Cuba - Lonely Planet [83]
Guarding the entrance to Calle G on the Malecón is the equestrian Monumento a Calixto García (cnr Malecón & Calle G), paying homage to the valiant Cuban general who was prevented by US military leaders in Santiago de Cuba from attending the Spanish surrender in 1898. Twenty-four bronze plaques around the statue provide a history of García’s 30-year struggle for Cuban independence. Just behind the monument is the cathedral-like Casa de las Américas ( 838-2706; www.casa.cult.cu; cnr Calles 3 & G; admission CUC$2; 10am-4:40pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun), a cultural institution set up by Moncada survivor Haydee Santamaría in 1959 that awards one of Latin America’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes. Inside there’s an art gallery and bookstore (Click here).
Cuba has three synagogues servicing a Jewish population of approximately 1:500. The main community center and library is at the Gran Synagoga Bet Shalom (Calle I No 251 btwn Calles 13 & 15), where the friendly staff would be happy to tell interested visitors about the fascinating history of the Jews in Cuba.
Out on a limb but worth a diversion for railway enthusiasts is the Museo del Ferrocarril ( 873-4414; cnr Av de México & Arroyo; 9am-5pm), housed in the old Cristina train station built in 1859. There’s a big collection of signaling and communication gear here plus old locos from various eras including La Junta, dating from 1843. Train rides are available by prior appointment.
Return to beginning of chapter
HABANA VIEJA WALKING TOUR
It’s unlikely you’ll get to do both the Habana Vieja and Centro Habana walking tours in a day, unless you hop on some transport halfway through. You can connect with a horse carriage (CUC$10 per hour) on Mercaderes just off Obispo, a coco-taxi anywhere around Plaza de San Francisco de Asís (horse carriages hang out here, too) or a bici-taxi near the Estación Central de Ferrocarriles (Central Train Station).
Plaza de la Catedral is a moveable feast and you can espy most of what’s going on from the lush Restaurante El Patio (1; Click here) before heading into the Catedral de San Cristóbal de La Habana (2; Click here). Track southwest next, past the resident fortune teller and the brightly clad ladies in polka-dot dresses (who’ll plant a kiss on your cheek for a ludicrous tip) and pop into the alleyway on the right housing the Taller Experimental de Gráfica (3; Click here). Here, in what must be Havana’s funkiest art gallery, Pink Floyd meets Jackson Pollack meets Wilfredo Lam with a bit of Picasso thrown in for good measure. Use your excellent map-reading skills to deliver you in front of the gargantuan Museo de la Ciudad (4; Click here) on the western side of Plaza de Armas before the crowds arrive. If they’ve already beaten you to it, take a break outside in the breezy plaza – a bibliophile’s nirvana – with an outdoor book fair if it’s Wednesday, or if it’s not pop into one of Havana’s top bookstores in the Palacio del Segundo Cabo (5; Click here). You might skip the stuffed animals at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural and head straight to the 5th-floor terrace bar at Restaurante La Mina (6; Click here), where the burgers are good and the views even better.
Breaking out of the plaza head south on Obispo past some of Havana’s oldest surviving houses to the corner of Mercaderes. The lurid pastel-pink building on the left is the Hotel Ambos Mundos (7; Click here), where Ernest Hemingway stayed on and off during the 1930s. You can visit room 511 (admission CUC$2; open 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday) where he started writing For Whom the Bell Tolls, or enjoy a few romantic tunes from the resident pianist in the lobby downstairs. A few doors south on Mercaderes is the Maqueta de La Habana Vieja (8; Click here), a darling scale model of everyone’s favorite Unesco World Heritage Site. Continuing straight to the intersection with Obrapía at the next corner, drop into Habana 1791 (9; Click here) where floral fragrances are mixed by hand (you can see