Author: Ryan Winfield

29 January 2014 (Day Six)
In the morning, we meet our guide for the next few days, Nancy Benitez , the former director of the City’s Conservation department and an active voice in preservation in the city.  We tour historic center of Trinidad, Cuba’s second UNESCO World Heritage site and a bastion of Caribbean vernacular earthen architecture.  We toured historic mansions now turned into museums, including the Palacio Cantero and the architecture museum, as well as public squares where pilot conservation projects have been carried out, and visits to a couple private homes representing all stages of preservation of the regional art and architecture.  After lunch at El Jigue, the group travelled to Manacas Iznaga historic sugar plantation, founded by Bayamo residents and comprising one of the most important sites in the rural southern coast of Cuba.  It’s part of the UNESCO world heritage site of Trinidad and the Valley of the Sugar Mills. After the tour, we ended day with a cocktail, la canchanchara, a drink made from honey, lime and aguardiente (brady) and made famous in the 1860s by Mambises, Cuban freedom fighters, who were battling Spain for Independence. We had the drink at a bar of the same name and which happens to be the oldest building in the city, dating from the early 17th century.
30 January 2014 (Day Seven)
Early in the morning, we departed Trinidad for the Caribbean colonial city of Cienfuegos. Before getting to the town, we stop along the way at the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden, which was founded by Harvard botanists in the very first years of the 20th century and home to more than 2000 species of plants on 240 acres of land just outside the city. After the gardens, we visited the historic center of Cienfuegos, guided by its chief preservation architect, Iran Millan.  During the tour, we visited the Parque Martí, center of the city, and see several important buildings including the 1889 Tomas Terry Theater, one of Cuba’s three exemplary 19th century regional theaters. After the tour, we had lunch in at Villa Lagarto, which sits at the end of the in the point that juts out into the Bay of Cienfuegos.  After we lunch, we departed Cienfuegos for Havana, but this time we were able to take Cuba’s one and only high speed roadway, the Autopista Nacional, which stretches from Havana to the small town of Taguasco in the center of the country and where it abruptly stops (ie the money ran out). Rarely is any traffic encountered on it, and we arrived at our hotel in Havana after a short four hour bus ride…made a little shorter after we “opened of the bar.”
31 January 2014 (Day Eight)
After many of us awakened to a view of the bright blue waters of the Straits of Florida outside the windows on the Malecόn side of our hotel, the Hotel Nacional, we began our time in Havana with a tour of the four main colonial plazas of Old Havana, Cuba’s first and most significant UNESCO World Heritage site, starting at the Plaza de Armas, where we will see the oldest Spanish fortress in the Americas, a Greco- Roman style Neo-classical temple that marks the spot where the first mass and town council meeting were held in 1519, and the Palace of the Captains Generals, seat of government from 1776-1930. From there we went to the Plaza de le Catedral before going to Plaza de Francisco and ending at the Plaza Mayor, where we had lunch at a restaurant called Santo Angel. After lunch, we went back to the hotel where we quickly freshen up for our visit to the residence of the Chief of Mission of the U.S. Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland, where we were received by the Chief of Mission (“Ambassador”), who updated on the current policy of the United States towards Cuba. We were then able to explain the nature of our trip and plans for future engagement with Cuban conservation professionals before posing for a photograph to commemorate the occasion.  To celebrate the gradual thawing of relations between our two countries and toast to future progress, the group after the reception retreated to El Floridita bar, where we partook in some liquid refreshment, much like Hemingway did when the bar was one of his favorite watering holes. Popularizing a drink known as the daiquiri by notoriously downing many of the cocktails himself, Hemmingway concocted her own preferred version, which calls for grapefruit instead of lime juice and maraschino liquor instead of simple syrup and which they still blend up batches of for tourists who come to pay homage to the author who now lends his name to the drink.  Dinner that night was at San Cristobal, one of the top private restaurants in the city.
1 February 2014 (Day Nine)
After a visit the Decorative Arts Museum, we took a walking tour of Centro Habana, which centered on the Parque Central area, stopping at such sites as the Capitolio, Hotel Inglaterra, Bacardi’s glazed terracotta-clad Art Deco headquarters, Sloppy Joe’s bar, and the Paseo del Prado—all of which shows the development which occurred outside the walls in the 19th century. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stop for a quick drink at the old Barcardi, where they do actually serve up rum-based drinks–none of which, it almost goes without saying, are made with liquor  under the label of the same name. However, that was okay, because we had to get to lunch at Ajiaco in the lovely little fishing town of Cojímar just outside the city. Cojímar is also home to Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s house, which we toured later that day.
2 February 2014 (Day Ten)
In the morning, we visited the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes with a tour of the Cuban modern art collections by one of the museum’s curators. The museum is in a striking modernist building which was completed in 1953 and exemplifies the combination of sculpture with architecture in Cuban mid-century modernism.  We then visited Havana’s Cementerio de Colόn. Laid out between 1871 and 1886, the cemetery includes more than 500 mausoleums, chapels and family vaults, sculpted in bronze, granite, marble and limestone by leading Cuban and European artists. After the cemetery, we went to the Plaza de la Revolucion before making our way to the hotel Riviera, a perfectly preserved masterpiece of mid-century modern architecture. To cap of our mid-20^th century-themed morning, we had lunch at paladar called Vista al Mar, which is in a beautiful oceanfront house overlook the Straits of Florida in Havana’s famed Miramar neighborhood. The rest of the afternoon, the group went to the craft market at Antiguos Almacenes San José or explored the city on their own. The group gathered at the paladar Atelier that night before going to Tropicana.
3 February 2014 (Day Twelve)
On our last full day in Cuba, we had a chance to visit the Cuba’s national art school, El Instituto Superior de Arte or “ISA.” Built in 1961 on the grounds of a former golf club, the school was one of the earliest and now recognized best public works projects begun by the Revolucion. A personal project of both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, the art school reflects the flush of utopian idealism that characterized the revolutionary movement at that moment in its history. Only later in the decade, when Cuba adopted a more Soviet-style functionalist approach, did the art schools begin their decline—all of which is detailed in the recent documentary “Unfinished Spaces.”  Because Cuba now allows artists and musicians to earn a living in hard currency (CUCs) abroad and keep most of it themselves, these professions have become some of the top professions in the country, making placements at the art school some of the most coveted in the country among its young people. This has brought about a resurgence for the school—not to mention, it also makes for great art, which you can buy from students at the school. After lunch at El Aljibe, known for its amazing roasted chicken, the afternoon was free for the group to spend on its own. Some took a ride in one of the old American convertibles from the 50s. Others took a dip in the hotel’s pool, and others who had not yet dropped from all the shopping thus far went to spend their remaining foreign currency. Dinner that night was in the famed paladar La Guarida, which in addition to being one of the oldest in Havana was also the set of the seminal masterpiece of Cuba cinema, Strawberry and Chocolate. Made in the early 90s, the film takes place in Havana, Cuba in 1979 and  tells the story of a growing friendship between a university student and a gay cultural functionary unhappy with the Castro regime’s treatment of the LGBT community as well as the censorship of culture.  The film fundamentally changed the way Cubans both inside and outside the government viewed their LGBT comrades, paving the way for the pro-LGBT reforms currently being considered in the government today.
4 February 2014 (Day Thirteen)
All good trips end far too soon, and ours ended early, early in the morning after we checked of the hotel and headed to the airport where we would spend a few hours before boarding a very short charter flight back to Miami and back to reality. Perhaps because of the time warp that is Cuba or the breakneck pace that is our modern, American way of life, our time on the island, though impossible to forget, would soon become a distant memory. As sad as this may sound, it is kind of the way most trips to this place go. The saving grace in this is that it just makes it easier to return, and return often, each and every time.

From Jan. 24 to Feb. 4 a group of 19 AIC members went on a research trip to Cuba.  Over the next week we will be posting about our experiences. Below is an account of  days 3-5. Join us on our journey.
26 January 2014 (Day Three)
In the morning, we toured Santa Efigenia Cemetery, a necropolis second only to Havana’s Cristóbal Colón in importance. Created in 1868 to accommodate the victims of the War of Independence and a simultaneous yellow-fever outbreak, it includes many great historical figures among its more than 8,000 tombs, most notably the mausoleum of José Martí, the intellectual author of Cuban independence. Marti’s imposing tomb is positioned so that his flag-draped casket receives daily shafts of sunlight. A round-the-clock guard of the mausoleum is changed every 30 minutes, amid much pomp and ceremony. Other notable Cubans buried at Santa Efigenia include Cuba’s first president Tomás Estrada Palma (1835–1908); Emilio Bacardí (1844–1922) of the famous rum dynasty; the Spanish soldiers who died in the battles of San Juan Hill; and Compay Segundo (1907–2003), of Buena Vista Social Club fame. Afterward, we toured the Moncada Barracks, a 1938 military garrison where on July 26, 1953, more than 100 revolutionaries led by a little-known revolutionary named Fidel Castro took on Batista’s troops in a spectacularly failed action that also happened to spark the Cuban revolution. Housing a museum which commemorates both Santiago’s most famous political event and the beginnings of the Revolution, the building contains a scale model of the barracks plus artifacts, diagrams, and models of the revolution. After lunch at Aurora, we visited one of Santiago’s most important and best kept museums: the Carnival museum. Then the group went to see San Juan Hill. Later, some of us took salsa “lessons” at the Casa de la Trova. It was more like a crash course, which when out on the dance floor became for some of us more like train wreck. We at least got in our exercise that day, which was helpful to counter the mojitos we had begun to down twice daily. A dinner, we gathered again at the Trova (the scene of the crime from the afternoon) for more music and this time a lot less dancing.

27 January 2014 (Day Four)
We left Santiago early in the morning, stopping first for a visit to the Basilica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre, or “El Cobre,” which is a 1926 church near a copper mining town that honors Cuba’s patron saint—La Virgin de la Caridad del Cobre. This beautiful church sits in a beautiful valley, and as befitting a church dedicated to a patron saint, the church is a place of pilgrimage for many Cubans. It also became a place of pilgrimage for us as well. Yudi, our Cuban logistical coordinator for the trip, suggested we all light a candle for the renewed relationship between our two countries, and regardless of whether we were religious or not, each of us lit one. It will take more than lighting a candle to finally end the embargo, but at least for now, we could recognize the thaw in our relations that has occurred so far and not focus so much on the long road of diplomatic work we have before us. Leaving El Cobre and our flickering candles behind, we headed for another place of pilgrimage for Cubans—this one more secular in nature. Bayamo, the second of the seven cities founded by Diego Velazquez in Cuba in 1513, has a town center that dates from 19th century. It also happens to be not only the birthplace of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the general who led the Cuban war of independence against Spain but also the birthplace of Cuba’s national anthem, the “La Bayamesa,” which at regular intervals can heard blaring across the loud speakers positioned in the main square. After visiting the church where the anthem was first performed, we had lunch at a restaurant called La Bodega, which was right behind the church and overlooked a lush ravine with a shallow stream. From there we made our way to our accommodations that night on the beautiful Playa Santa Lucia, a beachside hotel that is the only place near Camaguey with enough lodging for a group of our size. Very few groups on cultural visits see these resorts, which are mostly filled with Canadians escaping brutal winters up North, and this became apparent by the quality of the back road we used to get there (something tells me the one directly from the nearby airport is much smoother). Thankfully, our guides were prepared for the journey and “opened the bar” on the bus, which made the ride a little smoother if not “jovial.”

28 January 2014 (Day Five)
In the morning, we traveled to Camaguey, a UNESCO World Heritage city founded in 1528. Sacked by the pirate Henry Morgan in the 17th century, an effort was made to confuse future marauders by rebuilding the city with an unusual labyrinthine city plan, which we navigated with the help of bicitaxi drivers who took us around the historic center, accompanied by the staff of the city’s conservation training facility and architectural preservation team. After a delicious lunch in Camaguey at La Campana de Toledo, we left for the colonial city of Trinidad, where we stayed in what are known as casas particulares or, as we would call them, “bed and breakfast.” After dinner at our Casas Particulares, we gathered for an evening of music at Trinidad’s own Casa de la Trova.

Keep tuned for more blog posts on this amazing trip…

From Jan. 24 to Feb. 4 a group of 19 AIC members went on a research trip to Cuba.  Over the next week we will be posting about our experiences. Below is an account of the first two days. Join us on our journey.
24 January 2014 (Day One)
Having flown in from various (mostly snowy) places the day before, the group of 21 members and staffers gathered in the lobby of the Sofitel Miami in the early morning hours (4am!)  to board shuttle buses that would take us to the airport. It would be a short flight–only an hour–but where we were going would be a world away from where we were. Santiago de Cuba, our destination, sits on the eastern side of the island of Cuba, a mere 500 miles from the shores of South Beach, Florida, and with a population of almost 500,000 is its second largest city also capital of a province of the same name. One of the first seven cities founded in Cuba and older than Havana itself, Santiago is surpassed only by nearby Baracoa and Bayamo in age and is home to many of Cuba’s most famous historical sites.
After arriving at Antonio Maceo International Airport–named for the famous general of the Cuban-Spanish wars of the latter 19^th century—we quickly passed through passport control with little more than a smile and a welcome-to-Cuba-I-hope-you-enjoy-your-visit nod to our American passports. After meeting our Cuban guides and boarding our Havanatur bus, we immediately headed out to Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca. Known more commonly as El Morro, the castillo (or “fortress”) is a picturesque fortification from the 16th century that sits about 6 miles south of the city and guards the Bay of Santiago. Inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997, it is considered the best preserved example of Spanish New World military installations as based on Renaissance principles. It affords some outstanding views, too!

After lunch on the site, we checked in at the Melia Hotel, a post-modern style Spanish chain hotel that towers over the city to the east of historical center. As we had all been up so early in the morning, we gather later for a light dinner at the hotel, and then we debated about going out to experience some of Santiago’s greatest cultural heritage: its musical traditions. Thankfully, after a mojito or two, there were enough festive travelers who were keen to explore the city’s music, which is part of its complex and layered cultural blending. So using a tip from a local, we decided to check out the club Patio de Los Dos Abuelos, a small open-air place where a few locals and tourists freely mixed, dancing (some better than others) under the night sky. A resident band Son del Tres was playing, and after a few impromptu lessons from the bandleader, we joined in the whirling fun. As the birthplace of many extraordinary musical traditions given to the world, Santiago de Cuba is truly the best place to experience them.  Some of the country’s best musicians, including Buena Vista Social Club members Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Eliades Ochoa, and even the Cuban American bandleader Desi Arnaz, hail from the city.

25 January 2014 (Day Two)
After feasting on a huge breakfast buffet at the hotel, which caters mostly to European tourists and consequently had a Cuban take on everything from churros to crepes, we went to the office of the historian of the city, where we listened to an introduction to the city. After the lecture, we began our walking tour of Santiago’s historic center, guided by the city’s historian and chief preservation architect. After the tour, we had lunch in the historic center at Los Primos Twice, a great paladar (or private restaurant) where we feasted on shrimp in creole sauce and pork in sweet and sour sauce, as well as the haunting, beautifully sung songs of Chely Romero, a mainstay of the Santiago music scene. After lunch, the Archbishop of Santiago hosted our group at the city cathedral to learn more about the restoration work going on there and in the diocese’s other churches undertaken by a joint Cuban-Italian team. The work they are doing is a rare example of successful conservation being done outside the government system. Dinner that night was at Compay Gallo.


Keep tuned for more blog posts on this amazing trip….