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train station ( 862-4888), next to the ferry wharf, is the western terminus of the only electric railway in Cuba. In 1917 the Hershey Chocolate Company of the US state of Pennsylvania built this line to Matanzas (see boxed text,). Trains still depart for Matanzas five times a day (at 4:46am, 8:35am, 12:48pm, 4:38pm and 8:46pm). The 8:35am service is an ‘express.’ You’ll travel via Guanabo (CUC$0.80, 25km), Hershey (CUC$1.45, 46km), Jibacoa (CUC$1.65, 54km) and Canasí (CUC$1.95, 65km) to Matanzas (CUC$2.80, 90km) and dozens of smaller stations. No one on a tight schedule should use this train; it usually leaves Casablanca on time but often arrives an hour late. Bikes aren’t officially allowed. It’s a scenic four- to five-hour trip, and tickets are easily obtainable at the station.

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COJÍMAR AREA

Situated 10km east of Havana is the little port town of Cojímar, famous for harboring Ernest Hemingway’s fishing boat El Pilar in the 1940s and ’50s. This picturesque, if slightly run-down harbor community served as the prototype for the fishing village in Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea, which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. It was founded in the 17th century at the mouth of the Río Cojímar. In 1762 an invading British army landed here on its way through to take Havana; in 1994 thousands of ‘rafters’ split from the sheltered but rocky bay, lured to Florida by US radio broadcasts and promises of political asylum.

To the southwest of Cojímar just off the Vía Blanca is the rather ugly sporting complex and athletes’ village built when Cuba staged the 1991 Pan-American Games.

Information

Bandec ( 8:30am-3pm Mon-Fri, 8:30-11am Sat), which is just down the Paseo Panamericano, changes traveler’s checks and gives cash advances. For Cuban pesos there’s Cadeca ( 95-15-78; Bldg 46 Btwn Avs 5 & 78), just down the side street, across the avenue from Bandec.

Sights

The huge 55,000-seat Estadio Panamericano, on the Vía Monumental between Havana and Cojímar, was built for the 1991 Pan-American Games and is already looking prematurely dilapidated. There are also tennis courts, Olympic-sized swimming pools and other sporting facilities nearby.

Overlooking the harbor is the Torreón de Cojímar, an old Spanish fort (1649) presently occupied by the Cuban Coast Guard. It was the first fortification taken by the British when they attacked Havana from the rear in 1762. Next to this tower and framed by a neoclassical archway is a gilded bust of Ernest Hemingway, erected by the residents of Cojímar in 1962.

East across the river from Cojímar is Alamar, a large housing estate of prefabricated apartment blocks built by micro brigadas (small armies of workers responsible for building much of the postrevolutionary housing), beginning in 1971.

Sleeping

Hotel Panamericano (Islazul; 95-10-00/10; s/d incl breakfast CUC$46/60; ) If this four-story ugly duckling was the best accommodation Havana could muster for the 1991 Pan-American Games, then thank God they’re not hosting the Olympics. Inconveniently located and rough around the edges, the Panamericano establishment was due to reopen at the time of writing after a spell housing Operación Milagros. Call ahead to check the status.

Eating

Restaurante La Terraza ( 93-92-32; Calle 152 No 161; noon-11pm) Another photo-adorned shrine to the ghost of Ernest Hemingway, La Terraza specializes in seafood and does a roaring trade from the hordes of Papa fans who pour in daily. The terrace dining room overlooking the bay is pleasant. More atmospheric, however, is the old bar out front (10:30am to 11pm) where mojitos haven’t yet reached El Floridita rates. The food is surprisingly mediocre.

Just down from the Hotel Panamericano is a bakery ( 8am-8pm). Across the Paseo Panamericano is a grocery store, the Mini-Super Caracol ( 9am-8pm), and a clean and reasonably priced Italian restaurant Allegro ( noon-11pm) with lasagna, risotto, spaghetti and pizza, all for CUC$4.

Getting There & Away

Metro bus P-8 goes to the Villa Panamericano from the Capitolio in Centro