A People-to-People Tour of Cuba: A Journey Focused on Arts & Culture

Cuba is rich with lush grass and turquoise coastline. Imposing fortresses rise above the entrance of Havana Bay. Fishermen stand on the seawall bordering the Malecón and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. High-rises in Vedado cast a contemporary ambiance, contrasting the renovated colonial architecture of Old Havana. You arrive at Jose Marti International Airport, where your private transfer waits to greet you at baggage claim. The pulse is enchanting and quickly sweeps you up in its vibrancy. Outside of the airport, the buildings have a Caribbean flare, each painted pastel colors that stand out from the emerald grass and dangling palm fronds.

You venture to the suburb of Havana known as San Francisco de Paula, home to Ernest Hemingway between 1939 and 1960. During those 21 years, the famous American writer produced two of his award-winning novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. The windows and doors of the home are opened for visitors to peek inside of the residence. The home holds approximately 9,000 books positioned somewhere in each room, including the bathroom. Trophies from Africa protrude from the wall. Hemingway’s typewriter remains still, positioned on a standing desk. The preservation is complete enough to convey the impression that the writer may have left minutes earlier.

In the morning, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee lingers throughout the lobby of your hotel. The music of the city travels down the cobblestone streets of Old Havana, emanating from burgeoning restaurants and charming cafes. After breakfast, an urban planner and architect meet with you to help illuminate the lavish past, along with the more frugal contemporary history of the architectural splendor around the old city. The conversation leads to a hopeful future restoring the remainder of the buildings around the historic city center. Outside, you have a new understanding and view of the architecture, noticing the romantic beauty of the crumbling facades alongside the gilded, newly renovated structures.

Make your way along the cobbled streets and through the open plazas during your walking tour of Havana. Sporadic vendors cart large flat-topped wagons carrying mounds of fruit. The Spanish founded Plaza Vieja in the mid 16th century. It was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. A fountain at the heart of the plaza rises above four encircling dolphins. Bands strum their guitars, tap the bongos, and produce a jovial atmosphere with their music. Plaza de San Francisco acted as the harbor front of the city during the colonial era. Galleons would unload and refill their stock along the edges of the waterfront. The white Carrara marble fountain has stood at the heart of the square since the 19th century.

In the morning, the sunlight washes over the boulevards and avenues of Old Havana. Watching vintage American cars glide past colonial buildings is an unforgettable image and one that signifies classic Cuba. Your private transfer meets you after breakfast and escorts you down the Malecón. The Atlantic Ocean splashes against the seawalls. Couples stroll down the walkway holding hands. Groups of friends relax in the bright sun and sit on the wall. The urban streets fade to open rural beauty. Tall grass spreads to hills. Intermittent cows graze on the lush landscape. Horses trot along the narrow streets pulling buggies filled with produce. The farmland gives way to the jungle-clad mountains.

You arrive in Las Terrazas, an eco-community located in the hills of the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve. The reserve covers 103 square miles of terrain and supports a high concentration of flora and fauna. Walk through the village center with a community leader to learn about the commitment of the community and its history, dating back to the 1960s. Locals have reforested the region after decades of devastating reforestation. Residents show you the medical clinic, along with an artist’s studio overlooking the lake. Ziplines run through the canopy, providing exquisite views of the emerald colors of the reserve, along with the tree canopy reflecting in the lake’s surface. The nearby grounds of an 18th-century coffee plantation continue to enchant visitors with its remaining visible grandeur.

In the morning, the Tocororo, Cuba’s state bird, calls out in the tree canopy. If you look closely, you can see the blue crown and red belly standing out from the jade leaves surrounding it. The Tocororo can grow up to eleven inches from beak to tail. After breakfast, you venture into the Vinales Valley. Mogotes, limestone mounds that rise singularly out of the plains, contain extensive cave networks. Tobacco leaves grow out of the fertile soil, overtaking the fields. Farmers chew on thick cigars and use large oxen to help till the land.

The red soil shines beneath the thriving tobacco plants. Meet with a farmer to learn about the importance of tobacco in Cuban trade, along with the ways to cultivate the plant. A tall thatched-rood building contains the drying leaves. The aroma is rich and earthy. The farmer offers to roll you a cigar at the end of your tour. If you prefer, you can follow along in the process, learning the methods of Cuban cigar rolling straight from the source. At lunch, you meet with an organic farm that leads the community agricultural society. The relaxed ambiance of Vinales, along with the mineral rich soil, adds to the complex splendor of the valley.

Today you return Havana to meet with the artists that continue to encapsulate and capture the culture of Havana. The city quickly reminds you of its seemingly endless rhythm. Classic cars cruise around Central Park. Painters find shade along the paved walkway of Paseo del Prado, adorned with two bronze lions looking inward towards the city center. Visit with members of the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, an important factor in maintaining the celebrated culture of the country and Havana. The committee hosts music, dance, film, painting, and sculpture exhibits, along with providing a gallery/performance space for local artists of all types inside a converted cooking-oil factory in the Vedado district.

It is common to hear citizens in the heat of spirited debate while sipping cocktails or coffee. The scent of paint and roasted coffee beans lingers in the gallery. In the neighborhood of Jaimanitas, the “Cuban Picasso,” Jose Antonio Rodriguez Fuster, has turned the streets into a living art piece. Ceramic statues, colorful mosaics, cartoonish murals provide life to the neighborhood, making every square-foot you walk through an interactive gallery. You can even visit the artist’s eccentrically decorated home, which contains a style reminiscent of Spanish architect Antonin Gaudi.

Cuba is known for being frozen in time, from its colonial architecture to the cars you have watched driving through the streets daily. After breakfast, you meet with a group looking forward to Cuba’s future. The government sponsors the National Center for Sex Education, which among its many missions, advocates tolerance for LGBT issues on the island. You meet with a member of the committee inside a cozy room at the heart of the city. The cordial meeting feels more like a conversation where questions and answers pass freely between people.

Your voice bounces off the stucco walls. In the background, you catch the sound of cars rumbling by. The committee member talks about the importance of speaking out. You feel immersed in Havana culture, going beyond the beauty of the facades and into the heart of what the people believe. After lunch, you continue to the headquarters of Granma, the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. The paper was named after the yacht that carried 81 rebels to Cuban shores in the 1950s, including Fidel Castro.

The paper was founded in 1965 and has included six pages of news, front, and back, since its inception. The conversation with journalists at the paper takes a different tone than the meeting with the committee member of Cenesex. The colloquial ambiance is more relaxed but includes questions that feel more pointed. The newspaper regularly includes speeches by prominent members of the government, including Raul Castro, along with developments in Latin America and world politics.

Artists in Cuba express the daily life of the people and capture the movement of Havana as they see it. The city returns to life in the morning, with horses circling Parque Central. The music in the park returns with crowds eager to dance underneath the bright sunlight. After breakfast, you spend the day exploring the different types of art on display in the city, beginning with the Museum of Fine Arts. Your art historian guide meets you in front of the 20th-century edifice. Galleries display the Cuban artwork between the 17th and 19th centuries, spanning a spectrum of topics from landscapes to religion.

In the 1970s, the style of Hyperrealism predominated. Each floor in the museum has a unique theme dedicated to colonial art, modern art, and contemporary art. In the afternoon, you meet with a local Afro-Cuban dance group for a private performance. Cuban spirit fuels the movements, accentuating the amalgamation of cultures, turning sophisticated technique into a language of itself. Each member of the group brings new experiences, feelings, intentions, and movement. The elegance creates raw emotion telling the entire history of Cuba.

For something to consider on the morning of your last day, the cupola of the Capital Building creates the skyline of Old Havana. The dome resembles that of the Capital in Washington D.C., which the Cuban building took as its design inspiration. Traces of former American life fill the old city, along with elements of Spanish colonialism and Caribbean vibrancy. Antique cannons sit at the edge of the crowning beauty of Hotel Nacional de Cuba. The structure stands atop a small ridge. A nuclear bunker, a remaining artifact of the Cuban Missile Crisis, cuts into the hill. A stone path leads to the open door. From the top of the ridge, you can look out to the indigo water beyond the Malecón.

Your private transfer meets you at your hotel and escorts you to Jose Marti International Airport in time to check-in for your flight home. You have stepped beyond the remnants of the past and experienced the grace and gregariousness of the people.