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I’M BEING SPONTANEOUSLY SERENADED in one of the most seductive cities I’ve ever visited.

On the patio of the grand, colonial-style Hotel Inglaterra in Havana, a man in his mid-fifties belts out a song with one hand on my shoulder, the other to his heart. His band set up out of nowhere as I sat sipping my cerveza—a temporary escape from the hot, thick heat—and trying to read my guidebook’s synopsis of Cuba’s complex history and politics. The Latin overture is distracting, to say the least. Locals and tourists alike stop to listen. I don’t understand a word my suitor is saying, but I smile back at him and buy his CD. He leaves me with two kisses on the cheek, and just as quickly as they set up, his band is gone.

I wander aimlessly between plazas along the cobblestone streets of romantic Old Havana, with its diverse museums and vendors selling roasted peanuts, antique books and posters. People beckon me into shops, restaurants and Hemingway’s old haunts, all within the walls of the polished colonial architecture.

This restored part of the city is a stark contrast to the weathered (and occasionally downright dilapidated) buildings outside the pedestrian barriers. Even so, my favourite part is walking down the streets that branch out, past open doors to independent studios and welcoming hole-in-the-wall cafés. Locals call out to ask me where I’m from. “Canada,” I tell them—it’s a popular response.

In the last couple of years, Cuba has been experiencing a surge in tourism. As relations with the U.S. are improving, tourists from around the world seem to be flocking to the Caribbean island. And when I meet up with my travel companions for the week, some coming from as far as Australia and South Africa, the feeling is: we’re here just in time, before the large wave of

CUBA

IN A SWIRL OF MUSIC, PRIDE AND BREATHTAKING LANDSCAPES, CUBA PERSEVERES—AND CONTINUES TO SWEEP TOURISTS OFF THEIR FEET

WORDS BY LAUREN JEROME PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN PATTERSON

Rhythm Romance

ofthe

OFF SHORE The beaches remain a major draw, but there is so much more than sand and sun

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Americans. It’s a sentiment that’s been around for a while. The fear is that the culture is going to be disrupted, the time vault cracked.

Our guide for the week, Havana native Lucy Napoles, tells me that she sees this thinking in many of her groups—tourists are always asking her when the change is coming. “[They] think that Cuba is going to change very quickly—that we’re going to lose everything that we have created up to this moment: our Cuba. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Change is slow.”

The country is experiencing shifts from within. It now has Wi-Fi, available in certain hot spots. Small private businesses are allowed to operate, giving rise to casas particulares (homestays) and wonderful

local restaurants serving up more rice and beans, pork, chicken and lobster than anyone could possibly eat in one sitting.

Even so, this is still a communist country. A couple hours’ drive outside of Havana, we stop at a small tobacco farm in Pinar del Río province. Under the thatched roof of the drying hut, Benito, a farmhand with a cowboy hat, a wide smile and a hatchet tucked into the back of his worn jeans, gives us a rundown of the farm’s operations. “Ninety per cent for the government, 20 per cent for me,” he says, laughing, and continues on about the farm’s processes. He sits to expertly roll a cigar (the first of many that we’ll see on this trip) and offers it up.

When we arrive in Viñales, we’re greeted by a group of women and each led to our casas particulares. The streets are lined with brightly painted homes, each unique and endearing. With their doors open, locals sit in rocking chairs watching the slow-paced world go by, mogotes, or dome-like

hills, in the backdrop. The majority of the homes here serve as bed-and-breakfast-type accommodations, renting out a room or two. In the morning, our host asks how we want our huevos, has coffee ready in mugs and serves us a feast of fruit, pancakes, ham and cheese. From the third-floor balcony, she calls out to a vendor who rides through town singing his offerings. She runs down to buy fruit—mangos, guava, bananas.

LIFE AND TIMES Clockwise from top left:

a vintage car cruises through Havana; artfully

plated grilled lobster; rural views of mogotes in Viñales; a tobacco

farmer in Viñales

CUBA

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GIVE PAUSE Outside

Café Paris in Old Havana

THE COUNTRY IS EXPERIENCING SHIFTS FROM WITHIN. IT NOW HAS WI-FI, AVAILABLE IN CERTAIN HOT SPOTS. SMALL PRIVATE BUSINESSES ARE ALLOWED TO OPERATE.

www | For more information on what to do and see in Havana, Viñales and Las Terrazas, visit caamagazine.ca

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During the day we hike up to explore caves and stop for fresh coconuts at a farm surrounded by pineapple fields. At night, we set up at an outdoor nightclub, where I enviously watch couples swirl in salsa rhythm. No mojito in the world could make me sway like that.

On a day trip from Villa María la Gorda, a casual resort renowned among divers, we make our way to the country’s westernmost point. In between snorkelling trips and a sunset cruise, Abel Sosa Prieto takes us through the Península de Guanahacabibes national park, pointing out bee hummingbirds (the smallest birds in the world), iguanas and bats in caves. He runs after crabs and picks us limes. He is a specialist in ecotourism and an agriculture engineer, and has 12 years of experience at the national park. He’s working on his master’s in environmental education. And every day, he tells us, he hitchhikes three hours to work.

Our last stop before heading back to Havana is idyllic Las Terrazas, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with sweeping views from what seem to be infinite lookout points. Around a serene lake are open studios, small jewelry stores and humble restaurants. And every once in a while, someone whizzes by overtop on a zipline course.

That night, I sit with Lucy at Hotel Moka, a stunning eco resort overlooking the village. A firefly flashes by. As a child, she and her father would catch them during blackouts, a result of Cuba’s economic crisis in the ’90s, when everything, including electricity, was strictly rationed. Things are changing, but the country still needs better infrastructure, better services, she says. But that change shouldn’t alter the national identity. “We don’t want to spoil our culture: that we are Cubans, that we have always survived.”