A Slice of Cuba’s Countryside

 Coffee farms, eco-friendly communities, mountain areas, and fishing villages—whole new worlds—outside of the busy-ness of Havana.

In the Escambray mountains, where coffee is cultivated in gardens in the shade of pine and eucalyptus trees, a local guide taught us about the area and coffee, “the best Cuban coffee.”  Hurricane Irma had hit Cuba and done quite a bit of damage to the crop. We saw evidence of the devastation, trees with scant coffee berries, mostly unripe, and in the diminished pile of harvested beans at the coffee farm we visited.

We stopped at a fruit stand in this mountain area to sample locally grown fruits, most of which were brand new to us.

A visit to Las Terrazas, an eco-village and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve west of Havana, afforded us a chance to become immersed in a community. Built on terraced hills, this village of approximately 1,000 people has a rural feel and is a destination for folks who want to hike and spend time in nature.

As we might have mentioned before, the communities of Cuba are self-contained, each having everything they need, including doctors who live and have offices right in the neighborhood. At Las Terrazas, we stopped at the community center, which housed a few businesses, meeting areas, and the doctor. The doctor was available so we crowded into his small office where he told us about his practice and answered our many questions. As we exited, his next patient was waiting at the door.

At the elementary school, we spoke with the principal and a group of boys playing marbles at recess.

 A teacher welcomed us into her second grade classroom, where the children sang for us.

"The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" is always a hit in any language.

This day we had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant and finished with a home visit where we were served specialty coffee drinks.

Four local fishermen joined us for lunch one day in Cojimar, a fishing village outside of Havana. In our conversation, we learned some of them had come from generations of fishermen.

Later, they gave us a tour of their boatyard, which had also felt the power of Hurricane Irma.



For a number of years, Ernest Hemingway and his boat, Pilar, were fixtures in Cojimar.

In this little fishing community the men pool their resources and skills, working together on each others' boats when needed.

Ernest Hemingway’s home, Finca La Vigia (lookout house), where he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, offered us a peek into the famous author’s world. It was a peek, alright, as we could only photograph the house through the windows. But, we walked around, snapping photos of the lush, well-kept grounds and Hemingway’s boat.

The Pilar out of Key West