EXPLORE
TASTE
REFLECT
CREATE
The sun glints off the 1950s chrome fins of the bouncing
bubblegum pink Cadillac as it bumps along Havana’s
seaside promenade. Salsa music pumps out of the
radio and drifts up into the salty air lingering enticingly
against an architectural score of sundae-hued columns,
stone curlicues, and crested windows. This magnificent
architectural facade, a jumbled multicoloured homage
to neo-classical, art nouveau, art deco and modernist
buildings, wraps eight kilometres along the Atlantic sea
road, the Malecón, where the wind whips up the waves
on breezy days and sprays the classic American cars and
passing locals with a salty net.
Cuban music is said to be
rooted in the cabildos, a
social club favoured by
Africans on the island in
the 1800s and influenced
by a new religion,
Santeria, which sprang
up around the same time.
Today, son is the most
popular, a combination
of rhythm and classic
guitar. Cuban music is
also intrinsically tied to
dance, with the mambo,
salsa and rumba all
originating here.
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (BORACOA, WALL TILES); COBRIS (MUSICIAN)
Cuba has much to offer to
visitors, a fascinating mix
of history and burgeoning
modernity, as this aerial
view of Baracoa shows
A B O V E R I G H T:
A man plays music in
the street, adding to the
soundtrack of the country
U N D E R T H E B A N YA N T R E E
MUSICAL ROOTS
01/06
2016
In the late afternoon, as I amble under the arches, I spy
Habaneros heading for the seawall, known locally as ‘the gran
sofa’. It’s where the Cuban capital’s residents — young and old
— come to lie down, love, laugh, drink rum, gossip and dream.
Cubans have been dreaming a lot this last year. After
more than 50 years of political stalemate, US President
Obama and Cuba’s President Raúl Castro agreed to a thaw,
ushering in a period of normalisation of the relationship
between these two neighbours on either side of the Florida
straits. The former foes have struck a new deal and Cuba is on
the verge of change. Raúl Castro kickstarted the sickly Cuban
economy in late 2010 and permitted greater private enterprise
within Cuba’s socialist paradigm. This new lease of life has
transformed the dining, shopping and the accommodation
experience, in particular.
When I first visited Cuba in the late 1990s, Cuba was
a culinary backwater; there was scarcely a vegetable in
sight. Fast forward to 2015 and private restaurants (known
as paladares) are flourishing in many cities, popular beach
resorts and nature havens. Inside the 1914 home of chef
Carlos Cristóbal Márquez Valdés, who has worked in kitchens
around the world, the walls are adorned with gorgeous
art nouveau tiles, old album sleeves and black and white
photos. Diners at his Paladar San Cristóbal sit down to tuck
into steak, grilled snapper, ceviche, plump salads, a banana
liqueur tipple and a cigar for every diner.
Meals like this in private restaurants are worlds away
from the Cuba of yesteryear. Just a couple of blocks north
in Centro Habana, Paladar La Guarida, is a new rooftop bar
where punters sip minty mojitos and sit back inside a giant
ornate picture frame while what little electricity there is in
this residential district of Havana illuminates the rooftops.
The ornate picture frame sofa is the
start of an innovative design scene.
In 2015, Cuba’s very first design store,
Clandestina, opened in Old Havana
joining a store that opened four years
ago, Piscolabis, that is known locally
for its extremely stylish products
made from recycled goods. In summer
2016, a new concept store will open
on the Malecón.
Most visitors to Cuba see it as
freeze-framed: trapped in amber and
stuck 50 years in the past. It’s more
complicated than first appearances
belie, and even second, third and
fourth. Nothing in Cuba is what it
seems. Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution
is still sold to the Cubans, peddled
through TV programmes, propaganda
messages on billboards, international
socialism and through a diet of
rationed food, free healthcare and
education. But Cuba is so much more
than its political system and a journey
through the country is the only
sure way to learn about its culture,
rich percussive music, Afro-Cuban
religions, the legacy of its sugar wealth,
its rum cocktails, beautiful verdant
landscapes, chocolate, coff