees covering an area of 50 hectares where 158 species in 55 genera of palm grow. Another significant collection is the Archaic Forest with plants that have survived to this day from the era of dinosaurs, such as coniferous trees, or prior to that, such as magnolias.

Located in the phytogeographic area of Southeast Asia is the Japanese Garden that covers an area of five hectares. The garden, which was a gift from the Japanese Government to the Cuban people, received a 20-million-yen contribution from the Japan World Exposition Commemorative Association, and was the work of the famous Japanese landscape architect Yoshikuni Araki (1921–1997). Conceived as a “kaiyū-shiki-teien”, or promenade or stroll garden, it has the typical elements of Japanese landscape gardens--beaches of stones (which were brought from Pinar del Río and Sancti Spíritus provinces and Santa Maria and Santa Cruz del Norte beaches); water in the form of a cascade and a lake, the latter with multicolored carps; gravel walks; a simplified replica of a traditional Buddhist pagoda; and a stone lantern, which is meant to symbolize the illumination of one’s path through life. In keeping with the technique of “shakkei”, or borrowed scenery, the garden takes advantage of views outside the garden, in this case the nearby hills known as Tetas de Managua as visual axis to the contemplation of the garden. In addition, by means of the “mie-gakure” technique, the visitor can see the whole landscape from any point in the garden. As well as plants from Southeast Asia, specimens of Pino Macho were used in lieu of Japanese pines that do not grow in tropical climates, and Cassia nodosa, whose pale pink flowers suggest cherry blossoms. Bamboo and a combination of evergreens and deciduous trees were used, allowing a sort of carpet of ferns and mosses to develop. The Japanese Garden is an invitation to tranquility and inspiration while enjoying its natural beauties.

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Although there are several Cuban Creole and international menu restaurants in the Botanical Garden, many people prefer to eat at El Bambú, the popular ecorestaurant next to the Japanese Garden. The all-you-can-eat lunch buffet serves soups and salads, root vegetables, beans, rice, mushrooms, leafy vegetables, eggplant caviar, plus hibiscus and other flowers and plants that one would never consider edible, pastas, delicious toppings, sauces and condiments, most of which are grown in surrounding areas within the Botanical Garden, all cooked on a wood-fuelled fire or solar cookers. Of course, there’s no shortage of fresh fruit and juice, tea, desserts and delicate, flavored ice cream sweetened with honey, with no milk or cream. Very near the exit of the Botanical Garden, a small shop sells ornamental plants grown in the Garden’s nurseries and laboratories. The best way to enjoy the Garden is through the guided train tour that takes around two hours and explores the entire grounds of the Jardín Botánico Nacional with a 30-minute stop at the Japanese Garden. This is a place that nature lovers will thoroughly enjoy, thanks to the park’s abundance of endemic plant species and foreign flora from all around the globe, and beautifully preserved Cuban species.

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THE CEIBA TREE: nature and spirituality by Aimara Fernández

When the slaves arrived in this island from the African continent, they found nothing that linked them to their motherland; neither were there baobabs, the sacred tree that connected them to their gods. The only spiritual welcome these uprooted people received was the ceiba tree--also known as kapok tree or silk-cotton tree-a demigod tree that branches out to spirituality as a mother. It is luxuriant and strong and well-proportioned. The knots on its trunk resemble eyes that are always on the watch. The shadows cast by its branches are long and dense. Hundreds of beautiful birds nest in these trees. Perched on its branches, the predatory buzzards bask in the sun or simply take time out from their endless soaring. In the middle of the day, the luxuriance of the ceiba tree turns them into natural ceilings and the gentle breeze from its leaves makes travellers take a refreshing break. After lunch, farmers settle back against the trunk for a restoring nap before they continue their labour in the fields.

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In the middle of a storm, lightning cannot harm a ceiba tree. Its horizontality, as well as its cottonlike fibre protect it from burning. No one dares to cut down or pull up a ceiba tree. Whoever does so becomes an executioner, a soul who will have no rest and will be condemned to wander through life and death in darkness. Ceibas are protective mothers who watch over both earthly and celestial beings; living gnangas, or witchdoctors, of Nature. At dead of night, they become legends. They walk through the woods, slowly and resounding, like the sound of drums coming from the centre of the earth. In the small hours, wandering spirits come to receive the addimu--the offerings from its people. Nobody can hear them because they sleep on top of their cotton.

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At maturity, hundreds of grenade-shaped fruits hang from its branches. When these capsules burst, thousands of splendorous, cotton-wrapped seeds scatter to the four winds. During this time, the ceiba tree is queen in the woods, in towns, in neighbourhoods, and in cities. It becomes a mother. Peasant women make pillows from the newborn fleece. First, the cotton is carefully selected. Then it is cleaned thoroughly to rid it of any undesirable and disturbing seeds or insects. The cotton is kneaded until a soft and compact texture is achieved. The fleece becomes white, soft and warm, ready to stuff pillows which babies will rest their heads on. Revitalizing sleep will overcome young and old alike. Nightmares will be frustrated and the most pleasant dreams will occur. The mind is refreshed from feverish daily activity; soothed are the headaches that the years bring on. The most famous ceiba tree in Cuba is undoubtedly the tree at El Templete in Old Havana. It marks the place where the first mass was held on the founding of the new city back in 1519. Every year on November 16 at the strike of midnight, thousands of Habaneros go round the tree three times making a wish on every turn. Such is the magical power the ceiba has. In other lands, Cubans have embraced ceiba trees as friends or siblings when they have needed to restore their energy. Or, when they are far away and are on their deathbed and there isn’t time to come home, they give up their souls to this tree in a final embrace.

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TREKKING THROUGH CUBA: A VERY POSSIBLE OPTION by Giovanni Fernández Valdés René Pérez Massola

The idea of trekking is not popular enough yet in Cuba. It sounds like a contradiction—we have a country full of natural bounty and it’s hardly ever explored by its own inhabitants. But photographer and trekker René Pérez Massola tells us that sometimes we wait for the perfect moment to start this activity and it will never come. Other people are of the opinion that Cuba doesn’t have the right conditions in place for buying a “good” backpack, a “large” tent, an assortment of tinned foods, the right clothing and gear… René always has variables for not getting lost in the mountains, along winding paths, rivers, cascades and in the caves in Cuba.

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Pérez Massola belongs to a group of nature enthusiasts who, since 2014, have been ardently discovering the Island using their own means. In some countries this is called “back-packing.” We decided to talk with him, to find out more about this bourgeoning movement that, year after year, is getting stronger, especially in Havana. When did the Cuban Trekking Movement (Movimiento Cubano de Excursionismo) get started? It was founded three years ago by an engineer, Miguel Sandelis, at the University of Havana. It was created for the aim of encouraging the love of nature among students, but it has gone further than that. We base ourselves on strengthening interpersonal relations among all of us who practice this activity because there are no sanitary services or places to spend the night along the way, such as houses or hotels. And many places don’t even have transportation or sell food. The only way to spend a few days doing this is to build up solidarity, a real group cooperation mentality. Our greatest interest is in bringing together different social groups, not just university students, but professionals and workers from different areas, to make up a social network, but on a real life basis. However we do use the social networks most of the time to promote the group and the sites we visit.

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“TAKING PHOTOS ON THESE TRIPS IS VERY DIFFICULT SINCE THE PHYSICAL EFFORT INVOLVED IS TWICE AS GREAT, BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO KEEP ON MOVING. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO WAIT TO LET THE GROUP PASS YOU SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE A PICTURE OF SOME ANIMAL OR LANDSCAPE,” SAID RENÉ PÉREZ MASSOLA

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Today we already have about seven groups in Havana, one in Holguín and one in Santa Clara. How do you decide where to go? We do a biking tour to Playa Girón in Matanzas Province to celebrate the anniversary of the military events that took place in that area. That’s 218 kilometers from Havana. We get there really tired, but we are able to connect trekking with the history of Cuba. In fact, that’s one of our greatest premises. Sandelis is always saying that the two elements go hand in hand. For example, we went to Ojito del Agua, very near San Pedro, which is a sacred place for Cubans because that’s where Lt. Gen. Antonio Maceo fell in combat. We were told about the site, right there on the spot, and they explained the context in which Maceo died.

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On February 24, the day when the second war of liberation from Spain began, we are leaving with around 150 trekkers for Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra, and in November we will be in Santa Clara remembering Che Guevara. On our outings we try to combine them with historic places and so we have the chance to actually see the sites described in our history books. There’s a funny story about one of our more senior trekkers, Alejo, who is 71 years old. When we went to Pan de Matanzas in 2002 (that’s where I met him), he told us that he always brought his two grandkids on every excursion and on one occasion their teacher called him to ask whether it was true that his granddaughter had actually been to all those historical places she talked about at school.

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lahabana. com When did you get started trekking? I started when I was 16. Trekking really pulls you out of your comfort zone and it revs you up for other potentialities which we are often not aware of. When we went to Santa Cruz, I took my tent but I never set it up during the trip. When night fell and we couldn’t keep going along the river, we looked for a bend in the river, I pulled out my sleeping bag, used my boots as a pillow and I went to sleep in the sand. What’s important is seeing, learning and living an adventure. And as for food, we have some established rations: one package of spaghetti per person per day, one packet of tomato sauce for 4 persons, one packet of soft drink powder making 8 glasses per 4 persons and one package of crackers. Guava and peanuts are also at the heart of all our treks.

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Just recently we did a 12-kilometer trek to Pan de Guajaibón Mountain in Pinar del Río Province and we ate peanuts, guava and a bit of the soft drink because the body gets stressed with so much activity and it doesn’t require heavy meals, instead it needs things that are high in calories. Climbing a mountain is like life: you have challenges to conquer, you need other people and you stand by the others when things get tough. How did the Camping Movement (Movimiento Camping) start? It began in the social networks. It was born out of the stories I used to tell a friend of mine’s daughters and the son of another one of my friends. They would ask to go along with me to those sites I was describing and then my friend and I had the idea of putting the excursion out there on the social network, especially the trek to the mountain called Pan de Matanzas, and in just a few days we had a group made up of people from different social groups and different municipalities in Havana. Last summer we went to six sites and since there are several photographers in the group we take photos on every trip.

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What about photography? Taking photos on these trips is very difficult since the physical effort involved is twice as great, because you always have to keep on moving. Sometimes you have to wait to let the group pass you so that you can take a picture of some animal or landscape. Even if you want to take a picture of people doing their thing, you have to wait for the right moment. Sometimes I get the idea of wanting to shoot what we eat, or getting people up at 5 a.m. but it’s difficult to convince them after a tough day that they should get up extra early just to have their pictures taken. I have to work with time a lot. And El excursionista magazine? First we put out a bulletin but I thought that wasn’t enough because you get complicated with the number of pages that can be printed. With this option of doing a quarterly digital magazine we can have more pages and reach more people. Our first issue, No. 0, came out in December and now for No. 1 our editing and photography are much more professional looking. We even give health tips for trekking, for example, how to carry your shoulder pack, what the ideal weights you should be carrying are and the kinds of exercises you should be doing prior to the treks, and many other topics. I have a ritual I love to do: when we get to rivers, just at the point where they have their sources, I fill my glass from that source and drink a toast to everyone with that pure, crystalline water…it’s an incredible experience.

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THE MERITS O F WA I T I N G by Victoria Alcalá Photos by Julio Larramendi A man is stalking his prey. He’s been waiting for hours for it to appear or maybe he’s just waiting for it to present its best angle. He’s been cold and he’s suffered excruciating heat; he has gotten soaked in torrential rains and he’s endured practically desert-like dryness that has chapped his lips. His skin has been burned by the sun and felt the bothersome pricking sensation that could be the result of some insect’s bite or the touch of a plant. So much time alone, frozen in the same or almost the same position, cramps his legs and his implacable sixty-odd years weigh heavily on his bones. Maybe he craves a cup of coffee—with that dash of milk he always prefers—and followed up by a cigar to chase away drowsiness and the mosquitoes. But he remains in pursuit until finally the thing he has been waiting for so long comes into his field of vision. Quickly he follows it with his gaze and shoots…once, twice, dozens of times…relentlessly following his objective.

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At the end of the day, he can relax, check the results, smile and walk around. The accumulated fatigue seems to fall on his shoulders but he moves agilely through the scrub, maybe even humming a Beatles’ song, as he considers the best destination for his trophy. Perhaps it will end up on the pages of a book. This man with European, African and Asian blood running through his veins has been attached to his camera for almost fifty years—48 to be exact. His first jobs dealt with scientific and technical photography and then he got involved with the worlds of advertising, fashion, architecture and art. But it seems that nature is the most long-lived of his loves, perhaps because it allows him to merge his academic knowledge with the art of photography to the utmost degree. He has a degree in chemistry and a PhD in sciences which he combines with his sensibilities and humanistic bent. Originally from Santiago de Cuba, he is at the same time down-to-earth and refined, always with a smile on his lips, the perfect host, and able to capture the images of such beautiful examples of Cuban flora and fauna as Polymita picta or Cuban land snail, the tocororo or Cuban trogon, butterflies or orchids. His passion never leads him to neglect the rigors of scientific observation and at the same time, thanks to immaculate compositions, exquisite textures and a masterful play of chiaroscuro, the photo of a seemingly terrifying crocodile can become a work of art. What others simply call “creepy-crawlies” such as frogs, spiders, ants or slugs…are “lovely” creatures for him.

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Luckily, he has been generous with his work and so instead of keeping it for his own personal contemplation he has extensively exhibited and reproduced his photos. Exhibitions in dozens of countries, sixty-three years old and the same number of books published with his photos—several of which have won him scientific acclaim— attest to a desire to communicate that is also evidenced by his membership in the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, the Union of Journalists of Cuba, the Cuban Association of Social Communicators, the International Federation of Photographic Art and the Zoological Society of Cuba. As if that were not enough, he is also assistant researcher at the National Museum of Natural History of Cuba and Distinguished Member of the Gonzalo de Cárdenas Vernacular Architecture Department. He was the founder and first president of the Latin American Photography Department of the José Martí International Journalism Institute and the chief inspiration for Ediciones Polymita, the publishing house which turns out wonderful books on Cuban architecture, art and nature.

Fortunately, such a long list of successes and recognitions has not extinguished his curiosity, nor has it adversely affected his cordial and unpretentious mien, nor has it slowed down his dizzying work pace. The hero of our story, Julio Larramendi Joa, agrees to be interviewed with equal grace by important specialized publications as well as by university students anxious to turn in a class project. He exhibits his work in an internationally renowned venue—I think that he is the only Cuban photographer who has a gallery named after him, in Old Havana’s Conde de Villanueva Hotel. But you are just as likely to see his work in any humble gallery somewhere in Cuba.

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He collaborates with a very busy publishing house and on the first edition of a magazine whose fate is as yet uncertain. He gets up every day at dawn, attends to children and grandchildren, his gallery, Polymita’s books, classes at several universities, dozens of phone calls; he takes pictures of people, buildings, animals, plants and artworks; he attends a non-specific number of meetings every day and yet he still has the time to welcome friends at home with the traditional courtesy he learned from his elders. Thanks to this tireless worker, many of us Cubans have come to learn about our country to a greater degree about both its marvelous buildings in heritage cities and humble vernacular structures; about elusive species of flora and fauna, and the many splendid examples we see every day and therefore tend to ignore; about the glitterati visiting our Island and the work-worn faces of regular Cubans. Should you try to find him and can’t, don’t despair: he must be lurking around turtle spawning grounds, or lying in wait for the exact moment when the sun sinks into the ocean or when the mist drapes the fields in grey. He will be looking for the perfect light to shoot an old doorknocker, a shimmering body of water or a malanga field. He will be searching for the precise angle to admire the entire façade of some colonial building, or maybe he will be climbing a mountain seeking the ruins of a coffee plantation. Sooner or later he will reappear with his booty, ready and willing to share.

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N AT U R E IN CUBAN PA I N T I N G by Ricardo Alberto Pérez

Alejandro Campins .sin título (20 de 26) FEB 2017 47

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From the early years of the Cuban school of painting, the exuberant natural setting of the Island has provided inspiration for a great number of artists. They have taken their subject matter from both the animal and the plant kingdoms and delighted in their fantasy and colors. As we look at the art produced in recent decades, the canvases of Cuba’s most brilliant painters show us that there is a new way of looking at and interpreting nature. Moving into the 21st century, painting has once more taken a leading role in Cuban visual arts. A few years ago, young artist Alejandro Campins entitled one of his show “Patria” and he included work which documented typically Cuban landscapes: the coastline, cows grazing in pastures, bushes tinted with the tenuous light of a sunset. Campins has a personal manner of highlighting seemingly insignificant details which play an important part in a greater reality. Antonio Espinosa prefers to translate the natural island scenery into black and white canvases, leaving it up to the viewers to add the necessary range of colors. Some of his pieces reveal an interesting relationship between typical vegetation and their reflections in bodies of water, achieved with notable stylistic mastery. Other pieces focus on hyper-realistic landscapes.

Ernesto García Peña. degustando la guanabana, acrílico sobre lienzo, 70 x 58 cm , 2013 FEB 2017 48

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The veteran artist Flora Fong concentrates on depicting palm trees and their leaves, very often under the influence of a tropical breeze. In some of her canvases she has also shown us her attraction to some of the crops on the island, for example taking corn growing in the fields as her subject. Ernesto García Peña’s work is powerfully sensual and he chooses natural elements that lend themselves to communicate this idea. In Degustando la guanábana (Tasting guanábana) one of Cuba’s favorite fruits becomes the setting for an erotic scene that makes a reference to the excitement produced by the appearance of the fruit.

Ever Fonseca. Paisaje del mar 60 x 80cm acrilico tela

Ever Fonseca imbues his canvases with the magic of coupling emblematic Cuban animals from the hinterland or “monte” with the beliefs of Afro-Cuban religion. The work of Alicia Leal creates an intense relationship between the female body and the natural elements on the island. In doing so she gives power and vitality to both sides of the equation. Some of the animals are transformed into personal symbols made up of intriguingly constructed images. Probably the Cuban artist who most visibly shows us his love of the landscape is Raimundo López-Silvero. Anybody who visits his studio on Obispo Street in downtown Havana will clearly be convinced of this in his canvases and by listening to him speak. Flora Font La fuerza del viento

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Raimundo goes out into the countryside with his camera and takes pictures of the ecosystems especially those which are related to the processes of reproduction. His work also associates the eroticism of the female with the natural setting, creating surreal and intense relationships. Zaida del Río focuses on the details of Cuban rural life in a very personal and intimate manner. The subject and center of interest of almost every one of her compositions is the figure of a woman-bird. She multiplies the image throughout her body of work, ingeniously using native species of birds such as the picturesque and busy woodpecker. As we view each of these artistic interpretations of the natural beauty of the Cuban archipelago we can discover that over time the artist-nature relationship has become more complex and it has been used to express fascinating emotions.

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Some of the most amazing views of Cuba are from the portals, terrace and the backyard of the Castillo de las Nubes Hotel-Boutique, located in Soroa. Once you are there at more than 200 meters above sea level, the world undergoes temporal and spatial transformations.

CASTILLO EN LAS NUBES HOTEL, a place in the skies of Cuba

In this place, time has its own dynamics. As you enjoy the mountains, the royal palm trees, the mastic and mango trees around the building, everything seems to live their way, without a hurry. The building was constructed in 1940 following instructions to resemble a medieval castle. A recent restauration preserved the original construction. At present, there are six comfortable spacious rooms, an invitation for a rest and some spiritual retreat. People in love can also find a place to enjoy the beautiful sunsets and use the bar and its small cava. No doubts, this hotel is an invitation to admire its spaces both indoors and outdoors. An interesting detail is that all the doors and roofs were made of Cuban wood, and the medieval reminiscence shows a Caribbean touch. From the entrance hall, seated in comfortable chairs, the visitor can see the main door with its doorknocker in the shape of a small lion head. Then there´s the vegetation and the closest cities to Soroa from the South: San Cristobal and Candelaria. A keen observer will even make out the Caribbean Sea. FEB 2017 51

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Another advantage of the altitude in this place is the night scene, the combination of the city lights and the stars. Castillo en las Nubes has two floors. Access to the upper floor is through wooden stairs that has a dome and several windows overlooking the outside areas. If you want to have a view of the north, you just need to walk through a door that leads to a terrace. There you can smell the fresh pine trees, humid soil and mountains (these elevations are part of the Sierra del Rosario, a Biosphere Reserve). This floor has the two junior suites in the hotel, which overlook the garden.

On the way down, the stairs lead into a corridor and a living room which has several chairs for reading and resting. Nearby is the small but cozy restaurant with an attractive window pane that allows to see the natural landscape. In the outside area, you can sit at one of the tables close to the bar. In the back, you will find a swimming pool, some sun loungers, umbrellas, a grill, chairs and tables, a place to spend a romantic or family afternoon. FEB 2017 52

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Soroa has a microclimate so it might rain at some moments during the day, and the temperature may be cooler than other parts of the country. This is the moment to observe two rainbows in the sky at the same time. One important thing of the Castillo de las Nubes is the quality and professional work of its 9 employees. The do their best for visitors to feel at home. The service is personalized. This hotel has a privileged location, and it is not a place to stay only for one night. You can do some trekking, visit the orchid garden with over 350 different types, go to Salto de Soroa, walk the village and try local dishes in the many paladares around.

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CASTLE IN THE CLOUDS, A MEDIEVAL MANSION IN CUBA A beautiful hotel with outstanding views of Soroa’s forests. A peaceful, romantic and luxury retreat — ideal for escaping stressful city life. Enjoy the heights of El Fuerte Hill, walk to the largest orchid garden in Cuba, and embrace Cuba’s lush nature. Exclusive access through Cuba Travel Network

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VIÑALES WAS BLESSED BY THE GODS

by Aimara Fernández

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You can feel the energy flowing from Viñales’s fossils and its magical past, albeit renovated by the omnipresence of its overflowing natural scenery. The Cueva del Indio, the Caverna de Santo Tomás and the Palenque de los Cimarrones have all survived the hurricanes of time. The Mural of Prehistory depicts the evolution of this most unique region since prehistoric times. After visiting these sites, the smart traveller penetrates the heart of the land, the huge and mysterious valley. Little by little, the highway narrows down and becomes a trail. The smell of freshness, of greenery, of moisture is ever-present and the valley opens up before you. The mogotes, or karstic hummocks, resemble small islands of rock and earth where hundreds of songbirds find shelter. Odd-looking fish became fossilized on the walls of the caves that served as dwellings for the aborigines, as well as hiding places for runaway slaves. When there’s a hurricane, everybody takes refuge in the rocky interiors. It feels like if the entire valley shifted and then went back to its original position. If you go beyond the valley’s horizon, you find El Palmarito, one of the longest cave systems in Cuba with underground lakes whose waters are very cold. FEB 2017 56

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THE VALLEY’S COMMUNITY IS INNATE HOSTS AND HOSTESSES. IT IS CUSTOMARY TO OFFER THE TRAVELLER COOL WATER THAT IS FILTERED THROUGH A STONE FROM AN EARTHENWARE JAR CALLED TINAJA. IT QUENCHES THE THIRST AND INSPIRES CONFIDENCE.

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The valley’s community is composed of farmers, people for whom hospitality has not yet become an illusion. They are innate hosts and hostesses. It is customary to offer the traveller cool water that is filtered through a stone from an earthenware jar called tinaja. It quenches the thirst and inspires confidence. The kitchen, which is always on one side or behind the house or bohío, is like an altar of shining pots and pans and clusters of greens. The taburetes— rustic leather-covered chairs—rest against the wooden walls waiting to take their places at the lunch table. Yucca, taro, plantains, corn, mamey, beans, mangoes, avocados and rice: from the ground to hands to woodfuelled stoves. The delicacies are cooked in large pots. Rice is the richest and most valued food. The variety of rice grown here is a pearly-white short-grain. Its integral purity gives it a distinctive taste and texture. November marks the beginning of the rice harvest that everyone looks forward to. Dangerous wonders are the nocturnal electric storms. The sky is filled with very thin lightning flashes that quickly take shape to almost instantly disappear in space. The best views can be had from the mogotes. FEB 2017 57

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On one of these large hummocks there is a hamlet with several families that form the community known as Los Acuáticos. Their philosophy of life is based on the healing powers, both physically and spiritually, of water. The youngest and healthiest women in Cuba, so the story goes, lived among the many springs and other wellheads, and held riotous celebrations. The oldest woman there always combs her long hair while she sings like a bird calling out for help before such overwhelming beauty.

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TIME GOES BY AS IF NOTHING ELSE EXISTED IN THE WORLD. NATURE MARKS THE RHYTHM OF LIFE. EVERYONE WAKES UP WITH NATURE AND GOES TO BED WITH NATURE.

Time goes by as if nothing else existed in the world. Nature marks the rhythm of life. Everyone wakes up with Nature and goes to bed with Nature. During the rainy season, the soil becomes rich crimson clay. A person’s feet appreciate walking barefooted along this tricky ground and afterwards cooling them in little pools of water. Every now and then, you may bump into a man who speaks the beautiful tongue of ten-line verses called décimas. He sings with the rhythmical feet of his verse, because he too is a lively traveller.

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AN ORCHID Paradise FEB 2017 59

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The orchid garden was built in 1943 by the Spanish lawyer Tomás Felipe Camacho in memory of his wife and daughter.

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It was originally a vacation home, where Felipe Camacho devoted all his attention to growing flowers, specially orchids. The place became a huge garden for the cultivation of orchids both local and from other parts of Cuba; exotic specimens were also brought from all over the world.

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The Orchid Garden in Soroa is listed as National Heritage since 1961 and is home to over 20,000 specimens of 700 species of Orchidaceae. The blooming season of most species is from December to March.

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Visitors can admire the enormous variety of shapes and hues that orchids have developed to attract insects to pollinate them.

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There are 305 species of wild orchids In Cuba.

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Cuban endemic orchids number 130 species, including genera Encyclia, Epidendrum, Ionopsis, Bletia, Brassia, Cranichis, Tolumnia and Vanilla, among others. All of them have small but very attractive, scented flowers.

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Inter v iewin g C h ef Tito N ú ñ ez G u dás

“ B E I N G A V E G E TA R I A N IS A LIFESTYLE.”

by Giovanni Fernández Valdés

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Tito Núñez Gudás, the chef and director general of the vegetarian restaurant El Romero, is convinced that the only way to have healthy human beings is for them to have diets based chiefly on fruit and vegetables. This way of thinking led him to open the restaurant at the La Terrazas Community in Artemisa in 2013 and from there to interest the greatest number of people in the notion of becoming vegetarians and learning about the nourishment provided by plants, as well as their medicinal properties. We wanted to find out about El Romero’s plans and so we chatted with Núñez Gudás just before he started cooking for the day. How did the idea for creating the restaurant come up? It is the result of an earlier project that we started in 1991 in Havana’s Botanical Gardens. It was a difficult time to get foods. Nevertheless the garden had quite a few trees and plants growing there that produced fruit. The idea of cooking vegetarian dishes had not yet come up. FEB 2017 69

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As we were beginning this idea, I found out about what was being done in Las Terrazas Community. A number of professors and student there visited us and we talked; that’s where the idea to open a vegetarian restaurant here was born. Between 1996 and 2003 we made various tries on how an ecological restaurant in the area should be. First we were under a roof, but on a hill and we decided to try it out. We had no idea of how many vegetarians there were in Cuba, how many persons would come to eat this kind of food and the reality of everything wasn’t very encouraging. People would kind of panic when you talked about eating greens and carrots, but we were sure that starting ecological tourism in Las Terrazas would help us. After going through a designing stage, we started to lay out the kitchen, the bathrooms and the warehouse. On the first of September in 2013 the ecological restaurant called El Romero opened, beside the gardens where we grow the food. Since 1996 we had been planting a lot of seedlings there that we had brought from the Botanical Gardens.

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We are into organic agriculture, without the use of insecticides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Our garden uses techniques to conserve the soil. We cover the earth with rice straw which acts as fertilizer and stops the weeds from taking over. We don’t have to do any weeding in the garden and so the work is very comfortable and we get good results. In fact, with what the garden produces each day, we have enough for the restaurant in terms of all the different plants that identify our way of cooking. So, the garden is an essential part for how the restaurant works… In fact our work begins with looking after the earth and all the seedlings. We are developing “wild” agriculture with plants that are able to reproduce themselves. We don’t have to cut them because we use the leaves too, such as in the case of nopal and lettuce. In this way our supplies are very stable. We want to communicate the idea of sustainability, of the local use of resources and that food can be produced without undertaking any extensive importations.

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We know that on your menu you have a very special dish, special from an emotional point of view… Yes, that’s right: the dish is called Brouwer. It was a recipe given to us by the Cuban musician Maestro Leo Brouwer: garlic pasta. The day he visited us, he asked for that dish and we had the honor of seeing him prepare it himself. I thought that it would be a good thing for the pasta dish to stay on the menu, prepared with pepperoncini, olive oil and garlic. How does your restaurant relate to the community? El Romero works with the Community’s school, via several training courses. The groups come every Wednesday and from this set up we have three largescale activities during the year. On the 10th of December we celebrate Mother Earth Day. A party starts in the morning, children plant fruit trees and the group splits up so that one part goes to the garden and another part goes to the kitchen.

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“I THINK THAT THE WORLD THESE DAYS HAS REACHED A SALVATION POINT IN TERMS OF FOOD,” said Tito Núñez Gudás

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In the garden we gather together everything we’ll need for the day, and the people in the kitchen start preparing lunch early in the morning. When the dishes are ready, we invite the people from the garden to come in and eat. On that day we honor those who work the soil. In the afternoon we have a cooking contest; every family beings its dishes and we share everything. At mid-semester, the students cook for all the elderly people in town and at the end of the course we close with a party to pay tribute to the best teachers in the course and to the students who got the best marks. We are doing a multimedia project that will provide people with recipes and with the history and concept of our restaurant. We are also involved in computerizing the information that I’ve been collecting over the years, with tips on what you should eat for the nutrients in foods, how complete your diet should be every day in these nutritional properties, and so on.

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Eating a balanced diet or just by eating natural products? I think that the world these days has reached a salvation point in terms of food. People tend to lean towards vegetarianism. The best land is being used to produce and feed a terribly huge mass of animals. I don’t mean that we should be eliminating species, just getting rid of growing them artificially. All these animals need a huge amount of food, but where does it come from? From the earth. Nowadays raising livestock destroys nature and if we continue along this path we won’t get too far ahead.

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I believe that converting to a profitable and sustainable diet is important, so that we don’t have to recycle so much food to produce so few nutrients. That is the model provided by livestock farming. On the other hand, with vegetables you need very little area to produce food for a greater number of people and in a way you are helping your health: being a vegetarian is a lifestyle. I am convinced that people will change their outlook when faced with the problems of climate change and desertification of the soil: it is a social imperative. FEB 2017 75

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T H E J AV I R A Natural Reserve by Aimara Fernández

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Just 20 km northwest of the city of Trinidad lies one of the largest natural parks in Cuba: Topes de Collantes Natural Park. Getting there may not be easy for everyone—or your car—given the steep roads into the park. Nonetheless, the park is visited by many people throughout the entire year. Some come here to recover their health and others to connect with Nature, take hiking trips through trails surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, or bathe in the cool waters of one of the many natural pools from the Caburní River. The Javira reserve, which is part of the park, can be entered from two points—one, the Topes de Collantes road, and the other, from the city of Trinidad on foot or horseback. Beyond the historical center, you go down Encarnación Street into La Barranca neighborhood. This is where the 5-km walk or ride begins. Going down the steep hill of La Pastora community, the Guaurabo River makes its first appearance on one side of the road. The land here is formed by a beautiful fertile valley whose 2 km is crossed by a pleasant track. One hour later, the vegetation begins to change. You are nearing El Cubano Park. Here you make a stop for some refreshment before you continue towards the waterfall, going down the historical trail known as Cimarrones de Javira, or Javira Runaway Slaves. The 3,800-meter long trail is clearly marked and has several hanging bridges. Sometimes you have to cross the river balancing yourself on a fallen trunk. Natural ponds of crystal clear water appear on both sides of the trail. There are evidences of the Ingenito, one of the first sugar mills that were built during the colonial period, as well as the ruins of the slave quarters. A typical Cuban “bohío” is still standing with its dirt floor, rustic table and “taburetes,” countryside chairs whose back and seat are made of cowhide.

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As you go farther into the woods, more and more birds can be seen and heard—hummingbirds, thrushes, woodpeckers, or the inaccessible Tocororo, which is Cuba’s National Bird. Plant life abounds with the royal palm, ocuje, mastic tree, ayúa, eucalyptus, pine and a giant, many-years-old ceiba tree. The bright, colorful snails called Polymita cover the trunks of many trees here. Nearing the end of the trail, in a clearing, you discover the Javira waterfall with its cold crystal-clear water. The pools around the waterfall are 1 to 8 meters deep. If you plunge into any of the pools and swim below the surface, you can explore a cave beneath the waterfall. Out of the water and on dry land, you can climb to an observation point to catch great views of the river and its surroundings. JAVIRA IS UNDOUBTEDLY A HEALTHY WAY OF DISCOVERING A PART OF CUBA’S LANDSCAPE AND NATURAL HERITAGE.

SOME COME HERE TO RECOVER THEIR HEALTH AND OTHERS TO CONNECT WITH NATURE, TAKE HIKING TRIPS THROUGH TRAILS SURROUNDED BY LUXURIANT VEGETATION, OR BATHE IN THE COOL WATERS OF ONE OF THE MANY NATURAL POOLS FROM THE CABURNÍ RIVER.

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STONE ZOO: Somewhere between nature and art by Ailyn Martín Pastrana Photos: Frank Baltodano

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MOST OF HIS PIECES APPEAR TO BE IN MOTION, AS IF THEY WERE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE IN A WILD SETTING.

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They said self-taught sculptor Ángel Íñigo Blanco was crazy when he left his job as a coffee picker in the 1970s to devote himself full-time to his passion: carving sculptures from stone. Without an ounce of pretentiousness he says that he just “chips away the extra rock,” but his chisel has made a remarkable impression on the world—a zoo made in stone. At an elevation of 750 meters above sea level, in the eastern province of Guantánamo, there is a natural park covering an area of approximately two kilometers and containing over 400 works sculpted by this artist in his lifetime. Not only was he interested in depicting Cuban animals, but his subject matter covers fauna from other parts of the world such as lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes and kangaroos. Most of his pieces appear to be in motion, as if they were struggling to survive in a wild setting. Others look like they are about to attack, surprising the visitors as they walk through the place. Each of the sculptures was done in situ out of the limestone rocks so typical of Cuba and he uses simple tools such as axes, chisels, hammers and files. The guides in this Guantanamo park say that Ángel has never relied on pictures or sketches, only on his photographic memory. His son Ángel Íñigo Pérez has the same skill but he has chosen to take a different road in his work, more in keeping with the life of a man living in the countryside. His self-assuredness has won him the admiration of visitors who cannot help but get their pictures taken inside the Stone House, a colossal piece of work that took him two years to complete. He gave form to a huge limestone crag three meters high and four meters wide. The artwork is made up of stools, a VEF radio, a shelf, two children, a married couple…the three-dimensional depiction of typical peasant life.

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EACH OF THE SCULPTURES WAS DONE IN SITU OUT OF THE LIMESTONE ROCKS SO TYPICAL OF CUBA AND HE USES SIMPLE TOOLS SUCH AS AXES, CHISELS, HAMMERS AND FILES.

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lahabana. com The Stone Zoo was declared Cultural Heritage Site of Cuba on June 25, 1985 and today it is a mandatory stop for anyone touring eastern Cuba. One of the guides there, Ana Margarita Lelier Peran, told Lahabana Magazine that currently the park is undergoing expansion and improvements through the addition of a workshop where the artist can make smaller pieces and sell them as souvenirs to visitors. The sculptures are repaired and maintained by a specialized group at the park because the limestone has a tendency to erode relatively easily, losing the initial shapes created by the artist. Some of them show signs of being restored and all of them have been treated with formol, a chemical substance that prevents the humidity in that location from turning the stone green and having it lose its visibility amidst the park greenery.

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The facility also carries out the educational task of preserving the setting and looking after the environment. The Stone Zoo of Cuba can be compared to a diamond in the rough, a one of a kind place in the world where art and nature interact for the delight of all.

THE SCULPTURES ARE REPAIRED AND MAINTAINED BY A SPECIALIZED GROUP AT THE PARK BECAUSE THE LIMESTONE HAS A TENDENCY TO ERODE RELATIVELY EASILY, LOSING THE INITIAL SHAPES CREATED BY THE ARTIST.

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LA GRAN PIEDRA: to the summit by Ailyn Martín Pastrana

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Eastern Cuba is probably one of the most interesting areas in the country. Visitors should be sure not to miss the natural, historical and cultural attractions it offers: Pico Turquino, the highest point in Cuba; the mountainous massif of the Sierra Maestra, the place that gave birth to the start of the Cuban Revolution in the 1958; and Gran Piedra, which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest rock of its size above sea level and the third largest in the world. At 1,234 meters above sea level, its natural elevation gives you an amazing view after you have met the challenge of climbing the 452 steps separating earth from the stars. From that vantage point, you can take great photos of the coast where the beaches and hotels of Baconao Park are located along with some tall buildings in the capital of Santiago de Cuba Province, the second largest city in the country after the capital Havana.

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lahabana. com La Gran Piedra owes its name to a monumental piece of a rock of volcanic origin. It measures some 51 meters long by 25 high and 30 wide. Its weight is estimated at over 63,000 tons. It’s not hard to imagine why the focal point of the mountain range known as the Sierra de la Gran Piedra should be a place where tourists interested in Cuban flora and fauna make their pilgrimages. Famous for being the largest rocky massif in all of the islands of the Caribbean, there are many theories as to the origin of that natural lookout point. The most imaginative versions talk about a meteorite that supposedly hit the Island millions of years ago. The more sensible speculations attribute it to the eruption of an undersea volcano. On the island’s southeastern coast we find the Bartlett-Caimán complex transform fault zone, an active tectonic structure having the potential for earthquakes that would generate geological phenomena of up to eight degrees in magnitude (however no such event has ever occurred in the area).

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The Sierra de la Gran Piedra is one of the most extensive natural reserves in Cuba with a collection of eucalyptus, Maestrense and Cubenses pines, orchids and cypresses… The fauna is also abundant, home to endemic species such as the Tocororo, the Cuban National Bird that is difficult to find because it is an endangered species; the Gretacuba butterfly, almost invisible thanks to its transparent wings. Besides the natural elevation, the Sierra has another attraction: the archeological remains of dozens of French-Haitian coffee plantations set up in the area in the 19th century. Hikers can stroll through the ruins and see first-hand the presence of a population that brought with them customs that survive today in the Caribbean area. With the migratory process, more than 600 coffee plantations were set up, generating an economic and cultural boom. Living testimony of that period in history is La Isabélica coffee plantation, today a museum that can be visited by hikers. Visitors will be able to see the details of life in the Cuban countryside and discover how coffee production has become a basic economic pillar for eastern Cuba right up to the present day. In 2000, the archeological landscape of those early coffee plantations in southeastern Cuba, including El Olimpo, La Gran Sofía, Fraternidad, and many others, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

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Enthusiasts of nature tourism in all of its varieties, including hiking, mountain climbing and bike-tourism, have a world of enjoyment in the Sierra de la Gran Piedra. In a setting reminiscent of paradise, one–night stays are hardly enough. There is nothing more charming than to spend the night in a bungalow built on the side of a mountain. The site is perfect for meditation and for taking photographs and yet this haven of peace and tranquility is only 16 kilometers from the downtown area.

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TIPS FOR CLIMBING GRAN PIEDRA:  Plan to go up in the morning, preferably before 11 am because the fog will affect visibility as the day wears on.  Wear comfy shoes: the terrain has rough patches  Make sure to take liquids to prevent dehydration  Consume some energy-rich foods, such as candy, peanuts or chocolate.  Don’t forget your camera to take some souvenir shots of the site (taking 360° panoramic views are a must!)

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BARACOA: THE

BIRTHPLACE OF CUBAN C U LT U R E by Ailyn Martín Pastrana photos: Frank Baltodano

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lahabana. com Anyone visiting Baracoa will be treading on different ground in Cuba, where the imposing Farola mountain highway with its crags and pronounced curves announces that the end of the road is really just the beginning of your trip to a corner of the world that has been frozen in time. Called the “First City of Cuba,” Baracoa patiently awaits its visitors, bathed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea and guarded by the mountain massif studded with coffee plantations, coconut palms and cacao trees. People who travel a lot will tell you that fishing towns follow a different rhythm, more easygoing than big cities, and this eastern port city certainly confirms that. The word “baracoa” comes from the Arawak, meaning “sea existence.” The town has gone by many names, something that can be expected from a settlement dating back over 500 years: First City of Cuba, Landscape City, City of the Waters and City of the Mountains. It was founded on August 15, 1511 by Governor Diego Velázquez and it has survived through the ages as a town that brings together the past and the present.

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THE WORD “BARACOA” COMES FROM THE ARAWAK, MEANING “SEA EXISTENCE.”

Dressed by the Sea Walking along Baracoa’s malecón, or seawall, something that is a must when you are there, visitors will run across the wonders of 15th-century military engineering, still standing as the Matachín Fort, La Punta Fortress or Seboruco Castle. The fortifications were built by the European conquistadors to defend the city from pirates and today the buildings have been transformed into museums. Nuestra Señora de la Asunción of Baracoa Parish features the Cruz de Parra, the only cross to survive the ravages of time after Christopher Columbus planted 29 of them in the Americas as symbols of Spanish supremacy. Originally this example was 7 feet high, but it has suffered from countless mutilations and has become smaller. Important figures in colonial Cuba would visit and request a small piece of it as a souvenir. It wasn’t until the 18th century that authorities decided to cover it with silver plating. The historical piece was blessed by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Cuba in 1998, and was declared a National Monument and treasure of the Cuban nation in 2011 as part of the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the founding of Baracoa. FEB 2017 89

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The authenticity of the piece has been proven and for years it has been exhibited at the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Parish Church of Baracoa, one of the foundations of the Catholic faith on the Island since it was the first parochial church to be built in Cuba. Bartolomé de las Casas, known as the defender of the rights of the natives living in Cuba when the Spanish arrived, officiated there. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the aboriginal population to be quickly wiped out as a result of forced labor. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the impossibility of being able to reach the town easily forced the people of Baracoa to find other ways of surviving, such as smuggling operations with the French and the English. The inhabitants of the so-called “Sleeping Beauty” (the sobriquet happened because from a distance the town looked like a young woman lying down) were pretty much removed from the realities the country was living through until the 1960s when La Farola Viaduct was constructed, one of the wonders of Cuban engineering. This highway has 11 arched bridges and the highest point is at Alto de Cotilla, over 600 meters above sea level where a lookout point has been placed offering a view of both the northern and southern coastlines—legend has it that from there you can see the lights of Haiti. If coming from the west, you can take the Holguín-Mayarí-Moa-Baracoa Highway, an asphalted stretch of 180 kilometers to Moa and 16 kilometers to Punta Gorda. The remaining 60 kilometers are along a causeway that crosses important rivers over cement bridges.

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HARVESTING, COLLECTING AND ROASTING CACAO BEANS IS DAILY ACTIVITY FOR MANY PEOPLE IN BARACOA—THEY HAVE THE ONLY FACTORY DEVOTED TO THIS PRODUCT IN CUBA.

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Natives + Spanish + French… “Baracoenses” The people of Baracoa are a mix of several nationalities: native, Spanish conquistadors and French immigrants. These cultures have come together naturally and created a unique mélange. From their native ancestors they inherited some physical traits that are much more difficult to perceive elsewhere in the country. The Spanish bequeathed them their military fortifications that stand guard over the first city founded by them. And thanks to the French from Haiti, they learned how to grow coffee, one of their prime products. “Baracoenses,” or “baracoesos” as they are also known, speak of the “Three Cs,” a reference to the three principal products of the area: coconuts, cacao and coffee. Climatic events, such as Hurricane Matthew which swept through the zone in October 2016, once again tested the tenacity of the locals. This meteorological phenomenon battered the area for hours and left in its wake a great number of trees, houses and objects ripped out of the ground. Hashtags quickly inundated the social networks in a show of solidarity for the city and its inhabitants: #BaracoaEstamosContigo, #TodosSomosBaracoa and #FuerzaBaracoa. The rubble that had been strewn around has practically disappeared today. As the farmers say, plantations recover, and now they await favorable rains to revive this year’s crops.

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A Nature Destination These days the city is witness to the passage of time, and the fever of private enterprise can be seen in the number of businesses that have opened up in recent years, especially the sales of arts and crafts, inns and restaurants. Gradually, the city is turning into a tourism destination with some excellent ingredients: lovely natural scenery and cultural traditions that date back to aboriginal times. Visiting the Toa, Yurumí and Miel rivers is an essential part of any trip. Legend has it that whoever bathes in these rivers will come back to visit the city. Women washing clothes in the age-old way and men fishing in the river are daily scenes. Harvesting, collecting and roasting cacao beans is daily activity for many people in Baracoa—they have the only factory devoted to this product in Cuba. Another calling card for this Eastern city is its cuisine, which is quite different from other parts of Cuba. Coconut milk and cacao get combined in amazing ways, surprising visitors both from Cuba and abroad. Since it is 1,000 kilometers away from the Island’s capital, its authenticity can be more easily preserved.

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Restaurants such as “El buen sabor” or “Calalú” serve typical dishes cooked by local chefs. Bacán, shellfish cooked in coconut milk and calalú are the most popular, but far from the only ones. For those who adore desserts, the greatest attraction is the cucurucho, a sort of coconut-orange-pineapple jam that is put into a container made of yaguas or dried Royal palm leaves. There are also the famous bolas de cacao (cacao balls) which you can grate at home to coat all sorts of desserts. A unique fact about Baracoa’s style of cooking is that they tend to put together really unusual ingredients. You will have to spend a few days eating your way through town to get the complete idea! But what a unique experience it will be!

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TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME VISITORS: ► Wear comfortable shoes and clothing made of light fabrics because the eastern part of Cuba is very hot and humid (the warmest months are July and August). ► Get your picture taken on the Farola (there are a few spots where you can safely stop the car for a while) ► At the Miel River estuary, you will see the tibaracón, a natural sand formation that protects the river’s ecosystem and where people annually fish for tetí, a rare shellfish that is the most appreciated dish in the region. ► Don’t forget to buy cucuruchos and cacao balls for your friends: that will be the best gift you can bring back because they are unique to the region. ►

Try bacán and other goodies made from coconut milk.

► Climb the Yunque Mountain and discover how cacao is grown and collected. ►

Stroll along Baracoa’s Malecón.

► Row a boat in the Toa River, the largest in Cuba: this could be quite a challenge. ► To get to Baracoa quickly, you can take a plane (there are several flights every day) or you can take the highway which will let you interact more with the place and its people.

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P O LY M I T A S A CUBAN MISS UNIVERSE

by Victoria Alcalá Photos: Courtesy of Julio Larramendi

Whoever knows them and loves them, emphatically declares them to be the beauty queens of Cuban nature. Over the course of many years, countless scientists, photographers and just the curious have fallen in love with them and tracked them through the countryside, in the midst of an abundant land snail population made up of 79 genera and 130 sub-genera which are exclusive to the Island.

Although people talk about “polymitas” and the uninitiated among us think they all look alike, the genus Polymita Beck, 1837 has six clearly differentiated species for the connoisseurs: Polymita brocheri, Polymita muscarum, Polymita venusta, Polymita sulphurosa, Polymita versicolor and Polymita picta. When you investigate into the etymology of the genus’ scientific name (and not in Wikipedia which only mentions a homonymous plant), you will discover that it clearly describes the diversity of its shells: in Greek, polýs means numerous, abundant, and mítos means thread or weave. The Royal Spanish Academy dictionary, which does not include the lovely Cuban mollusk, does find room for the rarely used adjective “polímita”, applicable to clothing “woven from variously colored thread.” FEB 2017 95

lahabana. com In his essential book for anybody wanting to study these tiny fascinating animals (Las polimitas, Guatemala City-Havana, Ediciones PolymitaEdiciones Boloña, 2013, beautifully illustrated with photographs by Julio Larramendi), mollusk expert and marine ecosystem specialist Dr. José Espinosa characterizes polymitas by their many different bright colors. He describes their sub-globular and often cone-shaped shell, the fact that they reproduce by laying eggs, their diets based on lichen, mushrooms and moss (which “cleans” the host plants and facilitates their photosynthesis), and their life expectancy of around a year and a half. They live in different plants including Jagueyes, palm trees, coffee bushes and coconut trees, both on the leaves when the humidity and temperatures are favorable and on the trunks and branches during their rest period in the dry season.

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I read the rigorous and yet enjoyable book by Dr. Espinosa to find some of the distinctive traits of the six species. The shell of the P. picta is bright and highly colored, ranging from white to yellow, red, orange, brown and black, in multiple combinations (pictum in Latin means “painted”) and is obviously the most beautiful one. Called the National Snail of Cuba, it presents six subspecies, which can be found in a restricted geographical area taking in the municipalities of Baracoa and Maisí in Granma Province and in some areas near Holguín Province. P. venusta is also very beautiful (in Latin venustus means “beauty”, “charm”). For a long time it was considered to be a variety of the P. picta and it can be found distributed throughout the central part of the eastern extreme of Cuba. FEB 2017 96

lahabana. com P. sulphurosa can only be found in Sagua de Tánamo and Moa on the northern coast of Holguín Province. It owes its name to the sulfurous yellow color present on many of its shells, especially in the P. sulphurosa sulphurosa sub-species. P. sulphurosa flammulata can be distinguished by light lines over a background color. The P. muscarum is clearly identifiable for its black dots scattered all over its surface, looking very much like fly droppings; it can be found on the coast from Sagua de Tánamo to the Sabinal Cay in northern Holguín and Las Tunas provinces and in northeastern Camagüey. P. versicolor has a white background with striking colored spiral lines (in Latin versus means “contrasting”). It is not as brightly colored as other species and can be found on the southern strip of coastline of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo provinces. Last but not least, P. brocheri (in this case the name is not descriptive but is dedicated to a Spanish general who lived in Cuba, Gregorio Brochero) has a more elongated shell with more muted colors usually on a white background and it can be found in three small locations in the Maisí municipality of Guantanamo Province.

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THESE JEWELS OF CUBAN WILDLIFE, UNIQUE IN THE WORLD AND TYPICAL OF SPECIFIC AREAS IN THE EASTERN PROVINCES AND SOME SPECIAL SPOTS IN NEARBY CAMAGÜEY PROVINCE, ARE SPECIES AT HIGH RISK OF EXTINCTION.

These jewels of Cuban wildlife, unique in the world and typical of specific areas in the eastern provinces and some special spots in nearby Camagüey Province, are species at high risk of extinction. The use of land for agriculture and livestock, forestry exploitation, human settlements, the building of highways and roads, and illegal trade that goes back for over one hundred years and hasn’t been able to be eradicated, has put the snails’ existence in danger. Even though just recently some specimens of P. picta were successfully bred in a laboratory in Havana’s Quinta de los Molinos, nothing beats the pleasure of seeing them in their natural habitat, on a leaf or grouped around a tree trunk, “posing” for some photographer to immortalize their exceptional beauty.

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SEVEN TIPS TO CLIMB C U B A’ S HIGHEST M O U N TA I N

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One of the favorite vacation adventures that Cubans enjoy most is climbing the Pico Turquino`s summit, in the east of the country. Almost all of them have done this or at least they have tried to do it. That is the point with the highest altitude in Cuba, at 1974 meters above sea level. For your information, this is the only place in Cuba where a snowfall has been officially registered, in February 1900. If you are touring the historical city of Santiago de Cuba, a good option for your vacations would be to visit the Sierra Maestra National Park and to climb the Turquino. Using the best of your physical capabilities will not be the most interesting thing this time but climbing and watching one of the marvelous and spectacular landscapes in the Island. You will see a whole variety of wildlife and you will feel the different climates as you go up in altitude. The word Turquino has an aboriginal origin. It means “Ice Mountain”. Once you have reached the top, you will get the view of an impressive landscape. This adventure, you will never forget.

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H E R E A R E S E V E N T I P S F O R YO U R C L I M B O F T H E P I CO T U R Q U I N O : 1. Try to do some exercises days before you climb so that you condition your legs. 2. Get clothing appropriate for hiking: pants, sturdy shoes, shirt or T-shirt and a good hat or cap. 3. Do not overload your backpack. Take only the indispensable stuff: a coat, articles for personal hygiene, candies, cookies and water. Sugar and carbohydrates will be sources of energy. Some guides suggest adding some drops of lemon juice to the drinking water as a way to avoid dehydration.

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4. Set off early, when it is still cool. That is the best time because the heat will not get you as you are beginning your climbing and you will be able to move faster. 5. The guides suggest that in order to regulate and condition your respiratory system and to avoid any pains in the thoracic zone, you should breathe through your nose with your mouth closed.

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6. If you talk with the locals, they will suggest that you walk in zigzag as this allows you to extend your step and ease flexion of your legs. They will have to be ready to climb all the stairways ahead.

7. Get you photo camera ready. As you climb, you will see many fowls, some of them are native to Cuba like Tocororo. In this spectacular landscape, the clouds merge with the natural wildlife of the place. FEB 2017 102

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L Womens Day If you are in Cuba for International Women’s Day then think flowers, program reminders, make arrangements and then deliver. For your colleagues, friends, family and loved ones. This day, celebrated on March 8 each year around the world, is taken seriously in Cuba where the day is treated as an occasion to show one’s appreciation of the fairer sex. Don’t forget! Women have undoubtedly benefited from the Cuban Revolution with strong participation rates in the workforce, recognized sexual and reproductive right, universal and free health care and education systems, programs to promote their quality of life including for maternity and child protection. International Women’s Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, is celebrated on March 8 every year.

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In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements. Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet bloc. In some regions, the day lost its political flavor and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

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LIVING TO READ Above and beyond the statistics on the number of people attending the International Book Fair every February, on how many writers from the Guest Country attend and the publishing houses putting their new and old titles on show, it is always gratifying to see how Cubans go to that event for a variety of reasons that are not always literary. The reasons are indeed many. The San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress invites lovers to rendezvous at a historic and romantic spot, where tranquility is on their side (especially during weekdays) to read the pages of a book and also to court each other in a place overlooking the sea. Parents can take a break while their kids run around and have fun quite safely and—why not?—initiate the tykes into the pleasant habit of reading… and coloring. FEB 2017 105

lahabana. com Friends have a place to hang out and while they stroll on the grass and catch up on each other’s lives, they can have the company of a good book or two. Teenagers are able to find material for some of their school subjects, eat snacks and even snooze on the lawn. The Fair is a party for Havana residents. It’s a fact that the best sellers are not always the books being brought out by the publishing houses; that honor seems to go to the Messi and Cristaino Ronaldo posters. We see an absence of important novels, short stories and poetry from Cuban and world literature but the Fair is nevertheless still a comforting experience because Havana becomes an open book where many come to seek out stories to take back home with them. It is quite common to also see grandparents reading to their grandchildren, or telling them about some anecdote about the city.

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Even when it rains, people are walking around the fortifications not looking to escape from the rain but to seek out some more books. Without a doubt it’s the place were Cuba’s writers meet. During those February days we have access to their new creations at the ongoing book launchings, lectures, workshops and stands set up by the publishing houses. Those are the days when you can live to read, and to learn about new horizons. That is the true aim of the Book Fair.

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The Voices of E r n e s t o Yo e l Espinosa By G iovanni Fer nández Va l dé s

Young musician Ernesto Yoel Espinosa has developed the skill of using his own voice to reproduce the sound of several musical instruments as a way to find a characteristic sound. Eight years as a member of the wellknown ensemble Vocalité were a real school for him. For Espinosa, studying the Cuban rhythms and trying to imitate the claves and the percussion with his vocal chords, made him develop as an artist and lover of the music from the island. As a child, he was very much under the influence of his grandmother, who was a pianist and his mother, who was an opera singer.

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In 2010, he participated in the first edition of the Ojalá Creation Award, which was created by singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez. Yoel Espinosa was the winner, together with violinist Tanmy López, with his music for ten poems by the Cuban intellectual Rubén Martínez Villena. He says that his life changed after this event, as he met several young musicians who were very talented and had his same creation interests. This award made it possible for him to record the CD “Un semilla en un surco de fuego”. The name is a phrase by the Cuban revolutionary polititian Raúl Roa, in his assessment of Villena. Ernesto Yoel stated “through this poem I discovered Villena´s lyrism, the strength of his metaphors and his ideas. That was an inspiration for each piece of music”. “I also had the opportunity to work with Edesio Alejandro, Isaac Delgado and Buena Fe. Another important moment in my career was when Silvio Rodríguez himself asked me to sing for the film “Meñique”. For Espinosa setting Villena´s poems to music was a challenge. On the other hand, “Silvio was an inspiration for my participation in the contest, he was the contest promoter and his intentions were to promote the best Cuban poetry and music. That was an invitation to join in.”

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“The purpose of the CD is for Villena´s poems to have a presence in several musical genres and styles, so that they become appealing and dynamic. That´s the reason why there was blues, bachata rock and pop”. “One unique experience with the CD was that Silvio himself sang for the choir in the song “Rescate de Sanguily” “We recorded only ten tunes but I actually wrote the music for twentyseven poems by Villena. I was very much identified with his texts. When I play the guitar now, I always sing some of the poems that are not in the CD, and people usually ask me why I did not include them. I really enjoy setting poetry to music. I expect to do that in the future too. I already have the tunes for some poems by Mario Benedetti, José Angel Buesa and César Vallejo”.

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H AVA N A L I ST I N G S VISUAL ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY DANCE MUSIC THEATRE FOR KIDS EVENTS

FEATURES RESTAURANTS BARS & CLUBS

HAVANA GUIDE

LIVE MUSIC HOTELS PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION FEB 2017 110

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VISUAL ARTS

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BIBLIOTECA PÚBLICA RUBÉN MARTÍNEZ VILLENA

THROUGH MARCH 14

Cubanos, curated by the renowned designer Pepe Menéndez, seeks to show key Cuban elements of appearance and form, through pieces of diverse origin and time.

OPENS MARCH 29

Cuentibujos, with illustrations for children by the renowned painter, illustrator and designer Enrique Pérez Blanco.

VITRINA DE VALONIA MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES. EDIFICIO DE ARTE CUBANO

THROUGH MARCH 16

25 momentos de la historieta quebequense s a tour through the history of comic strips in Québec, from 1792 to the present.

THROUGH MARCH 16

Alexander Izquierdo, solo show of the comic strip artist’s most recent work.

THROUGH APRIL 10

Ji, ji, ji (Apóstrofe), solo show by Luis Gómez Armenteros of eight installations, a video-performance, a video installation and a sculpture that from the conceptualist affiliation of the artist, explores critically the relationship between the creator and art and between the creator and the market. EDIFICIO DE ARTE UNIVERSAL. MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES

CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS

THROUGH APRIL

THROUGHOUT MARCH

Diecisiete menos uno, first solo exhibition in Cuba of Michelangelo Pistoletto, who is considered one of the great representatives of Arte Povera, in a retrospective of his work from the 1960s to the present, including mirror-paintings dedicated to Havana. EDIFICIO DE ARTE UNIVERSAL. MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES

THROUGH MARCH 26

Íconos post-bizantinos is a collection of pieces from the National Museum of Fine Arts´ collection, corresponding to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and which are not permanently displayed in the museum’s halls. Along with twenty icons of Russian and Greek origin is a portrait of El Fayum from the second century, which is a recognizable antecedent of Byzantine art, and The Virgin and Child with St. Lucia and St. Catherine, a 14th-century Italian Gothic painting, with evident influence of Byzantine art.

En el espacio: de lo escultórico a lo instalativo, an exhibition of 66 sculpture and installation pieces from Casa’s collections, ten which 10 are heritage.

GALERÍA ARTIS 718

THROUGH MARCH 10

Penetraciones, with paintings and drawings belonging to his most recent series, which recreates and reinterprets images from the world of photo reporting to reflect on the Cuban and world reality.

photos by Alex Mene Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Edificio de Arte Cubano

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CENTRO DE ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO WIFREDO LAM

THROUGH MARCH 10

Lost. Nuevos medios, by German artists Michael Bielicky and Kamila Richter, composed of seven screenings, in seven different locations, is an allegory of the existential struggle of contemporary man.

GALERÍA FAYAD JAMÍS

THROUGH MARCH 13

THROUGH MARCH 17

En cuerpo y alma, solo exhibition National Prizewinner for Visual Arts by Pedro Pablo Oliva, shows the artist’s most recent production and addresses issues of life, society, man and art. CENTRO DE DESARROLLO DE LAS ARTES VISUALES

THROUGH MARCH 28

Muestra personal de Levi Orta, solo exhibition of installations, video y new media.

El rostro de las letras, shows 14 drawings (charcoal on paper) by important Cuban writers (Dora Alonso, Alejo Carpentier, Nersys Felipe, Fina García Marruz, Nicolás Guillén, Fayad Jamís José Lezama Lima, Dulce María Loynaz, Rubén Martínez Villena, Nancy Morejón, Carilda Oliver Labra, Leonardo Padura, Marta Rojas and Cintio Vitier), made by Javier Castillo Ortiz, who not only sought to portray their physical resemblance, but to reflect their personalities.

FACTORÍA HABANA

THROUGHOUT APRIL

THROUGH MARCH 18

El tercer trazo, solo exhibition by Peter Nadín, whose work is very much associated with ecological topics. THROUGH MARCH 24

Diógenes y la luz, brings together artists Octavio Cesar Marín and José Ángel Toirac, in an exhibition, which inspired by a passage from the life of the Greek philosopher Diogenes who is said to have toured Athens under the light of the sun holding a burning candle, searching for an man Honest, surpasses the anecdotal and promotes the critical value, bringing the myth to Cuban history and present day.

El tercer trazo, solo exhibition by Peter Nadín, whose work is very much associated with ecological topics. CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA

OPENS MARCH 3

Sin encargo, group show of more than thirty Cuban designers, which responds to their need to create a personal artistic work, without customers. THROUGH MARCH 17

Insilio, solo show by René Rodríguez, questions, from various media, what it means to be an artist in Cuba today. CENTRO PROVINCIAL DE ARTES PLÁSTICAS Y DISEÑO

GALERÍA EL REINO DE ESTE MUNDO

THROUGH MARCH 14

THROUGH MARCH 7

Pídeme lo que tengo para dar, with paintings, drawings and installations by Sahary Martínez. THROUGH MARCH 14

Mitos eternos, solo show of paintings by Emilio Flores. THROUGH MARCH 24

Antoni Miró en Cuba, itinerant exhibition of the Spanish creator, immersed in social issues and the commitment of artists.

Leer, by the German painter Siegfried Kaden, exhibits portraits of Cuban writers who have received the National Literature Prize.  

MUSEO DE ARTE COLONIAL

MARCH 10-APRIL 10

Fábulas mecánicas, by ceramist Alejandro Cordovés, brings together pieces that are attached to figurative language, in which he uses recycles components from old disused machinery or other artifacts.

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FÁBRICA DE ARTE CUBANO

THROUGHOUT APRIL

El Sistema, an exhibition of industrial design by D2 Estudio, made up of Dinorah Mabardi, José González, and Eric and Juan Alberto Sentí, proposes the versatility of furniture, both in the functional concept and in the experience of different users and contexts.

GALERÍA FAYAD JAMÍS

THROUGH MARCH 13

Estampida, group show. 12 diseñadores cubanos ilustran el 2017, exhibition of works by Erick Silva, Giselle Monzón, Raúl Valdés (Raupa), Edel Rodríguez Mola, Nelson Ponce, Idania del Río, Marwin Sánchez, Darwin Fernández, Ramiro Zardoya, Pablo Montes de Oca, Yaimel López and Gabriel Lara. PALACIO DEL SEGUNDO CABO

FACTORÍA HABANA

THROUGHOUT APRIL

THROUGHOUT MARCH

Naturalezas del Art Nouveau, organized by the Réseau Art Nouveau Network, an international institution responsible for the documentation, research and protection of the World Art Nouveau heritage, aims to introduce the viewer in this style through its main features, associated with nature. SALA DE LA DIVERSIDAD

THROUGH MARCH 24

¿Cartón corrugado?, by Andrés Bazabe Hernández, offers a new universe of shapes and textures based on a technique that the artist has called “carton weave.” VILLA MANUELA

THROUGH MARCH 17

THROUGH MARCH 17

Aportes y soportes, engraving group show. THROUGH MARCH 17

El anaquel, solo show by Yerandee Gonzalez Duran of artist books.

Diógenes y la luz, brings together artists Octavio Cesar Marín and José Ángel Toirac, in an exhibition, which inspired by a passage from the life of the Greek philosopher Diogenes who is said to have toured Athens under the light of the sun holding a burning candle, searching for an man Honest, surpasses the anecdotal and promotes the critical value, bringing the myth to Cuban history and present day.

GALERÍA CASA 26

THROUGH MARCH 6

Puzzle proposes several reflections around landscape in the paintings by Chiara Tomassone, Rolando Galindo, Ariel Corrales, Jorge Lucas Pereda. 

GALERÍA EL REINO DE ESTE MUNDO

THROUGH MARCH 14

Bala perdida, solo show by Susana Pilar, who examines social pressure and power mechanism through new media. TALLER EXPERIMENTAL DE GRÁFICA DE LA HABANA

El rostro de las letras, shows 14 drawings (charcoal on paper) by important Cuban writers (Dora Alonso, Alejo Carpentier, Nersys Felipe, Fina García Marruz, Nicolás Guillén, Fayad Jamís José Lezama Lima, Dulce María Loynaz, Rubén Martínez Villena, Nancy Morejón, Carilda Oliver Labra, Leonardo Padura, Marta Rojas and Cintio Vitier), made by Javier Castillo Ortiz, who not only sought to portray their physical resemblance, but to reflect their personalities.

Leer, by the German painter Siegfried Kaden, exhibits portraits of Cuban writers who have received the National Literature Prize.  

MUSEO DE ARTE COLONIAL

MARCH 10-APRIL 10

Fábulas mecánicas, by ceramist Alejandro Cordovés, brings together pieces that are attached to figurative language, in which he uses recycles components from old disused machinery or other artifacts.

TMARCH 25-APRIL 21

América basta, portraits by Algerian artist Mustapha Boutadjine.

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FOTOTECA DE CUBA THROUGH MARCH 17

No es fácil, conceptual photo project on stereotypes, by Michael López Murillo from Colombia.   THROUGH MARCH 21

Entrelazos, by French photographer and documentary maker Renaud Schack, which reflects the love of this artist for his homeland Cuba. THROUGH MARCH 21

Visiones de Cuba, group show.

LA JIRIBILLA THROUGHOUT Despedida, by young artists Daniela Muñoz Barroso and MARCH

Jorge Ricardo, who document different moments of Fidel Castro’s funeral ceremony. 

FÁBRICA DE ARTE CUBANO THROUGHOUT Detalles de cubanía, by artist VAE. MARCH

Miedo a Vicente, with photos by Anabel Cairo and Irolán.

CASA SIMÓN BOLÍVAR THROUGHOUT Tango tano, by Italian Betto Lanquinta, gives a new MARCH

perspective to the meaning of tango from a philosophical point of view.

photos by Huberto Valera Jr.

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DANCE TERCERA TEMPORADA

MARCH 2-4, 8:30PM; MARCH 5, 5PM, GRAN TEATRO DE LA HABANA ALICIA ALONSO

Directed by Carlos Acosta, Acosta Danza announces a new concert program with the world premieres of Avium (choreography by Ely Regina Hernández, music by Camille Saint-Saëns and José Víctor Gavilondo), on the cycle of life and solidarity; Nosotros (choreography by Beatriz García and Raúl Reinoso, music by José Víctor Gavilondo), which deals with the intimacy of a couple, and Twelve (choreography by Jorge Crecis, music by Vicenzo Lamagna), a highly demanding dance exercise. In addition to the premieres, the company will rerun Alrededor no hay nada ( choreography by Goyo Montero based on poems by Joaquín Sabina and Vinicius de Moraes), End of Time (choreography by Ben Stevenson, music by Sergei Rachmaninoff) and Babbel 2.0 (choreography by María Rovira, music by Salvador Niebla).

AMARANTO

MARCH 24-25, 8:30PM; MARCH 26, 5PM, GRAN TEATRO DE LA HABANA ALICIA ALONSO

Premiere performance by Irene Rodriguez´s Company, with a very contemporary view of flamenco.

PROGRAMA DE CONCIERTO

MARCH 3-4, 8:30PM; MARCH 5, 5PM, TEATRO MARTÍ

Danza Teatro Retazos will celebrate its first 30 years with a tour of emblematic pieces from its repertoire. FEB 2017 115

lahabana. com The contemporary fusion and electronic music scene has expanded recently as new bars and clubs have opened party promoters have organized events in parks and public spaces. Good live music venues include Bertolt Brecht (Wednesdays: Interactivo, El Sauce (check out the Sunday afternoon Máquina de la Melancolía) and Fábrica de Arte Cubano which has concerts most nights Thursday through Sunday as well as impromptu smaller performances inside. In Havana’s burgeoning entertainment district along First Avenue from the Karl Marx theatre to the aquarium you are spoilt for choice with the always popular Don Cangrejo featuring good live music with artists of the likes of Kelvis Ochoa, David Torrens, Interactivo, Diana Fuentes, Descemer Bueno, David Blanco, just to name a few, Las Piedras (insanely busy from 3am) and El Palio and Melem bar— both featuring different singers and acts in smaller more intimate venues. BALNEARIO UNIVERSITARIO EL CORAL

FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS / 1PM-1AM Electronic music with rapping, DJing, Vjing, Dj-producers, breakdancing and graffiti writing, among other urban art expressions. CAFÉ CONCERT EL SAUCE

EN GUAYABERA

SUNDAYS / 5PM Discotemba SARAO’S BAR

WEDNESDAYS / 10PM Kelvis Ochoa

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MUSIC CONTEMPORARY FUSION

HAVANA HARD ROCK

EVERY OTHER FRIDAY / 6PM Soul Train, a show of soul music SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS / 6PM Rock cover bands

SUNDAYS / 5PM La Máquina de la Melancolía, with Frank Delgado and Luis Alberto García CASA DE LA AMISTAD

SUNDAYS / 9PM Rock ’n’ Roll with Vieja Escuela. DIABLO TUN TUN

FRIDAYS / 11PM Gens SUBMARINO AMARILLO

MONDAYS / 9PM Eddie Escobar JARDINES DE LA TROPICAL.

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JARDINES DEL 1830

FRIDAYS / 10PM

CASA DE LA MÚSICA DE MIRAMAR ALL DAYS 5 PM, 11 PM

Azúcar Negra

Popular dance music

MONDAYS Sur Caribe 11 PM TUESDAYS Pedrito Calvo 11 PM WEDNESDAYS Juan Guillermo 11 PM THURSDAYS 5 PM FRIDAYS 5 PM

Cristian y Rey

SUNDAYS 5 PM

Bamboleo

NG La Banda

CABARET PICO BLANCO. HOTEL SAINT JOHN’S

WEDNESDAYS / 10PM Popular dance music (Vacilón)

SUNDAYS / 10PM Grupo Moncada SALÓN ROJO. HOTEL CAPRI

SALSA TIMBA

FRIDAYS / 5PM Paulo FG y Sonando en Cuba

DIABLO TUNTÚN

MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS / 8PM, 5PM Popular dance music (NG La Banda) THURSDAYS / 9PM

CAFÉ CANTANTE. TEATRO NACIONAL

MONDAYS / 11PM Popular dance music (Manana Club)

Popular dance music (NG La Banda) FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS / 9PM, 5PM Popular dance music

THURSDAYS / 5PM Popular dance music

AVENIDA DEL PUERTO

MARCH 11 / 9PM CASA DE 18

Orquesta Anacaona

FRIDAYS / 8:30PM Iván y Fiebre Latina SATURDAYS / 8PM Ahí Namá

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MUSIC

Jazz Café

Café Jazz Miramar

Mellow, sophisticated and freezing due to extreme air conditioning, the Jazz Café is not only an excellent place to hear some of Cuba’s top jazz musicians, but the open-plan design also provides for a good bar atmosphere if you want to chat. Less intimate than La Zorra y el Cuervo – located opposite Melia Cohiba Hotel.

SHOWS: 11 PM - 2AM

UNEAC MARCH 3

La Esquina del Jazz, hosted by showman Bobby Carcassés

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This new jazz club has quickly established itself as one of the very best places to hear some of Cuba’s best musicians jamming. Forget about smoke filled lounges, this is clean, bright—take the fags outside. While it is difficult to get the exact schedule and in any case expect a high level of improvisation when it is good it is very good. A full house is something of a mixed house since on occasion you will feel like holding up your own silence please sign! Nonetheless it gets the thumbs up from us.

CAFÉ MIRAMAR 10 PM

Havana in the Grand Manner, with Tamara Castañeda (vibraphonist), Oliver Valdés (percussionist), Jorge Reyes (contrabass player), Jorge Luis Chicoy (guitarist) and Ernán López-Nussa (pianist), and guests singers Daymé Arocena and Kelvis Ochoa.

CASA DEL ALBA CULTURAL MARCH 11 8 PM

JAZZ

Ruy López-Nussa y La Academia

ASOCIACIÓN CUBANA DE DERECHOS DE AUTOR MUSICAL MARCH 16 6PM

Alexis Bosch (pianist) and Proyecto Jazz Cubano

INSTITUTO INTERNACIONAL DE PERIODISMO JOSÉ MARTÍ MARCH 3 6 PM

Alejandro Falcón (pianist) and his group Cubadentro

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MUSIC BOLERO,

FOLKLORE, SON AND TROVA

CASA DE 18

WEDNESDAYS / 8PM

Héctor Téllez

THURSDAYS / 8PM

José Valladares

SUNDAYS / 8PM

Georgeana

CAFÉ CANTANTE, TEATRO NACIONAL

MONDAYS / 5PM Proyecto Lírico CASA DE LA BOMBILLA VERDE

MONDAYS-SUNDAYS / 8PM

CABARET EL TURQUINO. HOTEL HABANA LIBRE

FRIDAYS / 11PM

Mónica Mesa

EL JELENGUE DE AREÍTO

TUESDAYS / 5PM Conjunto Chappottín WEDNESDAYS / 5PM

Trova

THURSDAYS / 5PM

Conjunto Arsenio Rodríguez

FRIDAYS / 5PM

Rumberos de Cuba

SUNDAYS / 5PM

Rumba

GATO TUERTO

FRIDAYS / 5PM

La Hora Infiel, with music, visual arts, literature and more.

FRIDAYS / 9PM

Osdalgia

THURSDAYS / 4PM

Trova with Frank Martínez

SUNDAYS / 6PM

Singer Leidis Díaz

HOTEL TELÉGRAFO

FRIDAYS / 9:30PMPM Ivette Cepeda

CLUB AMANECER

FRIDAYS / 5PM Conjunto de Arsenio Rodríguez DELIRIO HABANERO

SATURDAYS / 10PM Sonyku DIABLO TUN TUN

SUNDAYS / 8PM

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CENTRO CULTURAL FRESA Y CHOCOLATE

Performance by singer songwriters CASONA DE LÍNEA

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ASOCIACIÓN YORUBA DE CUBA

FRIDAYS / 8:30PM Obbiní Batá (folkloric group) HOTEL NACIONAL DE CUBA

SATURDAYS / 7PM

CASA DE LA AMISTAD

SATURDAYS / 9PM Roberto Javier PABELLÓN CUBA

FRIDAYS / 4PM

Los Indómitos

Trovador Silvio Alejandro.

THURSDAYS / 5PM Trova with Ray Fernández

Trova HURÓN AZUL, UNEAC DOS GARDENIAS

WEDNESDAYS / 10PM

SATURDAYS / 9PM Bolero Night

LE SELECT

FRIDAYS / Grupo Moncada 9:30PM

CENTRO CULTURAL EN GUAYABERA

FRIDAYS / 3PM Trova with Diego Ulloa

Haila María Mompié FEB 2017 119

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CLASSICAL MUSIC BASÍLICA MENOR DE SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS MARCH 4 6PM

Cuban choirs Schola Cantorum Coralina, Ensemble Vocal Luna, Coro de Cámara Exaudi, Coro de Cámara Vocal Leo, Coro Polifónico de La Habana and the Chamber Choir of The College of Catholic Church Music and Musical Education in Regensburg, among other choral ensembles, will sing five motets by Johann Sebastian Bach.

MARCH 11 , 6PM

Soprano Ivette Betancourt and pianist Mayté Aboy will play works by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

MARCH 18 , 6PM

Concert by the Promúsica duet, made up by María Victoria del Collado (piano) and Alfredo Muñoz (violin), dedicated to the work of Cuban composer Juan Piñera and his students.

MARCH 25 , 6PM

Concert-tribute to Peruvian composer Chabuca Granda, with the performances of Pilar Pousada (soprano), Saeed Mohamed (tenor), Elio Hernández (piano), Ana Katerine Romero (violin) and David Acosta (contrabass).

MARCH 30 , 6PM

Performance by Camerata Romeu.

CASA VICTOR HUGO MARCH 25 5PM

Concert by the Coro Juvenil Cantus.

BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL JOSÉ MARTÍ SATURDAYS Performance by chamber soloists and ensembles. 3PM

CASA DEL ALBA MARCH 5 5PM MARCH 12 5PM MARCH 19 5PM MARCH 26 5PM

En Confluencia, dedicated to guitar. Young Composers. De Nuestra América. Seis por Derecho, with guitarist Bárbara Milián and guests

CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA MARCH 18 Concert by the San Antonio Guitar Quartet of the 5PM University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). GRAN TEATRO DE LA HABANA ALICIA ALONSO MARCH 17-18 The Teatro Lírico Nacional de Cuba will present the 8:30PM, zarzuela Amalia Batista, by Cuban composer Rodrigo Prats. MARCH 17-18 5PM

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THEATRE

¿Quién quiere comprar un pueblo?

¿Quién quiere comprar un pueblo?

Departures

SALA HUBERT DE BLANCK

ESPACIO IRREVERENTE

EL CIERVO ENCANTADO / PRODUCTION: NELDA CASTILLO MARCH 3-4, 8:30PM; MARCH 5, 5PM

COMPAÑÍA TEATRAL HUBERT DE BLANCK / PRODUCTION: FABRICIO HERNÁNDEZ FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS, 8:30PM; SUNDAYS, 5PM

IRREVERENCIA PRODUCCIONES / PRODUCTION: EVA GONZÁLEZ, MARCH 5-6, 7:30PM

Through a metaphorical language, this play by Argentine playwright Andrés Lizarraga deals with the themes of the sense of belonging, patriotism and values in an imaginary little town that is divided between those who are willing to sell it to the highest bidder and those who cling to their native soil.

The play, by Spanish playwright Manuel Calzada, approaches the vital conflicts of the philosopher and lexicographer María Moliner, author of the essential Diccionario de uso del español, who at the age of seventy discovers the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and begins the definition of the concept of freedom, according to what it has represented in the different crossroads of her life.

Teclas

Banality Show

CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA

TEATRO MELLA

JAZZ VILÁ PROJECT / PRODUCTION: CINTHIA PAREDES THURSDAYS, 5PM

MARCH 3-4, 8:30PM; MARCH 5, 5PM

The producers explain the essence of the play in the following terms: “Always typing the same document is boring and a little absurd, but when you get paid for it, it´s better not to ask questions. The problem begins when you have to share the typewriter: the left side or the right side?”

Comedy show with the Etcétera Group.

EL CIERVO ENCANTADO

Performance on stage dealing with the Cuban immigration in all its complexity and agony.

Harry Potter se acabó la magia TEATRO TRIANÓN TEATRO EL PÚBLICO / PRODUCTION: CARLOS DÍAZ FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS, 8:30PM; SUNDAYS, 5PM

The fantastic world of Harry Potter, brought, in the manner of a social satire, to a music school in Cuba.

Nos Vemos LUDI TEATRO LUDI TEATRO / PRODUCTION: JENNIFER H. CAPRARU FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS, 8:30PM; SUNDAYS, 5PM

Play by Guillaume Corbeil, which deals with the interaction of people in social networks, where, in spaces such as Twitter or Facebook, private lives are made public, often neglecting essential values. FEB 2017 121

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FOR KIDS El hijo del viento MARCH 3, 4 & 5, 3PM TEATRO DE TÍTERES EL ARCA

Production and story by Christian Medina Negrín.

Gigantería CAFÉ LITERARIO. CASA DE LA POESÍA MARCH 24, 3PM

Performance by the Gigantería theater group.

Ballet Infantil CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA MARCH 4, 11PM

Concert program by the Children´s ballet of Cuba’s National Ballet.

Clowns MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES SUNDAYS, 11AM

Clowns, music and other attractions.

Cantándole al Sol SALA AVELLANEDA. TEATRO NACIONAL MARCH 10-13, 5PM

Children’s singing competition, hosted by the La Colmenita. Children’s Theater Company. FEB 2017 122

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IV Festival Infantil del audiovisual La Espiral MARCH 10-18, OLD HAVANA’S HISTORICAL CENTER

CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA

TEATRO DE TÍTERES EL ARCA

MARCH 10 2PM

Screening of the feature film La pandillita (Germany)

MARCH 11 3PM

MARCH 13, 15, 16 & 17 2PM

Screening of competing films.

MARCH 14 2PM

Special performance from the Short Film Festival in Castilla y León (Spain)

MARCH 18 10:30AM

Closing gala La música se siente, with the performances of Cantoría Estrellitas, under the Schola Cantorum Coralina Choir. Awards ceremony. Premiere of the film Animotion. The Movie

MUSEO DE ARTE COLONIAL

Opening of the E-motion Project.

MARCH 13 2PM

MARCH 12 10AM

Children’s workshop on working with puppets and marionettes in stop motion

Screening of medium-length film Papobo, made with the stop motion technique in the 1980’s by the Cuban Television Film Studios

MARCH 14 10AM

MARCH 1213, 3PM

Audiovisual exhibition E-motion

Screening of the feature film La pandillita (Germany) Exhibition of competing films

MARCH 14, 16 & 17 3PM

Screening of competing animated films made in stop motion technique.

MARCH 1517 2PM

MARCH 15 3PM

Special performance by Los chapuceros

MARCH 18 3PM

Special performance from the Short Film Festival in Castilla y León (Spain). Screening of Animotion. The Movie. FEB 2017 123

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XVI Concurso y Festival Internacional Fiesta del Tambor Guillermo Barreto in Memoriam MARCH 7-12, CULTURAL CENTERS IN HAVANA This festivity of percussion pays tribute to one of the cult figures of Cuban percussion: Guillermo Barreto, star of the Tropicana orchestra in the 1950s and founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. While young talents measure their skills during the competition, experts disclose the secrets of the complex Cuban percussion at master classes, and the evenings are set aside for the performances of popular national and international bands and soloists. Performers from the US, Brazil, Uruguay, Norway and Canada will be participating alongside Cuban musicians. Three competitions will be held during the event: the percussion competition will be open to musicians of all ages and nationalities in five different modalities and instruments, the Casino dance competition for all ages, and the Rumba dance competition for dancers 15 and older. For more information: www.fiestadeltambor.cult.cu

JARDINES DEL TEATRO MELLA

CASA DE LA MÚSICA DE MIRAMAR

MARCH 7 10:30PM

Timbalaye and Addaché de Matanzas

MARCH 7 11PM

Manolito Simonet and Pedrito Calvo y La Justicia

MARCH 8 10:30PM

Proyecto Las Mujeres de la Rumba and Los Papines

MARCH 8 11PM

Adalberto Álvarez y su Son and Maykel Dinza y Soneros de la Juventud

MARCH 9 10:30PM

Vocal Baobab and Habana 7

MARCH 9 11PM

Pupy y Los que Son Son

MARCH 10 10:30PM

Rumba Mayabeque and Candombe Fussion 2 (Uruguay)

MARCH 10 11PM

Elito Revé y su Charangón

MARCH 11 10:30PM

Rumberos de Cuba and Iyerosun

MARCH 12 10:30PM

Afrocuba de Matanzas

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HOTEL RIVIERA. SALÓN EL ELEGANTE

MARCH 7 7:30PM

Cajón a Papo Angarica, with the group Nsila Cheche

MARCH 7 4:30PM6:30PM

Craig Haynes and Carlos Miyares

8:30PM

Dance companies: Salsa, Mambo y Chachacha, Santiago Alfonso, JJ, Raíces Profundas plus Grupo Síntesis

MARCH 8 4:30PM6:30PM

Julito Padrón y su proyecto and Emilio Martini y Natural Trío

MARCH 8 8:30PM

Alain Pérez and guests, Yissy García, Naile Sosa, Juana Véliz, Yuly Greendrich, Marypaz, Brenda Navarrete and the Las Mujeres de la Rumba Project

MARCH 9 4:30PM6:30PM

Delvis Ponce y su grupo and Eduardo Sandoval y Habana Jazz

MARCH 9 8:30PM

Aldo Mazza (Canada); Mark Giulliana, Will Calhoum, Craig Haynes, Memo Acevedo and Nanny Assis (USA); Per Mathisen and Hans Mathisen (Norway); Marcus Santos (Brazil) and Candombe Fussion 2 (Uruguay); Giraldo Piloto, Enrique Pla, Samuel Formell, Dafnis Prieto, Rodney Barreto, Oliver Valdés, El Peje, Bombón, Suena Como Se Ve, Michel Herrera-Javier Moreno, Ruly Herrera and winners from previous competitions José Carlos y Dayron; Estrellas de las Congas: Adel González, Tomás Ramos El Panga, Kono and Eliel Lazo (Cuba)

MARCH 10 4:30PM6:30PM

Per Mathisen, Hans Mathisen and Giraldo Piloto, and Oliver Valdés Quintet

MARCH 10 8:30PM

Casino and rumba competition final round. Timba Mix, Dj Mandy, Havana Queens, rueda de casino from Granma Province, Santiago All Stars

MARCH 11 5PM

Percussion competition final round. Giraldo Piloto y Klimax, Afrocuba de Matanzas, Compañía de Roclan

MARCH 12 4PM

Awards ceremony for the percussion and casino & rumba competitions. Yoruba Andabo, Explosión Rumbera, rueda de casino from Granma Province and Santiago All Stars

SALA AVENIDA

MARCH 7

9am - Master class by José Eladio Amat 10:30am y 3:30pm - International percussion competition 2pm - Master class

MARCH 8

9am - Master class by Craig Haynes (USA) 10:30am y 3:30pm - International percussion competition 2pm - Master class by Nanny Assis (USA) y Marcus Santos (Brazil)

MARCH 9

9am- Master class by Mark Guilliana (USA) 10:30am y 3:30pm - International percussion competition 2pm - Master class by Aldo Mazza and presentation of his book

MARCH 10

9am - Master class by Will Calhoum (USA) 10:30am y 3:30pm - International percussion competition 2pm - Master class by Dafnis Prieto and presentation of her book

SALÓN ROSADO DE LA TROPICAL

MARCH 11 10PM

Van Van, El Niño y la Verdad, Maykel Blanco y Salsa Mayor

MARCH 12 6PM

Alexander Abreu y Habana de Primera, Paulo FG y su Élite, Lionel Limonta y Azucar Negra, Giraldo Piloto y Klimax

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Semana de la Francofonía 18-26 DE MARZO, INSTITUCIONES CULTURALES DEL CENTRO HISTÓRICO A number of cultural and heritage institutions located in Havana’s Historical Center will host the Francophonie Week in order to bring the Cuban public closer to the most diverse cultural manifestations of the Gallic nation. MUSEO NAPOLEÓNICO

MARCH 22 10AM

Specialized visit through excellent exponents of French metalwork.

MARCH 24 10AM

French classical music. Temporary exhibition Napoleón a través de lentes ingleses, showing non-conventional images of the Emperor

CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA

CASA VÍCTOR HUGO

MARCH 10 5PM

Opening of the exhibition Fabulaciones cubanas. Artists Alejandro Batista and María López

MARCH 16, 5PM

Presentation and discussion of the documentary Chocolat, une histoire de rire (Chocolate, a story of laughter), with guest comedian Kike Quiñones.

MARCH 20 11AM

Illustrated lecture Las Casas Víctor Hugo en el mundo, by Gérard Pouchain, expert on the French writer

MARCH 2131

Exhibition Las Casas Víctor Hugo en el mundo (France, Guernsey, Spain and Luxemburg), consisting of posters and photographs about the cultural houses and museums dedicated to Victor Hugo

MARCH 21 2PM

Screening of the movie Coco Before Chanel

MARCH 22 2PM

Specialized visit to the Habana 1791 perfumery. Screening of a documentary on the International Perfume Museum at Grasse, France

MARCH 23 2PM

Talk about the French influence in Spanish-American metalwork. Metalwork show by artisan Rosana Vargas

THURSDAYS Films on French fashion 4PM VITRINA DE VALONIA

MARCH 24 5PM

Opening of solo exhibition of comic artist Alexander Izquierdo

MARCH 25, 10AM

Guided tour of Alexander Izquierdo’s exhibition with the presence of the artist

TUESDAYS, 3PM

Guided tours of the permanent exhibition made up of representatives of the Belgian and Cuban schools of comics, as well as the interactive exhibition Habana, dedicated to the most recent publication of contemporary Cuban comics

CASA DE LA OBRA PÍA

MARCH 24 10AM

Talk on the influence of French fashion in Cuba

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Festival de Narración Oral Primavera de Cuentos 2017 MARCH 20-26, CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS IN HAVANA’S HISTORICAL CENTER Primavera de Cuentos is a non-profit festival that promotes the participation of narrators from all over the world. This year, narrators in the Rubén Martínez Villena Public Library. CONVENTO DE BELÉN

MARCH 22 9:30AM

Performance by Ricardo Martínez and Benny Seijo, members of the Para Contarte Mejor Project, along with Cuban and international narrators.

CONVENTO SAN AGUSTÍN

MARCH 23 9:30AM

BIBLIOTECA PÚBLICA RUBÉN MARTÍNEZ VILLENA

MARCH 2124, 3PM

Narrations for kids

MARCH 23, 11AM

Narrations with senior citizens

MARCH 24, 10AM-1:30 PM

Competition Contar la vida. Special performance by Cuban popular storyteller Juan Carlos Tamayo

Performance by Ricardo Martínez and Benny Seijo, members of the Para Contarte Mejor Project, along with Cuban and international narrators

EMBOQUE DE LUZ

MARCH 20 9AM

Special narration of a fable about Yemayá, by Lucas Nápoles

CONVENTO SAN AGUSTÍN

MARCH 24 9:30AM

Performance by Ricardo Martínez and Benny Seijo, members of the Para Contarte Mejor Project, along with Cuban and international narrators.

CASA DEL BENEMÉRITO DE LAS AMÉRICAS BENITO JUÁREZ

MARCH 2324, 3PM

Performances for teenagers and young adults

MARCH 23, 3PM

México cuenta, by Sara Rojo and Elsa González (Mexico)

MARCH 24, 3PM

Cuentos de mi pueblo, by José Luis López and José Luis de la Cruz (Mexico)

TEATRO DE TÍTERES EL ARCA

MARCH 21- Oral narration for senior citizens 26, 10:30AM 3PM - Oral narration for kids

MARCH 2126, 10AM1:30 PM

Theoretical encounter

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HAVANA’S

best places to eat La Habanera

EL ATELIER

BELLA CIAO

CAFÉ BOHEMIA

LA CALESA REAL

EXPERIMENTAL FUSION

HOMELY ITALIAN

CAFÉ

CUBAN AND INTERNATIONAL

ECLÉCTICO

FUSION, ITALIAN

Interesting décor, interesting menu.

Great service, good prices. A real home from home.

Bohemian feel. Great sandwiches, salads & juices

Totally charming, excellent food

Beautiful mansion in the heart of El Vedado serving excellent food.

Calle 5 e/ Paseo y 2, Vedado (+53) 7-836-2025

Calle 19 y 72, Playa (+53) 7-206-1406

Calle San Ignacio #364, Habana Vieja

Compostela No. 359 e/ Lamparilla y Obrapía, La Habana Vieja (+53) 78645001

Calle Paseo No. 206, El Vedado (+53) 7 831-3423, (+53) 5360-0384

CASA MIGLIS SWEDISH-CUBAN FUSION

MEDITERRÁNEO HAVANA INTERNATIONAL

Beautiful modern decor. Interesting menu and good service. Calle #35 e/ 20 y 41, Playa. (+53) 7-203-8315

CORTE PRÍNCIPE

RÍO MAR

D.EUTIMIA

INTERNACIONAL

ITALIAN

INTERNATIONAL

CUBAN/CREOLE

Interesting and diverse menu. Beautiful terrace.

Industrial chic alfresco rooftop with a buzzing atmosphere

Sergio’s place. Simple décor, spectacular food.

Lealtad #120 e/ Ánimas y Lagunas, Centro Habana (+53) 7-864-1486

Calle 13 #406, e/ E y F, Vedado. (+53) 7-832 4894 http://www/medhavana.com

Calle 26, e/ 11 y 13, Vedado. (+53) 7-832-2355

Calle 9na esq. a 74, Miramar (+53) 5-255-9091

LA FONTANA

LA HABANERA

EL LITORAL

SANTY

INTERNACIONAL

INTERNATIONAL AND VEGETARIAN

INTERNATIONAL

SUSHI/ORIENTAL

Calle 46 #305 esq. a 3ra, Miramar (+53) 7-202-8337

INTERNATIONAL

EL COCINERO

Oasis of good food & taste in Centro Habana

Consistently good food, attentive service. Old school.

OTRA MANERA

Excellent food and veggie-friendly menu. Lovely, majestic house.

Watch the world go by at the Malecón’s best restaurant.

Calle 16 # 506, e/ 7ma y 5ta, Miramar, Playa (+53) 7 202 9941

Malecón #161 e/ K y L, Vedado (+53) 7-830-2201

Contemporary décor. Great seaview. Good food. Ave. 3raA y Final #11, La Puntilla, Miramar (+53) 7-209-4838

NAZDAROVIE SOVIET

Authentic fisherman’s shack servicing world-class sushi.

Well designed Soviet décor excellent food & service.

Calle 240A #3023 esq. a 3ra C, Jaimanitas (+53) 5-286-7039

Malecon #25, 3rd floor e Prado y Carcel, Centro Habana (+53) 7-860-2947

Absolutely charming. Excellent Cuban/creole food. Callejón del Chorro #60C, Plaza de la Catedral, Habana Vieja (+53) 7 861 1332

SAN CRISTÓBAL CUBAN/CREOLE

Deservedly popular.Consistently great food. Kitsch décor. San Rafael #469 e/ Lealtad y Campanario, Centro Habana (+53) 7-860-9109

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La Calesa Real

TOP PICK

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Style of food: Cuban and international cuisine Cost: Moderate Type of place: Private (Paladar)

Best for: Excellent, authentic cuisine and friendly service Don’t Miss. The Langosta Calesa Real, lobster served in its shell with raspberry sauce , red wine, aromatic herbs…and other secret ingredients. Compostela No. 359 e/ Lamparilla y Obrapía, La Habana Vieja (+53) 7864-5001

Style of food: Fusion, Italian Cost: Expensive Type of place: Private (Paladar)

TOP PICK

Ecléctico

Best for Quality decor, fine service and great food. Don’t miss Fresh pasta, the fish…and the ice cream of innovative flavors! Calle Paseo No. 206, El Vedado (+53) 7 831-3423, (+53) 5360-0384

TOP PICK

El Litoral

Style of food: International Cost: Expensive Type of place: Private (Paladar)

TOP PICK

Best for Quality décor, good service and great food. Best new place recently opened. Don’t Miss Drinking a cocktail at sunset watching the world go by on the Malecón Malecón #161 e/ K y L, Vedado. (+53) 7-830-2201 FEB 2017 129

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La Guarida

TOP PICK

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Style of food: Contemporary fusion Cost: Expensive Type of place: Private (Paladar)

Best for Authentic, charming and intimate atmosphere in Cuba’s best known restaurant. Great food, professional. Classy. Don’t Miss Uma Thurman, Beyoncé or the Queen of Spain if they happen to be dining next to you. Concordia #418 e/ Gervasio y Escobar, Centro Habana. (+53) 7-866-9047

Style of food: Traditional Cost: Moderate Type of place: Private (Paladar)

TOP PICK

Café Bohemia

Best for taking a break from long walks and seeking shelter from the stifling Cuban.. Don’t miss location in the cool inner courtyard of the colonial building. Ground floor of the Palacio de la Casa del Conde de Lombillo, Calle San Ignacio #364 (+53) 5- 403-1 568, (+53) 7-836-6567 www. havanabohemia.com

TOP PICK

La Habanera

Type of food: International and vegetarian Cost: Moderate Type of place: Private restaurant (Paladar)

Best for: Excellent food and veggie-friendly menu. Lovely, majestic house. Don’t miss: Eggplant lasagna and grilled fish with lemon and capers. Calle 16 # 506, e/ 7ma y 5ta, Miramar, Playa (+53) 7 202 9941 FEB 2017 130

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Corte del Príncipe Sergio’s Style of food Italian Cost Expensive Type of place Private (Paladar)

Best for Cozy atmosphere, excellent service.

Don’t miss spectacular homemade Italian pastas.

9na esq. 74, Playa (+53)5255 - 9091

Casa Miglis

TOP PICK

Style of food Swedish-Cuban fusion Cost Expensive Type of place Private (Paladar)

Best for The beautifully designed interior, warm ambience and Miglis’s personality create the feeling of an oasis in Central Havana. Don’t Miss Chatting with Mr Miglis. The Skaargan prawns, beef Chilli and lingonberries. Lealtad #120 e/ Ánimas y Lagunas, Centro Habana www.casamiglis.com (+53) 7-864-1486

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HAVANA’S best Bars & Clubs

Corner Café TRADITIONAL BARS EL FLORIDITA Hemingway’s daiquiri bar. Touristy but always full of life. Great cocktails. Obispo #557 esq. a Monserrate, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1299

1950S TRADITIONALS Guest performers include BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB MEMBERS Sociedad Rosalía de Castro, Egido 504 e/ Monte y Dragones, Old Havana (+53) 5-270-5271

SLOPPY JOE’S BAR Recently (beautifully) renovated. Full of history. Popular. Lacks a little ‘grime’. Ánimas esq. a Zulueta, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-866-7157

CERVECERÍA ANTIGUO ALMACÉN DE LA MADERA Y EL TABACO

Microbrewery located overlooking the restored docks Simply brilliant. Avenida del Puerto y San Ignacio, La Habana Vieja

CONTEMPORARY BARS EL COCINERO

ESPACIOS

TABARISH

FAC

Fabulous rooftop setting, great service, cool vibe.

Laid back contemporary bar with a real buzz in the back beergarden.

A comfortable place to chat / hang out with your friends. Great service.

X Alfonso’s new cultural center. Great concerts, funky young scene.

Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado

Calle 10 #510, e/ 5ta y 31, Miramar

Calle 20 #503, e/ 5ta y 7ma.

Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado (next to the Puente de Hierro)

(+53) 7-832-2355

(+53) 7-836-3031

(+53) 7-202-9188

(+53) 5-329-6325 www.facebook.com/fabrica.deartecubano

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CONTEMPORARY BARS/CLUBS

Sangri-La

TOP PICK

CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Best for Hanging out with the cool kids on the Havana Farundula in the most popular bar/ club.

DON CANGREJO Love it/hate it—this is the oldest Friday night party place and is still going strong. Outdoor by the sea. Ave. 1ra e/ 16 & 18, Miramar (+53) 7-204-3837

CORNER CAFÉ

SANGRI-LA

Great live music every day. very frequently by locals. Good tapas.

For the cool kids. Basement bar/club which gets packed at weekends.

Calle B e/ 1ra y 3ra. Plaza de la Revolución (+53) 7837 1220

Ave. 21 e/ 36 y 42, Miramar (+53) 7-264-8343

Don’t Miss The best gin and tonic in Havana. Ave. 21 e/ 36 y 42, Miramar (+53) 5-264-8343

GAY-FRIENDLY CABARET LAS VEGAS Can get dark and smoky but great drag show (11pm) from Divino—one of Cuba’s most accomplished drag acts. Ave. 21 e/ 36 y 42, Miramar (+53) 7-264-8343

FASHION BAR HAVANA

CAFÉ BAR MADRIGAL

A superb example of queer class meets camp, accompanied by a fantastic floor show.

Pop décor, fancy cocktails, and the staff’s supercilious attitude, this is a gathering spot for all types of folks.

San Juan de Dios, esq. a Aguacate, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1676

Calle 17 #809 e/ 2 y 4, Vedado (+53) 7-831-2433

Corner Café

TOP PICK

CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Best for Frequently by locals. Great tapas. Don’t Miss Live music every day. Calle B e/ 1ra y 3ra. Plaza de la Revolución (+53) 5-264-8343

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CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Espacios

Best for Laid back lounge atmosphere in the garden area which often has live music. Good turnover of people. Don’t Miss Ray Fernandez, Tony Avila, Yasek Mazano playing live sets in the garden. Calle 10 #510 e/ 5ta y 31, Miramar (+53) 7-202-2921

TOP PICK BAR / TRADITIONAL Best for Immense original bar lovingly restored. Good service, History.

Sloppy Joe´s Bar

Worst for Not quite grimy. Too clean. Ánimas, esq. Zulueta La Habana Vieja, (07) 866-7157

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Fábrica de Arte

TOP PICK

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CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS Best for X Alfonso’s superb new cultural center has something for everyone Don’t Miss Artists who exhibit work should demonstrate ongoing creativity and a commitment for social transformation. Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado (next to the Puente de Hierro)

GAY FRIENDLY Best for A superb example of queer class meets camp, accompanied by a fantastic floor show.

TOP PICK

Fashion Bar Havana

Don’t Miss The staff performing after 11pm San Juan de Dios, esq. a Aguacate, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1676

TOP PICK

Bertolt Brecht

CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Best for Hanging out with hip & funky Cubans who like their live music. Don’t Miss Interactivo playing on a Wednesday evening. Calle 13 e/ I y J, Vedado (+53) 7-830-1354 FEB 2017 135

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HAVANA’S

best live music venues

CONCERT VENUES KARL MARX THEATRE World class musicians perform prestigious concerts in Cuba’s best equipped venue. Calle 1ra esq. a 10, Miramar (+53) 7-203-0801

BASÍLICA SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS A truly beautiful church, which regularly hosts fabulous classical music concerts. Oficios y Amargura, Plaza de San Francisco de Asís, Habana Vieja

FÁBRICA DE ARTE X Alfonso’s new cultural center. Great concerts inside (small and funky) and outside (large and popular!). Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado (next to the Puente de Hierro)

SALA COVARRUBIAS TEATRO NACIONAL

Recently renovated, one of Cuba’s most prestigious venues for a multitude of events. Paseo y 39, Plaza de la Revolución.

SALSA/TIMBA CAFÉ CANTANTE MI HABANA Attracts the best Cuban musicians. Recently renovated with an excellent new sound system. Ave. Paseo esq. a 39, Plaza de la Revolución (+53) 7-878-4273

CASA DE LA MÚSICA

CASA DE LA MÚSICA

CENTRO HABANA

MIRAMAR

A little rough around the edges but spacious. For better or worse, this is ground zero for the best in Cuban salsa.

Smaller and more up-market than its newer twin in Centro Habana. An institution in the Havana salsa scene.

Galiano e/ Neptuno y Concordia, C. Habana (+53) 7-860-8296/4165

Calle 20 esq. a 35, Miramar (+53) 7-204-0447

SALÓN ROSADO DE LA TROPICAL The legendary beer garden where Arsenio tore it up. Look for a salsa/timba gig on a Sat night and a Sun matinee. Ave. 41 esq. a 46, Playa (+53) 7-203-5322

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CONTEMPORARY CAFÉ TATRO BERTOLT BRECHT

DON CANGREJO

EL SAUCE

Think MTV Unplugged when musicians play. Hip, funky and unique with an artsy Cuban crowd.

Love it/hate it—this is the oldest Friday night party place and is still going strong. Outdoor by the sea.

Great outdoor concert venue to hear the best in contemporary & Nueva Trova live in concert.

Calle 13 e/ I y J, Vedado (+53) 7-830-1354

Ave. 1ra e/ 16 y 18, Miramar (+53) 7-204-3837

Ave. 9na #12015 e/ 120 y 130, Playa (+53) 7-204-6428

TEATRO DE BELLAS ARTES Small intimate venue inside Cuba’s most prestigious arts museum. Modern. Trocadero e/ Zulueta y Monserrate, Habana Vieja.

TROVA & TRADITIONAL BARBARAM PEPITO´S BAR Some of the best Cuban Nueva Trova musicians perform in this small and intimate environment. Calle 26 esq. a Ave. del Zoológico. Nuevo Vedado (+53) 7-881-1808

GATO TUERTO Late night place to hear fabulous bolero singers. Can get smoky. Calle O entre 17 y 19, Vedado (+53) 7-833-2224

TRADICIONALES DE LOS 50 The 1950s traditionals, a project created over 10 years ago, pays tribute to the Golden Era of Cuban music: the 1950s. Sociedad Rosalia de Castro, Egido #504 e/ Monte y Dragones, Havana Vieja (+53) 7-861-7761

SALÓN 1930

COMPAY SEGUNDO

Buena Vista Social Club style set in the grand Hotel Nacional. Hotel Nacional Calle O esq. a 21, Vedado (+53) 7-835-3896

JAZZ CAFÉ JAZZ MIRAMAR Clean, modern and atmospheric. Where Cuba’s best musicians jam and improvise. Cine Teatro Miramar 10:30pm – 2am Ave. 5ta esq. a 94, Miramar

JAZZ CAFÉ A staple of Havana’s jazz scene, the best jazz players perform here. Somewhat cold atmospherewise. Galerías de Paseo Ave. 1ra e/ Paseo y A, Vedado

LA ZORRA Y EL CUERVO Intimate and atmospheric, which you enter through a red telephone box, is Cuba’s most famous. Calle 23 e/ N y O, Vedado (+53) 7-833-2402

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HAVANA’S

magazine

Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Best Hotels

SIMPLY THE BEST… IBEROSTAR PARQUE CENTRAL

Luxury hotel overlooking Parque Central Neptuno e/ Prado y Zulueta, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-6627

SANTA ISABEL

Luxurious historic mansion facing Plaza de Armas Narciso López, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-8201

SARATOGA

TERRAL

Stunning view from roof-top pool. Beautiful décor.

Wonderful ocean front location. Newly renovated.

Paseo del Prado #603 esq. a Dragones, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-8201

Malecón esq. a Lealtad, Centro Habana (+53) 7-862-8061

BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN OLD HAVANA FLORIDA

Beautifully restored colonial house. Obispo #252, esq. a Cuba, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-862-4127

PALACIO DEL MARQUÉS...

Cuban baroque meets modern minimalist Oficios #152 esq. a Amargura, Habana Vieja

HOSTAL VALENCIA

Immensely charming, great value. Oficios #53 esq. a Obrapía, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1037

CONDE DE VILLANUEVA

Delightfully small and intimate. For cigar lovers. Mercaderes #202, Lamparilla (+53) 7-862-9293

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MELIÁ HABANA

Oasis of polished marble and professional calm.

Attractive design & extensive facilities.

Ave Paseo e/ 1ra y 3ra, Vedado (+53) 7- 833-3636

Ave. 3ra y 70, Miramar (+53) 5-204-8500

OCCIDENTAL MIRAMAR

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H10 HABANA PANORAMA

Good value, large spacious modern rooms.

Cascades of glass. Good wi-fi. Modern.

Ave. 5ta. e/ 70 y 72, Miramar (+53) 7-204-3583

Ave. 3ra. y 70, Miramar (+53) 7 204-0100

FOR A SENSE OF HISTORY AMBOS MUNDOS

MERCURE SEVILLA

HOTEL NACIONAL

RIVIERA

A must for Hemingway aficionados

Stunning views from the roof garden restaurant.

Eclectic art-deco architecture. Gorgeous gardens.

Spectacular views over wavelashed Malecón

Calle Obispo #153 esq. a Mercaderes, Habana Vieja (+53) 7- 860-9529

Trocadero #55 entre Prado y Zulueta, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-8560

Calle O esq. a 21, Vedado (+53) 7-835 3896

Paseo y Malecón, Vedado (+53) 7-836-4051

ECONOMICAL/BUDGET HOTELS BOSQUE

DEAUVILLE

SAINT JOHN’S

VEDADO

On the banks of the Río Almendares.

Lack of pretension, great location.

Lively disco, tiny quirky pool. Popular.

Good budget option with a bit of a buzz

Calle 28-A e/ 49-A y 49-B, Reparto Kohly, Playa (+53) 7-204-9232

Galiano e/ Sán Lázaro y Malecón, Centro Habana (+53) 7-866-8812

Calle O e/ 23 y 25, Vedado (+53) 7-833-3740

Calle O e/ 23 y 25, Vedado (+53) 7-836-4072

HAVANA’S Best Hotels

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HAVANA’S

best private places to stay Sueño Cubano

MID RANGE - CASA PARTICULAR (B&B) 1932 MIRAMAR 301 LUXURY HOUSE Visually stunning, historically fascinating. Welcoming. 4 bedrooms private luxury villa Campanario #63 e/ San Lázaro y Laguna, with swimming pool Centro Habana (+53) 7-863-6203

HABANA Beautiful colonial townhouse with great location.

JULIO Y ELSA Cluttered bohemian feel. Hospitable.

Calle Habana #209, e/ Empedrado, y Tejadillo, Habana Vieja. (+53) 7-861-0253

Consulado #162 e/ Colón y Trocadero, Centro Habana ( +53) 7-861-8027

UP-SCALE B&BS (BOUTIQUE HOSTALS) SUEÑO CUBANO

Old palace carefully restored, seven rooms, suites with bathrooms and featuring 24 hour service. Calle Santa Clara número 66 entre Oficios e Inquisidor. Habana Vieja 53 78660109 39 339 1817730

LA RESERVA VEDADO 5 luxurious rooms in a renovated colonial mansion . The tropical garden in the courtyard, ideal to eat, drink and relax. Calle 2 entre 21 y 23 numero 508. Vedado, La Habana [email protected] (53) 7 8335244 http://lareservavedado.com/

VITRALES

Hospitable, attractive and reliable boutique B&B with 9 bedrooms. Habana #106 e/ Cuarteles y Chacón, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-866-2607

PASEO 206

Incredible boutique hotel and restaurant. Luxury and comfort combined. Paseo, 206 – Vedado. (+53) 7 8313423, (+53) 5 3600384

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APARTMENT RENTALS BOHEMIA BOUTIQUE APARTMENTS

Gorgeous 1-bedroom apartment beautifully decorated apartment overlooking Plaza Vieja. San Ignacio #364 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja (+53) 5- 403-1 568 (+53) 7-836-6567 www.havanabohemia.com

CASA CONCORDIA

Beautifully designed and spacious 3 bedroom apartment. Spanish colonial interiors with cheerful, arty accents. Concordia #151 apto. 8 esq. a San Nicolás, Centro Habana (+53) 5-254-5240 www.casaconcordia.net

TROPICANA PENTHOUSE

A luxurious penthouse with huge roof terrace and breath-taking 360 degree views of Havana and the ocean. Galiano #60 Penthouse Apt.10 e/ San Lázaro y Trocadero

SUITE HAVANA

Elegant 2-bedroom apartment in restored colonial building. Quality loft style décor. Lamparilla #62 altos e/ Mercaderes y San Ignacio, Habana Vieja (+53) 5-829-6524

(+53) 5-254-5240 www.tropicanapenthouse.com

LUXURY HOUSES VILLASOL

CASABLANCA

Rent Room elegant and wellequipped. Beautiful wild garden and great pool.

Elegant well-equipped villa formerly owned by Fulgencio Batista. Beautiful wild garden.

Calle 17 #1101 e/ 14 y 16, Vedado

Morro-Cabaña Park. House #29

(+34) 677525361 (+53) 7-832-1927 (+53) 5-360-0456

(+53) 5-294-5397 www.havanacasablanca.com

MICHAEL AND MARÍA ELENA

This leafy oasis in western Havana has an attractive mosaic tiled pool and three modern bedrooms. Calle 66 #4507 e/ 45 y Final, Playa (+53) 7-209-0084

RESIDENCIA MARIBY

A sprawling vanilla-hued mansion with 6 rooms decorated with colonial-era lamps, tiles and Louis XV furniture Vedado. (+53) 5-370-5559

Bohemia Boutique Apartments Red

TOP PICK

Best for 3 small balconies (facing the Patio of the Palace), 1 spacious bedroom with air conditioning Don’t Miss The apartment is fully furbished, plenty of light and very well ventilated. San Ignacio #364 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja, Habana Vieja [email protected] (+53) 5 4031 568: (53) 7 8366 567 www.havanabohemia.com

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lahabana. com Paseo, 206 – Vedado. (+53) 7 8313423, (+53) 5 3600384

TOP PICK

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Paseo 206 Best for The hotel staff not only picks up guests at the airport in perfectly restored vintage automobiles, they take you to fruit and vegetable markets where you can choose what you want to eat later in the day. Don’t Miss The luxury bedroom. Two areas on the house are extra-special: a glass-wall sitting room surrounded by plants, and a room in the dome with a splendid view of the Caribbean Sea.

Sueño Cubano

TOP PICK

Best for Old palace carefully restored, seven rooms, suites with bathrooms and featuring 24 hour service. Don’t Miss Relax at any of the four terraces, feel the mellow touch of antique and original Cuban furniture.

TOP PICK

Bohemia Boutique Apartments Blue Best for i1 internal balcony, 1 spacious bedroom on the mezzanine with air conditioning. Don’t Miss The apartment is fully furbished, plenty of light and very well ventilated. San Ignacio #364 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja, Habana Vieja [email protected] (+53) 5 4031 568: (53) 7 8366 567 FEB 2017 143

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THANK YOU Wishes to thank all of the following entities for their support and involvement with La Habana.com