Have you ever been told that something was not available to you and furthermore was taboo? I’m not talking about something that is morally corrupt, or restricted to all persons, or belongs to someone else, or etc. I’m not alluding to something that is dangerous or harmful to your person. I’m talking about rules in place that restrict you from traveling throughout the world. Rules that when originally established were necessary and had good purpose in being; but now are outdated, restrictive, and unnecessary. Most countries are now open for visiting. However, one island nation not far from our land still has severe travel restrictions and remains currently outside of our reach. I’ll initially refer to this nation as “Never-Never-Land.”
Dolores and I spend the majority of each year in our adopted city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and being homeowners we have a document, FM 3, that allows us to spend 12 months in Mexico before renewing. Using this document we are able to obtain a travel permit/visa as Mexican residents to travel to “Never-Never-Land.” WOW! On April 10th we joined with Roberta Valdez, Director of Alegre Events and Tours, and 36 other travelers to do this very thing!
Departing PVR on Aeroméxico we arrived at Mexico City and made the transfer to the International Terminal to board our Mexicana Airbus 320 to “Never-Never-Land.” After a comfortable 2 ½ hour flight we arrived, passed customs and were transferred to our designation Hotel and a welcome cocktail party complete with multiple Mojito’s. That night we discovered that this location was the headquarters of the “Buena Vista Social Club” group and there was a dinner and show that evening. Guess what many of us did? You win!
Then we arrived at The Havana Craft Market. This was interesting, not so much for the variety of ‘goodies’ but for the way it was organized. The market consisted of a series of individual metal container equipped with a locking roll-up door for overnight security. Each was equipped with display tables and shelves for a variety of merchandise. Around the perimeter artists displayed there paintings and drawings for sale. All this was located within a covered warehouse structure that protected the market from the weather plus added additional security. Several of our travelers found there way back 2-3 occasions.
Close by we joined with others for a walking tour of Old Havana. Old Havana (La Habana Vieja) contains the core of the original city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the modern boundaries of Old Havana. It is one of the oldest settlements in the America's - full of charming, weatherworn buildings and narrow, intriguing roadways. The predominant style of architecture in the heart of Old Havana is what has become known as "tropical baroque" a simple, graceful combination of column, arch and volute born of the union of Spanish-Moorish (Mudejar) and Baroque influence from Southern Spain with Cuba building materials - mahogany, cedar, and coral limestone. La Habana Vieja, contains more than 900 important buildings, which are slowly being restored to their former glory. We strolled through the main shopping street in Old Havana (Calle Obispo), a long narrow street and the busiest street of Old Havana, with many restaurants, bars, and the famous hotel Ambos Mundos where Hemingway often stayed, ending at Plaza de Armas, where our guide pointed out a unique “cobble wood” street. Wooden disks, rather than cobblestones, were installed to mute the rattle of the many passing carriages doing business in the past. On the western edge of historic center of the city is the restaurant El Floridita, Hemingway’s favorite place for enjoying his Daiquiri’s, a cocktail that combines the Cuban rum, lemon juice, sugar, some drops of maraschino and frappe. Finally, the group split – some remaining in Old Town, some returning to the Craft Market and others back to the Hotel to rest a
nd prepare for an evening out at the restaurant or club of there choice.
After breakfast on our third day we boarded the Motor Coach for an all-day excursion to the Pinar Del Rio Province (northwest of Havana), the land reputedly where the best tobacco in the world is grown, the third largest province in the country, and more specifically the Valley of Vinales which is famous for its pincushion hills, called mogotes. The spectacular landscape features the most interesting and varied geological formations in the Caribbean, from carved limestone cliffs rising hundreds of feet and pockmarked with caves to agricultural vistas of green valleys and red-soil (iron oxidize) fields.
A visit to a cigar making facility took us through the hand rolling/density QA (airflow through the product/color matching/packaging and or boxing of the cigars then to the gift shop where we could make our purchases – including bottles of Havana Club Rum - the national replacement for Bacardi (no longer produced in Cuba).
Cuba has often been called the "Isle of Rum", due to a combination of world famous sugar cane, a favorable Caribbean climate, fertile soil and the unique know-how of Cuban master rum-makers. In the western end of Cuba (and the Valley of Vinales) can be found the Guayabita del Pinar tree. It grows nowhere else in the world. It is said that the local tobacco growers would take a drink of harsh aguardiente (brandy) in the mornings so that they could face the cold winter mornings in the plantations. Rather than drink the harsh brandy the local farmers in the mountains of Pinar developed a drink made from the fruit of the dwarf Guava tree, the Guayabita. This fruit was collected during the months of July and August from the eight foot tall trees and mixed with vanilla, sugar, caramel, distilled water and rum and soaked in oak chips and aged in old cedar barrels. It is surprisingly smooth and a unique addition to any rum collection.
The next day we visited the Bocoy Rum Factory on Avenida Máximo Gómez in Havana which was established in 1878. Ron Bocoy is a small rum distillery/bottle ling plant employing less that 25 persons. The “Oak Rum Cafe & Tobacco Store” shares the Bocoy facility and one of the great pleasures of a tour is at the end when the bottles are lined up and patrons can sample the different offerings. At the far end of the room, cigars are available for the aficionado to purchase. It is considered impolite to not make a purchase following a tour and sampling session but Cuban rum is inexpensive, and of high quality, and many packages were loaded onto the motor coach.
We also visited the Hemingway Museum located nine miles outside the city of Havana at Finca Vigía, or Lookout Farm, where Ernest Hemingway had made his home from 1939 to 1960, and where he had written seven books, including The Old Man and the Sea, A Moveable Feast and Islands in the Stream.
It was turned into a museum after his death in 1961 when his widow and fourth wife, Mary Welch, signed the house over to the Cuban government, along with the author's collection of books, photographs and letters, and drafts of his novels. Visitors are not allowed inside, but instead look at the rooms and their contents through open windows and doors. It is exactly as it was in 1960 when Hemingway left for America, unaware that he would never return. Also on-site is the boat, Pilar.
The final event was a motor coach trip to the beach resort of Varadero, the main sun and sand tourist destination in Cuba, with more than 20km of white sandy beaches. Varadero receives about 500,000 visitors per year and is primarily visited by European, Latin American and Canadian tourists.
A point of interest to me are the rest stops along the freeways. Most have a full scale restaurant, gift shop, and a Pina Colada Bar. You order a “Virgin” Pina Colada (sans rum) or they’ll give you one with rum and then set the bottle on the table in case you need more liquor. They also have booths supporting sales of misc tourist items, and cigars - and almost always there is a local band that strikes up ”Cuanta la Mera” (Guantanamera) upon arrival then pushes there latest CD for $10 CUC. You can also buy a variety of “munchies” refreschas and cervesa. Have a fun vacation at the rest stop and drive “happily” on…
Prior to this visit I talked with many persons who have commented very negatively on Cuban food. Most said that while they enjoyed the visit and the people that they felt the cuisine available was not good. As a result, Dolores and I were extremely surprised at the high quality/taste of the varying food experiences we encountered. The beef meals (steaks) were excellent, especially considering that beef is difficult to obtain for the average Cuban, the pork was very good, the seafood outstanding (several of us had the best lobster meal ever), and the overall quality of the meals was great.
The return to Puerto Vallarta was uneventful with the exception of wandering between Mexico City’s Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. That’s another story!
This was one of the most exciting trips Dolores and I have been on and should be on every traveler’s agenda!
Dolores and I spend the majority of each year in our adopted city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and being homeowners we have a document, FM 3, that allows us to spend 12 months in Mexico before renewing. Using this document we are able to obtain a travel permit/visa as Mexican residents to travel to “Never-Never-Land.” WOW! On April 10th we joined with Roberta Valdez, Director of Alegre Events and Tours, and 36 other travelers to do this very thing!
Departing PVR on Aeroméxico we arrived at Mexico City and made the transfer to the International Terminal to board our Mexicana Airbus 320 to “Never-Never-Land.” After a comfortable 2 ½ hour flight we arrived, passed customs and were transferred to our designation Hotel and a welcome cocktail party complete with multiple Mojito’s. That night we discovered that this location was the headquarters of the “Buena Vista Social Club” group and there was a dinner and show that evening. Guess what many of us did? You win!
Never-Never-Land, aka, Cuba “is the largest island of the West Indies group (equal in area to Pennsylvania), It is also the westernmost… and 90 mi south of Key West, Fla., at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The island is mountainous in the southeast and south-central area (Sierra Maestra). It is flat or rolling elsewhere.
Our destination was Hav
ana (Habana) the capital and largest city with a population 2,686,000 (metro. area), 2,343,700 (city proper). Our Hotel, the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, a 5 Star property, is an eight-story Spanish-style building that rises on a hill-top overlooking the Malecon, affording guests panoramic vistas of both the Old Town and Vedado district. It was once a site of pirate landings and a Cuban stronghold. Now the majestic gardens that surround the hotel are a place as formidable and welcoming that you could hope for to relax with a drink while enjoying a sweeping view of the Caribbean. The first evening’s cocktail hour was held in the Hotels Club de Golf that featured pictures of a guest-list crammed with such personalities as Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Keaton, Stan Musial, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and illustrious figures like Winston Churchill and the Duke of Windsor - a window to a bygone era of class and distinction.
The next day’s agenda found us taking a private motor coach City Tour. Havana exemplifies one of the finest Spanish colonial cities in the Americas. We visited the National Capitol, styled after the Panthéon (Paris), and looks similar to the U.S. Capitol. Across the street is the Gran Teatro de la Havana, the oldest operating theatre in the western hemisphere resplendent with an Angel on top. We viewed Havana’s main thoroughfare bustling with vintage 1950s taxis, and Parque Central, featuring a huge marble statue of Jose Marti, the Cuban hero and writer, then took pictures of the Plaza de Revolution with its 138 meter tower, again honoring Jose Marti and surrounded by high-rise buildings with iron murals (caricatures) of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, a popular leader in the revolution. 
Then we arrived at The Havana Craft Market. This was interesting, not so much for the variety of ‘goodies’ but for the way it was organized. The market consisted of a series of individual metal container equipped with a locking roll-up door for overnight security. Each was equipped with display tables and shelves for a variety of merchandise. Around the perimeter artists displayed there paintings and drawings for sale. All this was located within a covered warehouse structure that protected the market from the weather plus added additional security. Several of our travelers found there way back 2-3 occasions.
Close by we joined with others for a walking tour of Old Havana. Old Havana (La Habana Vieja) contains the core of the original city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the modern boundaries of Old Havana. It is one of the oldest settlements in the America's - full of charming, weatherworn buildings and narrow, intriguing roadways. The predominant style of architecture in the heart of Old Havana is what has become known as "tropical baroque" a simple, graceful combination of column, arch and volute born of the union of Spanish-Moorish (Mudejar) and Baroque influence from Southern Spain with Cuba building materials - mahogany, cedar, and coral limestone. La Habana Vieja, contains more than 900 important buildings, which are slowly being restored to their former glory. We strolled through the main shopping street in Old Havana (Calle Obispo), a long narrow street and the busiest street of Old Havana, with many restaurants, bars, and the famous hotel Ambos Mundos where Hemingway often stayed, ending at Plaza de Armas, where our guide pointed out a unique “cobble wood” street. Wooden disks, rather than cobblestones, were installed to mute the rattle of the many passing carriages doing business in the past. On the western edge of historic center of the city is the restaurant El Floridita, Hemingway’s favorite place for enjoying his Daiquiri’s, a cocktail that combines the Cuban rum, lemon juice, sugar, some drops of maraschino and frappe. Finally, the group split – some remaining in Old Town, some returning to the Craft Market and others back to the Hotel to rest a
nd prepare for an evening out at the restaurant or club of there choice.
After breakfast on our third day we boarded the Motor Coach for an all-day excursion to the Pinar Del Rio Province (northwest of Havana), the land reputedly where the best tobacco in the world is grown, the third largest province in the country, and more specifically the Valley of Vinales which is famous for its pincushion hills, called mogotes. The spectacular landscape features the most interesting and varied geological formations in the Caribbean, from carved limestone cliffs rising hundreds of feet and pockmarked with caves to agricultural vistas of green valleys and red-soil (iron oxidize) fields.
A visit to a cigar making facility took us through the hand rolling/density QA (airflow through the product/color matching/packaging and or boxing of the cigars then to the gift shop where we could make our purchases – including bottles of Havana Club Rum - the national replacement for Bacardi (no longer produced in Cuba).Cuba has often been called the "Isle of Rum", due to a combination of world famous sugar cane, a favorable Caribbean climate, fertile soil and the unique know-how of Cuban master rum-makers. In the western end of Cuba (and the Valley of Vinales) can be found the Guayabita del Pinar tree. It grows nowhere else in the world. It is said that the local tobacco growers would take a drink of harsh aguardiente (brandy) in the mornings so that they could face the cold winter mornings in the plantations. Rather than drink the harsh brandy the local farmers in the mountains of Pinar developed a drink made from the fruit of the dwarf Guava tree, the Guayabita. This fruit was collected during the months of July and August from the eight foot tall trees and mixed with vanilla, sugar, caramel, distilled water and rum and soaked in oak chips and aged in old cedar barrels. It is surprisingly smooth and a unique addition to any rum collection.
The next day we visited the Bocoy Rum Factory on Avenida Máximo Gómez in Havana which was established in 1878. Ron Bocoy is a small rum distillery/bottle ling plant employing less that 25 persons. The “Oak Rum Cafe & Tobacco Store” shares the Bocoy facility and one of the great pleasures of a tour is at the end when the bottles are lined up and patrons can sample the different offerings. At the far end of the room, cigars are available for the aficionado to purchase. It is considered impolite to not make a purchase following a tour and sampling session but Cuban rum is inexpensive, and of high quality, and many packages were loaded onto the motor coach.
We also visited the Hemingway Museum located nine miles outside the city of Havana at Finca Vigía, or Lookout Farm, where Ernest Hemingway had made his home from 1939 to 1960, and where he had written seven books, including The Old Man and the Sea, A Moveable Feast and Islands in the Stream.
It was turned into a museum after his death in 1961 when his widow and fourth wife, Mary Welch, signed the house over to the Cuban government, along with the author's collection of books, photographs and letters, and drafts of his novels. Visitors are not allowed inside, but instead look at the rooms and their contents through open windows and doors. It is exactly as it was in 1960 when Hemingway left for America, unaware that he would never return. Also on-site is the boat, Pilar.
The final event was a motor coach trip to the beach resort of Varadero, the main sun and sand tourist destination in Cuba, with more than 20km of white sandy beaches. Varadero receives about 500,000 visitors per year and is primarily visited by European, Latin American and Canadian tourists.
A point of interest to me are the rest stops along the freeways. Most have a full scale restaurant, gift shop, and a Pina Colada Bar. You order a “Virgin” Pina Colada (sans rum) or they’ll give you one with rum and then set the bottle on the table in case you need more liquor. They also have booths supporting sales of misc tourist items, and cigars - and almost always there is a local band that strikes up ”Cuanta la Mera” (Guantanamera) upon arrival then pushes there latest CD for $10 CUC. You can also buy a variety of “munchies” refreschas and cervesa. Have a fun vacation at the rest stop and drive “happily” on…Prior to this visit I talked with many persons who have commented very negatively on Cuban food. Most said that while they enjoyed the visit and the people that they felt the cuisine available was not good. As a result, Dolores and I were extremely surprised at the high quality/taste of the varying food experiences we encountered. The beef meals (steaks) were excellent, especially considering that beef is difficult to obtain for the average Cuban, the pork was very good, the seafood outstanding (several of us had the best lobster meal ever), and the overall quality of the meals was great.
The return to Puerto Vallarta was uneventful with the exception of wandering between Mexico City’s Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. That’s another story!
This was one of the most exciting trips Dolores and I have been on and should be on every traveler’s agenda!
