Hitting Cuba's Famed 'Hemingway Trail'

[Iberostar Hotels & Resorts]

by Andy Jarozs

In his 1999 documentary series Hemingway Adventure, Michael Palin, the Monty Python star turned traveler (no relation to Sarah, as far as we know), visited Cuba to see for himself the many places on the island that are associated with the famous writer. He even attempts to secure an interview with Fidel Castro himself; it’s too bad that Castro turned him down, as it would have been fascinating to hear the Bearded One’s memories of fishing and talking politics with his old equally bearded acquaintance. Palin did, however, visit some of Hemingway’s best known Cuban haunts.

Hemingway, Cuba and the Finca Vigia

Hemingway spent 20 years on and off the island of Cuba. He was a regular visitor during the 1920s and 30s, and moved permanently to the island in 1940 with his wife, buying Finca Vigía, a hilltop farmhouse 10 kilometers (7 miles) outside central Havana. His house was something of a pet paradise, with 57 cats sharing the grounds with him and Martha.

The cats have long gone, but Finca Vigia is now full of tourist visitors who come to see where Hemingway wrote some of his most famous works, including The Old Man and the Sea, which won him a Nobel Prize for Literature. The house is now a museum that displays Hemingway’s typewriter, his collection of around 9,000 books, and many trophy animal heads from his hunting days.

Old Havana Bars

Given his rep as a man who liked his drink, it’s fitting that two of the most popular stops on the Hemingway trail are bars in the old part of Havana. Across the road from his regular Havana hotel is La Bodeguita del Medio (above), once a seedy atmospheric bar, they say, but now a seedy atmospheric bar full of foreign tourists, with inflated prices to match. La Bodeguita serves an endless stream of mojitos, the drink that Hemingway would apparently always order when visiting.

Not far away is another famous Havana bar, La Floridita, where Papa would pop in for daiquiris. According to local legend, Hemingway kept the place in business single-handedly, such was the regularity of his custom. He is now remembered by a bust that marks his favorite seat at the bar. Tourists flock to La Floridita to drink one of the many dairiqui variations on offer; at $6 a glass, the bar is out of the reach of most habaneros.

Finding Hemingway in Cuba

There are many reasons to visit Cuba, but whether or not you’re a Hemingway fan you are likely to cross paths with the old man’s story more than once on your visit. When you do you, might as well raise a mojito or a daiquiri to his memory. ¡Salud!
 
 

Photos | David Shankbone / Bruce Tuten

 
This post is adapted from one that originally ran on our blog PassportToIberostar.com. 

[David Paul Appell]

Good overview. But you left out the Hotel Ambos Mundos in Old Havana, where Hemingway stayed when in town.  Also, don't forget to take a spin around and maybe have lunch in Cojímar, the nearest town to La Vigía.  There's a charming waterfront including a little rotonda featuring a bust of Papa.