Leila Sales

I have wanted to go to Cuba for years– possibly since I first saw The Buena Vista Social Club, and definitely since I first saw Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. So when my mother and I were able to secure visas through her job, we were SO IN.

We just got back a week or two ago. Here’s some of what we saw in Havana:

Me and Ernest Hemingway, at the Floridita, the bar that claims to have invented the mojito

Lots of fabulous cars from the Fifties.

Gorgeous sunset from the balcony of a restaurant where we ate dinner.

The Malecon, the road that runs along the sea.

Ice cream from Havana’s famous ice cream shop, Coppelia. (I mean, don’t I find ice cream wherever I go? There’s a reason why the characters in PAST PERFECT are ice cream connoisseurs.)

Ernest Hemingway’s study. (I have such bookshelf envy!)

The Tropicana, which is this famous Havana club since the 1930s. Think Las Vegas show meets the jazz age meets… well, Cuba.

The Caribbean Sea!

I took a lot more photos than these, but this starts to give some sense. It’s a beautiful place but quite poor– it’s very different from anyplace else I have ever traveled, and it’s hard to sum up in a few lines. It was a little challenging to be a tourist there because the food is not what I’m accustomed to, and it is very hot (or at least it is in June). But really, really fascinating from a cultural and political perspective. I recommend going. Especially if you’re creepily obsessed with Hemingway, which I clearly am. I mean, I took photos of the man’s closet.