February 2017

Cuba is a feast...

The terrible attacks at the Bataclan and other Parisian partying spots had the unexpected consequence of giving a new success to Hemingway's book A Portable feast adapted in French under the title Paris is a feast. It must be remembered that around 1925, when American bigots (watch where my eye rest) had succeeded in forbidding any sale of alcohol in their country, a great number of American writers, painters, poets had exiled themselves to Paris: I recommend you see the picture of that era painted by Woody Allen in his magnificent "Midnight in Paris". Among these great men, Ernest Hemingway, who wrote his first novels there; a few years later, he chose a different exile in a country which also was, in another way, a feast: Cuba; he lived there for more than twenty years, wrote the main part of his work there and received there the Nobel Prize of Literature.

And as far as partying is concerned, he was a specialist ! The two most visited places in Havana (to the extent of having become almost inaccessible) are two bars-restaurants, the Floridita, where it is said he order, his daiquiris by the bucket, and the Bodeguita del Medio where he drank his mojitos, while his boat, the Pinar was anchored off the small fishing port of Cojimar and near by his splendid villa perched on a hill, the Finca Vigia; All places where one feels the memory of the immense writer.

It was at Bodeguita del Medio that last night we ended our three-week stay in Cuba, on the second floor, in the small, welcoming restaurant, to the sound of one of those countless bands of Cuban music whom we applauded along our three week journey aboard a magnificent Mercury Monterrey 1956. A coming film will tell you about this journey : Santiago de Cuba the city of "Son" music; Baracoa welcoming despite the damage caused by a recent cyclone; Holguin, Trinidad (with love at first sight on the way, for the pretty little town of Sancti Spiritus), Cienfuegos, without forgetting the breathtaking scenery of the Mogotes of the valley of Viñales.

An unforgettable trip, all summed up, a number of mojitos and a few daiquiris (it must be said that here a bottle of rum costs less than 5 dollars, and a mojito in a bar from 1 to 3 euros... some people abuse it a bit !) But especially landscapes, cities, and incredibly welcoming people in spite of the economic difficulties: we have lodged exclusively in casas particulares , hostals, as it is the most direct way to make the Cubans benefit from income from tourism, and I recommend it to you warmly.

I am sending you this message from Panama, which we have just reached (I already have the hat) to return to spend a few days with the Guna ( ex Kuna) Indians of the San Blas Islands, then in Cartagena and Providencia (in Colombia) and in the Dominican Republic, before returning to France. We embrace you and we wish you a fervent month of February.

Antoine