HAVANA

Havana (pop. 2.2 million), political, cultural, and industrial heart of the nation, lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) due south of Florida on Cuba’s northwest coast. It is built on the west side of a sweeping bay with a narrow funnel entrance—Bahía de la Habana—and extends west 12 kilometers to the Río Jaimanitas and south for an equal distance.

Countless writers have commented on the exhilarating sensation that engulfs visitors to this most beautiful and beguiling of Caribbean cities. The potency of Havana’s appeal is owed to a quality that “runs deeper than the stuff of which travel brochures are made. It is irresistible and intangible,” writes Juliet Barclay—as if, adds Arnold Samuelson, recalling his first visit to Havana in 1934, “everything you have seen before is forgotten, everything you see and hear then being so strange you feel… as if you had died and come to life in a different world.” The city’s ethereal mood, little changed today, is so pronounced that it finds its way into novels. “I wake up feeling different, like something inside me is changing, something chemical and irreversible. There’s a magic here working its way through my veins,” says Pilar, a Cuban-American character from New York who returns to Havana in Cristina García’s novel Dreaming in Cuban. Set foot one time in Havana and you can only succumb to its enigmatic allure. It is impossible to resist the city’s mysteries and contradictions.

Havana has a flavor all its own; a strange amalgam of colonialism, capitalism, and Communism merged into one. One of the great historical cities of the New World, Havana is a far cry from the Caribbean backwaters that call themselves capitals elsewhere in the Antilles. It is obvious that Cuba was wealthy years ago to a degree that most South American and Caribbean cities were not. Havana is a city, notes architect Jorge Rigau, “upholstered in columns, cushioned by colonnaded arcades.” The buildings come in a spectacular amalgam of styles—from the academic classicism of aristocratic homes, rococo residential exteriors, Moorish interiors, and art deco and art nouveau to stunning exemplars of 1950s moderne.

At the heart of the city is enchanting Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a living museum inhabited by 60,000 people and containing perhaps the finest collection of Spanish-colonial buildings in all the Americas. Baroque churches, convents, and castles that could have been transposed from Madrid or Cádiz still reign majestically over squares embraced by the former palaces of Cuba’s ruling gentry and cobbled streets still haunted by Ernest Hemingway’s ghost.

Hemingway’s house, Finca Vigía, is one of dozens of museums dedicated to the memory of great men and women. And although most of the older monuments—those of politically incorrect heroes—were pulled down, at least they were replaced by dozens of grandiose monuments to those on the correct side of history.

Street names and monuments may have been changed, but balmy city streets with walls in faded tropical pastels still smolder gold in the waxing sun. Sunlight still filters through stained-glass mediopuntos to dance on the cool marble floors. And time cannot erase the sound of the “jalousies above the colonnades creaking in the small wind from the sea,” in the words of Graham Greene. “True, [Havana] was disheveled and shabby,” wrote Brenda Loree, “but in the manner of a beautiful woman who had let herself go. You could still tell that she had good bones.”

Fortunately, the heart of Habana Vieja has been in the midst of an impressive restoration for over a decade, and most of the historically important structures have been given facelifts, or better. Some have even metamorphosed into boutique hotels. Nor is there a shortage of 1950s-era modernist hotels steeped in Mafia associations. And hundreds of casas particulares provide an opportunity to live life at least partially alongside the habaneros themselves. There’s something for every budget, although most hotels are overpriced, some outrageously so. As for food, Havana is the only place in Cuba where you can dine well every night of the week (for a price).

Then there’s the arts scene, perhaps unrivaled in Latin America. The city offers some first-rate museums and galleries. Not only formal galleries, but informal ones where contemporary artists produce unique works of amazing profundity and appeal. There are some tremendous crafts markets, and boutique stores selling hand-made Cuban perfumes. Afro-Caribbean music is everywhere, quite literally on the streets. Lovers of sizzling salsa have dozens of venues from which to choose. Havana even has a hot jazz scene. Classical music and ballet is world class, with numerous venues to choose from. There’s even hip-hop, though the past few years have seen a cooling of the scene as the government has brought its displeasure to bear. And neither Las Vegas, Paris, or Rio de Janeiro can compare with Havana for sensational and sexy cabarets (to be sure, some venues are cheesy), with top billing now, as back in the day, being the Tropicana, with a sensational show.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes: Divided into national and international sections, this art gallery competes with the world’s finest.
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Capitolio Nacional: Cuba’s former congressional building is an architectural glory reminiscent of Washington’s own Capitol. (read more)

Museo de la Revolución: The former presidential palace now tells the tale of the Revolution in gory detail. (read more)

Plaza de la Catedral: This small, atmospheric plaza is hemmed in by colonial mansions and a baroque cathedral. (read more)

Plaza de Armas: The restored cobbled plaza at the heart of Old Havana features a castle, museums, and heaps of charm. (read more)

Plaza Vieja: Still undergoing restoration, this antique plaza offers offbeat museums, Havana’s only brewpub, flashy boutiques, and heaps of ambience. (read more)

Hotel Nacional: A splendid landmark with magnificent architecture and oodles of history, this hotel is a great place to relax with a mojito and cigar while soaking in the heady atmosphere of the past. (read more)

Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón: This is one of the New World’s great cemeteries, with dramatic tombstones that comprise a who’s who of Cuban history. (read more)

Parque Histórico Militar Morro-Cabaña: An imposing castle complex contains the restored Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro and massive Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, with cannons in situ, soldiers in period costume, and various museums. (read more)

Tropicana: Havana at its most sensual, the Tropicana is home to a spectacular cabaret with more than 200 performers and dancers in fantastical costumes. (read more)