Cuba - Lonely Planet [124]
Sleeping & Eating
Las Ruinas ( 57-82-86; Cortina de la Presa; 11am-midnight Tue-Sun) One of Havana’s most celebrated restaurants – at least in an architectural sense – is situated on the southeast side of Parque Lenin. Melding off-beat modern architecture – including some eye-catching stained glass by Cuban artist René Portocarrero – onto the ruins of an old sugar mill, this place has an arty and elegant atmosphere, though the food (which is grossly overpriced) doesn’t quite live up to the lavish setting. The menu includes lobster plus a selection of Cuban and Italian dishes and you’ll be lucky to get much change out of CUC$30. Overrated.
Restaurante El Bambú (Jardín Botánico Nacional; noon-5pm, closed Mon; ) This is the first and finest in Havana vegetarian dining and has led the way in education efforts as to the benefits of a meatless diet. The all-you-can-eat lunch buffet is served alfresco deep in the botanical gardens, with the natural setting paralleling the wholesome tastiness of the food. For CUC$15 you can gorge on soups and salads, root vegetables, tamales and eggplant caviar.
Getting There & Away
Your public transport choices to Parque Lenin are bus, car or taxi. The bus isn’t easy. The P-13 will get you close, but to catch it you have to first get to Vibora. The best way to do this is to get on the P-9 at Calles 23 and L. Havana taxi drivers are used to this run and it should be easy to negotiate a rate with stops for CUC$25 and up.
Getting Around
There’s a Servi-Cupet gas station on the corner of Av de la Independencia and Calle 271 in Boyeros, north of the airport. It’s accessible only from the northbound lane and is open 24 hours a day.
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SANTIAGO DE LAS VEGAS AREA
While not exactly brimming with tourist potential, downbeat and dusty Santiago de las Vegas offers a fleeting glimpse of Cuba apart from the coffee-table photo spreads. Most visitors encounter this settlement – a curious amalgamation of small town and sleepy city suburb – every December during the 5000-strong devotional crawl to the Santuario de San Lázaro (named after a Christian saint known for his ministrations to lepers and the poor) in the nearby village of El Rincón.
Sights & Activities
On a hilltop at El Cacahual, 8km south of Aeropuerto Internacional José Martí via Santiago de las Vegas, is the little-visited mausoleum of the hero of Cuban independence, General Antonio Maceo, who was killed in the Battle of San Pedro near Bauta on December 7, 1896. An open-air pavilion next to the mausoleum shelters a historical exhibit.
Another feature of this area is the well-kept AIDS sanatorium Los Cocos, which opened in 1986 and has helped Cuba maintain an HIV-positive rate that is one of the world’s lowest (0.01%).
Getting There & Away
To get here, take bus P-12 from the Capitolio or bus P-16 from outside Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras just off the Malecón.
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REGLA
pop 42,390
The old town of Regla, just across the harbor from Habana Vieja, is an industrial port town known as a center of Afro-Cuban religions, including the all-male secret society Abakúa. Long before the triumph of the 1959 Revolution, Regla was known as the Sierra Chiquita (Little Sierra, after the Sierra Maestra) for its revolutionary traditions. This working-class neighborhood is also notable for a large thermoelectric power plant and shipyard. Regla is almost free of tourist trappings, and makes an easily reachable afternoon trip away from the city; the skyline views from this side of the harbor offer a different perspective.
Sights & Activities
As important as it is diminutive, the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla ( 97-62-88; 7:30am-6pm), which lies just behind the boat