TRAVEL CubaAbsolutely Print Edition 2008

COOL DAYS, HOT NIGHTS
Parque Metropolitano
Text by Conner Gorry - Photographs by Sven Creutzmann

On a hot summer night a little riverside amphitheater thrums with a thousand voices, the sweaty, cathartic chorus reaching deep into the surrounding woods. While young punks and pretty debutantes perch in giant jacarandas for a bird’s eye view of the onstage party, Cuba’s future IM their friends about what they’re missing. And what they’re missing is historic.

HAVANA’s SEAFRONT LOUNGE
Outgoing, noisy, eclectic, and nearly seven kilometres long, Havana’s Malecón reveals much of the city’s character

Construction of the first stretch of the Malecón began on 6 May 1901, with beautiful lampposts placed along the sea wall. However, the battering of huge waves during the following Cuban winter caused the original design to be replaced by another, this time with no attachments to the wall. The works were finally completed in 1959.

SARATOGA REBORN
Text Silvia Gómez - Photographs courtesy of Saratoga Hotel

The oldest reference of what today is the elegant Saratoga Hotel dates back to 1879 when wealthy proprietor Gregorio Palacios signed a 98,000 gold peso contract with engineers José Fermín de Musquiz and Adolfo Suarí for the construction of a three-storey building. The first floor was set aside for stores and a tobacco storehouse, the second for homes, and the third for a hotel or a boarding.

BARACOA
"The most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen"
Text by Christopher Baker - Photographs by Sven Creutzmann

Baracoa, Cuba’s oldest city, is perfect for independent-minded travelers seeking somewhere just a little bit different. It has an atmosphere all its own. One as haunting in its fantastical unfamiliarity as it is enchanting in its beauty. The town’s setting seems fit for a Hollywood epic. Baracoa spreadeagles below a dramatic flat-topped formation—El Yunque (the anvil)—that floats mysteriously above the surrounding hills, forming a great amphitheater flowing down to the Bahía de Miel (Bay of Honey).

ROCK CLIMBING IN CUBA
One year after Fidel Castro came down from the Sierra Maestra Mountains to claim triumph for the Revolution, he declared: “The Revolution was the work of climbers and cavers." They, he said, had enabled his guerrilla forces to stay one step ahead of government troops. But climbing as a sport is lmost unheard of in Cuba. Armando Menocal wants to change that.
Text by Armando Menocal

In returning to Cuba to find my family roots, my guidebook described the western area of Cuba known as Viñales Valley as a “miniature Yosemite". Since Yosemite Valley in California is so popular with international rock climbers, and a place where I had climbed for 25 years, I couldn’t resist a detour to one of the island’s most beautiful destinations.

DIVE CUBA
Text By EricTesti

Cuba, “the key to the Gulf" and “pearl of the Caribbean" washes its shores on the Caribbean Sea to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Cuba is in fact an archipelago which includes more than 4,100 small coral cays and islets that emerge from an insular shelf of almost 70,000 square kilometres and contains over 200 bays and 300 beaches. Under the oceans surface lie impressive cliffs and valleys, 3,400 km of corals, endless caverns, many thousands of crustaceans and molluscs, more than 700 types of fish, 300 species of sponges, and no less than five different turtles not to mention the dolphins and sharks.

CUBA’s UNDERWATER TREASURES
Text by Diana Williams

Shipwrecks
Cuba has many historic wrecks and remnants—some very old, others much newer, and all have a story to tell. The attraction of Varadero’s waters has been increased fourfold by these wrecks. Barco Patrullero, built in 1945, was a Russian patrol ship used by Cuban Navy in the 1980’s. In the late 1990’s it took on another role as an artificial reef. It’s fascinating to visit. It still has its guns, surface-to-air missiles and smoke dispensers. Finning over the deck, it is easy to let your imagination run riot, and transport yourself back into the Cold War era. Close to Barco Patrullero is another sunken wreck—the Coral Negro, which served for a time as a restaurant and bar—and a small Russian AN 24 plane.

TEN BEST DIVES IN CUBA
Text by Eric Testi

Jardines de la Reina has established a reputation as one the best dive and fishing spots in th world. Isolation and environmental protection have enabled the marine park to thrive evidenced by the abundance of huge jewfish, barracuda, bull ray and tortoise not to mention reef sharks. The Avalon dive is for shark-junkies and in 25 meters with good visibility and very little underwater current it is common to see up to 20 reef sharks. Not for the faint hearted. www.avalon.com.

THE ULTIMATE CUBA ROAD TRIP
Cuba’s best travel writer provides details of the ultimate Cuba road trip
Text by Christopher Baker, Eric Testi Introduction to arriving in Cuba written by Tom Lucas Photographs, Sven Creutzmann

Cuba is made for tropical tourism: the diamond-dust beaches and bathtub-warm seas the color of peacock feathers; the bottle-green mountains and jade valleys full of dramatic formations; and the ancient cities, with their flower-bedecked balconies, rococo churches, and palaces and castles evocative of the once mighty power of Spain. There are the cabarets to visit, and mojitos and cuba libres to enjoy, and the world’s finest cigars to smoke fresh from the factory, as you rumble down the highway in a chrome-spangled ‘55 Cadillac to the rhythm of the rumba on the radio.