House Rentals in Cuba: The history of Hemingway and Havana

At Oct 04, 2019

In 1934, Hemingway bought a boat called Pilar and began to sail through the waters of the Caribbean Sea. After a short stay in Cayo Hueso and a journey as a journalist, scriptwriter and collaborator that kept him immersed in two of the most relevant political and social processes of his time: the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, the North American writer navigates towards Cuban waters and find your best accommodation in Havana, in the Ambos Mundos Hotel, located in the Historic Quarter of the city. At that time (1939) he was going through his separation with Pauline Pfeiffer, after he met journalist and writer Martha Gellhorn, in 1936. Get for one of our rental properties in Cuba y explore the most representative places of the island. Enjoy our house rentals in cuba and have a dream stay.

House Rentals in Cuba — Fidel Castro and Ernest Hemingway

Shortly after his arrival in the least of the Antilles, he goes to life in one of the best rental properties in Cuba together with Gellhorn: Finca Vigía, a 61,000 m² rural house located on the outskirts of the Cuban capital. The couple established their winter residence there and the famous writer filled it with cats. There were dozens of them in their lands and he enjoyed his company very much. In Finca Vigía, Hemingway wrote part of what was the first famous novel: For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). The work sold half a million copies in a few months and was the definitive step for the establishment of his reputation as a writer, thanks to a nomination he received for the Pulitzer Prize.

After a short stay in China he returned to Cuba, accompanied by Martha, who had been sent there to fulfill a journalistic mission. The island was on the verge of war with the United States and the writer convinced the Cuban government to use his ship Pilar to ambush the German submarines that remained on the coasts of the country. Enjoy our house rentals in cuba and have a dream stay.

The following years he remained in Europe and after his return to Cuba he wrote On the other side of the river and among the trees and his great work: The old man and the sea. The latter, only took eight weeks and became the work of his life. The writer himself said that it was the best he could give of himself and he was not wrong. The old man and the sea made him an international celebrity and this time he received the Pulitzer Prize, in May 1952. Two years later, he was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature. Enjoy our house rentals in cuba and have a dream stay.

He returns to Cuba in 1957 and begins to work in parallel in Paris was a party, Al break the dawn, The Garden of Eden and Islands in the Gulf. The last three were stored in Havana. Enjoy our house rentals in cuba and have a dream stay.

His house, Finca Vigía, began to fill with tourists and guests and progressively the writer began to feel unhappy. In 1960 he left the island permanently, although he maintained his relations with Fidel Castro and his sympathy with the inhabitants did not end.

Hemingway’s house in Cuba today

Finca Vigía remains intact, as one of the most beautiful museums of the Cuban capital. The team in charge of the conservation of the place decided to keep the ranch as Hemingway left it, without altering the order of his personal belongings too much. Enjoy our house rentals in cuba and have a dream stay.

The hotel Ambos Mundos keeps offering its services and keeps intact the room of the North American Novel Prize as one of its main tourist attractions and of historical interest; as well as the El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio bars, where the writer loved to drink his favorite cocktails in the company of the Cubans; which over the years has made Calle Obispo one of the best places for to get rental properties in Cuba.

Enjoy our house rentals in cuba and have a dream stay.

Sticky

Comments Off

Curiosities, General

Manzana de Gómez

By Christian

At Nov 22, 2018

Private Villas in Cuba

Bordered by the streets Neptuno, San Rafael, Zulueta and Monserrate, the Manzana de Gómez was the first building built in Cuba exclusively for commercial purposes, which made it the first commercial center in the capital during the Republican period. Even at present, the area contains a large number of shops, shops, coffee shops and private villas in Cuba for rent in Havana.

Antique picture of Manzana de Gómez

Its construction dates from the decade of 1910 and was carried out by José Gómez-Mena Vila with a European style that was also completely new for the time on the island. With a height of five floors, an area that covers an entire block or block and two diagonal streets that cross it in all directions to integrate the internal pedestrian circulation with the exterior, the building was a great exponent of modernism throughout the first half of the twentieth century.

During the republican stage, an urban growth structured from the recreational and tourist projection that began to acquire the economic development of the North American government was consolidated in Cuba, fundamentally in the areas of Havana and Varadero. Hotels, bars, casinos, rental houses, restaurants and commercial structures of all kinds had achieved international fame thanks to initiatives such as the Forestier plan, the construction of the Hotel Nacional and the extension of the promenade of the Malecón de La Habana. In this context, the Manzana de Gómez became a paradigmatic structure within the commercial development in the capital and its stores were full of the most luxurious national, North American and European products.

Kempinsky Hotel Fachade

In addition, the block occupied a strategic site, adjacent to important tourist attractions in the capital such as the Museum of Fine Arts (Universal Art Building), the El Floridita bar, the Plaza Hotel, the central park and Obispo Street, a of the fundamental arteries of colonial Havana.

The Manzana of Gómez during the revolutionary stage

Great Hotel Manzana Kepinski

When the Cuban Revolution triumphed, the government in question approved as one of its measures the nationalization of all the companies that existed then in the country, including commercial entities, many internationally renowned brands withdrew their investments from Cuba and / or broke economic relations with the country At this moment, La Manzana de Gómez begins to close several of its premises and to reopen them with various functions such as offices, educational centers, and so on.

Kempinsky Hotel Pool

The building began to experience a gradual wear until a project to restore it and turn it into a luxury hotel, which became the first of its category in the country. The current structure is a fairly faithful replica from the architectural point of view, although modern carpentry, decoration and furniture are included to adapt the space to its new function as a hotel and shopping center.

Last year 2017 (after a notable opening of licenses for the private sector that included the rent of private villas in Cuba, hospitality, among others) the building was reopened as the Grand Hotel Manzana Kepinski. It has 246 rooms with the category of five stars plus, becoming an exclusive tourist complex in Cuba. Its instances are decorated with polished marbles and its stores are branches of brands of high international prestige such as Gucci, Bulgari, Lacoste, among others. Several of them appear on the Caribbean island for the first time and have aroused the interest of a new type of international tourism, more oriented towards luxury services. In parallel, the private sector has been developed in the surroundings, promoting best accommodation in private villas in Cuba.

Kempinsky Hotel Bedroom

Sticky

Comments Off

Curiosities

Cuba villa rental near to the Paseo del Prado

By Christian

At Sep 13, 2018

The Paseo de Isabel II: discover the colonial period in one of our cuba villa rental

Built in 1772 by order of the then Captain General of the island of Cuba, the Marques de la Torre, the Paseo del Prado is one of the most emblematic, busy and attractive avenues of the city of Havana. The artery begins at the capital’s Malecon and crosses the entire colonial zone, known as Old Havana, until it reaches the limits of the republican city, known as Centro Habana. At the time of its construction, it received the name of Alameda de Extramuros or Alameda de Isabel II. The way we know it today, is the result of the public works plan drawn up by President Gerardo Machado and executed by the famous French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, in 1928. Currently, the avenue brings together a significant number of entities commercial and is characterized by having several Cuba villa rental.

Paseo del Prado, Havana, Cuba

Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, Havana had become a very prosperous town, thanks to its strategic geographical location, which served as a meeting point for the Spanish fleets that transferred the riches that the crown acquired in the New American Continent. The increase in the attacks of corsairs and pirates had made evident the need to navigate in groups and La Bahía de La Habana was very safe. The commerce developed and with it the need to extend the limits of the Walled City, given the population growth of the town. As a strategic axis the Marquis de la Torre began the construction of a new artery known as Paseo de Extramuros, around which the fundamental structures were grouped, as well as the most powerful families of the new city.

Paseo del Prado, Havana

A decade later, under the government of Miguel Tacón, a second constructive stage took place, where the limits of the avenue extended to the coast, known today as the Malecón de la Habana. During this period (1834-1838), the jail building and the Tacón Theater or Galician Center were built. Much of the nineteenth century, the Paseo was intended exclusively for pedestrian use and began to project, along its route, lavish buildings of neoclassical style, many of which are currently dedicated to offer accommodation for visitors looking to Cuba villa rental.

The Forestier Plan: the republican stage

With the first American intervention in Cuba, in 1902, a reconstruction of the Paseo de Isabel II was carried out and the name was changed to Paseo de Martí (although it was popularly known as Paseo del Prado). The new remodeling was annexed to the Central Park and defined a grove for the pedestrian crossing, delimited by two lateral avenues and a parking area.

The first building with modern hotel features was built around the structure: the Telegrafo Hotel, as well as other structures of social use such as cinemas and theaters. They also designed mansions with an eclectic architecture that imitated European fashion.

Paseo del Parado with Capitolio behind

At the end of the twenties, the French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, made a new redesign of the avenue, which turned it into one of the most important walks in Latin America. Many trees were planted and included marble benches with eight statues representing the figure of a lion. The effigies, made in bronze, seem to guard the park, which was divided into four well-defined sections: the Paseo, the Central Park, the Explanada del Capitolio and the Plaza or Parque de la Fraternidad.

It was the first paved avenue in Havana, and the car was quickly incorporated as an indissoluble part of its streets. In addition, important structures of a political and social nature continued to be built. The most important of these was the Capitolio de La Habana, whose esplanade was integrated into the urban criteria of the rest of the Paseo. Choose one of our Cuba villa rental and have an unparalleled experience.

Paseo del Prado in 1920´s

The Paseo del Prado today

From the 1950s, most of the wealthier families moved to the new suburban complexes Miramar, Siboney and El Vedado. With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, real estate began to be occupied by middle class families and its prestige was declining until, at the beginning of the nineties, the new Cuban administration opened its doors again to international tourism and the territory was declared a World Heritage Site. Humanity by UNESCO. From then on, the hotel structures, restaurants, cafes, luxurious Cuba villa rentals, etc. were restored.

It is characterized by the permanence of exhibitions and the sale of art and has served as a stage for important events, such as the parade of the legendary firm Chanel, in 2016.

Lion statue at Prado street in old havana

Sticky

Comments Off

Curiosities, Holiday

Cuba Luxury Rentals

By Christian

At Jun 03, 2018

The Valley of Viñales – Cuba Luxury Rentals

Declared a national monument of Cuba, the valley of Viñales encloses a great beauty that attracts every day to a large number of visitors from all over the world. Enjoy our Cuba luxury rentals and let us discover Viñales Valley with you.

Viñales Valley

Located in the most western province of Cuba, Pinar de Río, Viñales is an essentially agricultural area in which the best tobacco is harvested in the country, which is twisted by hand, in the traditional way. There are also many coffee plantations, fruits and vegetables. Like many other attractions in Cuba, the valley of Viñales was declared by the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the inhabitants of the zone accommodate thousands of visitors each year in their private houses of rent, as well as in different hotel entities destined to National and international tourism.

Antique Car in Viñales Valley

The landscape of the valley is unique in Cuba. The Karst and traditional agriculture and vernacular architecture stand out. In El Palenque, a Cimarrona village, the history of several years of slavery in the country is reconstructed, since that place was sheltered by the blacks and Indians who escaped their masters to lead an independent life, at the behest of the colonial regime.

The geographical accident is characterized by its abundant vegetation, in fact, it is said that when a tourist travels to the valley from Havana, can appreciate the changes in the green foliage of the trees and the grass, which becomes more and more intense as you get From the mountains to drastically changing, offering a breathtaking atmosphere. In the territory there are unique mountains on the island, called Mogotes, which are geomorphological formations which can measure several hundred meters high, imitating a lot of forms, similar to those found in the peninsula of Malacca And in China. In addition, there are other rock formations that are considered the oldest not only of the country, but also of the whole area of the Caribbean.

Homemade Habano Cigar

In the Valley two sisters there is a giant representation of indigenous, gigantic mammal animals and some molluscs, which is known as Mural of prehistory. In it you can see the evolutionary development of man and animals in the area and is painted completely by brush, so its restoration process usually takes up to five years. Stay in our Cuba luxury rentals and learn about Mural de la Prehistoria with our specialized guides.

Viñales Valley Skyline

Another very attractive space is the cave of Indio, an old cavern of 300 meters of extension by which they run two underground rivers. There are several caverns close to it, like that of José Miguel, the Queen of the Espeluncas and the Great cavern of Saint Thomas. In addition, there are 17 endemic plant species in the valley that cannot be found in any other region of the country.

Mural de la Prehistoria

The population of Viñales has remained as a scenario of a traditional village of farmers, however, for some years, due to the great flow of tourists who visit the area, the Cuban government has approved to the residents the corresponding permits To rent their private homes. The hospitality industry, therefore, has also become a notable economic and social activity for rural people in the area.

Cattle in Viñales Valley

From LujoCuba we offer the best Cuba luxury rental, and we provide all kind of services to our customers for a dream stay.

Sticky

Comments Off

Curiosities

Rent casa particular cuba

By Christian

At May 15, 2018

Rent casa particular in Cuba and discover with us New Cuban Art

Unleashed in the late 1970s and consolidated throughout the 1980s, the movement to renew the plastic arts in Cuba became a phenomenon known as “New Cuban Art.” This “aesthetic revolution” was shown in the field of artistic creation as an enterprising cultural project of a new desire for self-awareness, whose aim was to integrate art into the dynamics of society and the democratization of culture, from a vision Away from the stereotypes proposed by socialist realism. Rent casa particular Cuba with us and discover the cuban art as a local.

Fábrica Arte Cubano

Towards the Eighties, emerging in our country a new promotion of artists educated within the system of teaching of art created by the revolution, with ideas that were manifested in favor of the legitimation of the budgets esthetical that proposed the culture Western, whose art was labeled bourgeois, dehumanized and decadent, by coming from a political system of capitalist essence.

The first example of this renewal arises in the context of the crisis of the dominant discourse on art and its basic budgets: the so-called postmodern condition, and it was constituted by the volume I group, which brought together the protagonists of the first visible attempt of Transgression towards the bases of a cultural behavior tendentious to the social order and the stereotyped romantic-idealized representation of the heroes, the feats, the history, etcetera. Its bases were, therefore, the claim of an autonomy of art, the stabilization of new artistic codes in the aesthetic consciousness, the retorization of a set of means for the production of ideology. Visit most cultural places in your trip and rent casa particular Cuba with us.

Callejón de Hammel

From the postmodernist sphere, framed in a clear crisis of values, a series of postures emerge that rethink the need for a culture of resistance, which manifests itself in an overvaluation of “the Own”, “as an uncontaminated past where the Identity “. In the case of the new Cuban art, the transgress spirit is retaken.

In the case of the new Cuban art, retakes the transgressive spirit of the Post-vanguard, which stands “as a strategy in the certainty of the social constitution of artistic value”.

Cuban Art Gallery

The unavoidable merit of these artists of volume I lies in overcoming the stereotypes that had ruled the symbolic representation of the identity during the previous decade, shifting the gaze towards the traditional acquits in contemporary culture, the ancestral practices that persist in the conformation of the imaginary that characterize our culture. Discover cuban art and rent casa particular Cuba with us.

These new proposals owe to the contributions of conceptualism the vindication of artistic research as the basis for creation, “The supremacy of the idea on form.”

Cuban Art Picture

In this way, the new Cuban art exceeded the need for constant updating with the international artistic panorama, of yesteryear expressed in the search for new codes of representation to reappropriate the tendencies in vogue.

Rent casa particular Cuba

The art institution, on the other hand, questioned its functional correspondence with the new artistic situation. In this sense, he developed an important work in the recognition and legitimation of the work produced by the emergent generation. An effervescence of the speeches on the art and projects of socio-cultural insertion was experienced.

Artistic Cuban Street

In this way the new Cuban art was installed in the national culture with a bewildering, explosive force. It transcended functionally in the aesthetic plane and appropriated of primordial areas of the social praxis, “it tensed to the limit the permissibility of the cultural instance, and forced to a reconsideration of the subject of the state control on the symbolic production”. Even so, his legacy constitutes, today, an irrefutable fact. Have a dream trip and rent casa particular Cuba with us.

Sticky

Comments Off

Culture, Curiosities

Varadero house rental

By Christian

At Feb 18, 2018

Varadero house rental, a quick look on its history

Enjoy our Varadero house rental and discover the island with our professional guides. In the year of 1540, during a survey journey under the command of Sebastian de Campos, the Hicacos peninsula was discovered by the Spanish monarchy. The land was inhabited by natives that were to be expelled and exterminated. Soon after, a salt mine that supplied the Spanish fleet was made, and was kept running until the year of 1961.

The caves in the area were used as refuge places for pirates, runaway slaves and native fugitives. They treasure the most important representations of cave paintings of the country. The Ambrosio cave, shelters the biggest graphic collection in all the Caribbean area.

During the Republican period, the American government saw in Varadero the perfect place to develop the tourist industry. The first houses were located near the area of 42^nd and 43^rd streets; they date from the end of the XIX century, when some plots for housing were given to the high society. Around this same area, a few years later the first hotel in Varadero opened its doors. It was the Varadero Nautical Club. From the year of 1910 on, the hotel became host for all the people who came to participate in the row regattas. By that time, a great number of wealthy Cuban and American families had begun to settle. But it was not until the second half of the XX century that the constructive fever really began.

Discover cuban´s history and stay in our wonderful casas particulares in Cuba

On 1959, after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, the tourist industry was nationalized. Then, right on the middle point of the peninsula the so called ¨8000 lockers Park¨ was built. During the next 20 years, Varadero became an important cultural center, specifically on the music environment. Several concerts, festivals and sport events were carried out. The international community could notice that something special was going on, and many people from all places began to arrive, eager to enjoy the beach, the warm weather and the flourishing cultural atmosphere.

During the eighties, the Varadero international Carnival was another great attraction for tourists both from out and inside the country. Ten years later, the Cuban government began to experience the biggest economic crisis on history, due to the collapse of socialism and former Soviet Union. Tourism became the first and most important economic issue for the country. Many hotels were built all along the island, but it was in Varadero where the main action took place. Cultural tourism began to decay and a new centralized, all inclusive concept emerged, giving place to the All included Resorts.

Casas particulares in Varadero today

Nowadays, the Cuban government has given its approval to private enterprises, thus allowing the house rentals in Varadero. One of the advantages of this private initiative is precisely the renewal of cultural tourism in the peninsula. The visitors, who make of the house rental their choice, can enjoy a trip full of vivid experiences. They can get to know better the Cuban people, also get involve and participate on public and cultural events, visit crafmanship market places and still receive a personalized service. For this kind of tourism, the house rental is the ideal choice, more economic and fun. Enjoy our Varadero house rental and feel a unique experiencia on the island.

Sticky

Hemingway’s house in Cuba today

Private Villas in Cuba

The Manzana of Gómez during the revolutionary stage

Great Hotel Manzana Kepinski

The Paseo de Isabel II: discover the colonial period in one of our cuba villa rental

The Forestier Plan: the republican stage

The Paseo del Prado today

The Valley of Viñales – Cuba Luxury Rentals

Rent casa particular in Cuba and discover with us New Cuban Art

Rent casa particular Cuba

Varadero house rental, a quick look on its history

Discover cuban´s history and stay in our wonderful casas particulares in Cuba

Casas particulares in Varadero today

Meet the best casas particulares in Cuba

Architecture and Urbanism

The music

Human capital

Uso de cookies