– Cuba

Seven travel bloggers’ best literary travel stories

by
Hans Christian Andersen House, Odense

There are thousands of literary travel destinations all around the world. Visiting them can enhance your understanding of an author’s work – not to mention blow out your travel budget and to be read list on new books! – but not all of them are equally worth your time and hard-earned cash. So how do you know which places you should add to your bucket list, and which are best visited in your imagination? In this post, seven travel bloggers have taken the time to tell you about their experiences with some of the world’s best literary destinations.

Review: The Passion According to Carmela – Marcos Aguinis

by
The Passion According to Carmela - Marcos Aguinis

In the growing tensions of 1950s Cuba, Carmela Vasconcelos leaves behind a comfortable middle-class existence to join her brother, Lucas, as a rebel in the relatively-unknown Fidel Castro’s forces. Marcos Aguinis’ The Passion According to Carmela (AmazonCrossing, translated from Spanish by Carolina de Robertis) tracks her path through the coming Revolution, and her romantic involvement with fellow-revolutionary, Ignacio Deheza, who has travelled from Argentina to join the cause. As these twin passions burn bright, Carmela finds herself that bears little resemblance to the one she has left behind.

Finca Vigia, Havana, Cuba

by
Hemingway's Finca Vigia, Havana, Cuba

There are a range of places in Cuba with a connection to Ernest Hemingway, and his deep connection to the country is well known. Nowhere is this more apparent than his home, Finca Vigia, on the outskirts of Havana. It was here that Hemingway completed his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, about the Spanish Civil War, and wrote the entirety of The Old Man and the Sea.

El Floridita, Havana, Cuba

by
El Floridita, Havana, Cuba

Situated on Calle Obispo, one of the busiest streets in Old Havana, El Floridita’s success can be attributed, at least in part, to the patronage of Nobel Prize-winning author, Ernest Hemingway, whose seat at the bar remains reserved for him more than 50 years after his death. Although the bar was already popular by the time Hemingway arrived, the author was driven less by its reputation, and more by something a little more urgent: he needed to use the restroom.