Hemingway Adventure

Havana, Cuba (ninth day)

For our last meal in Havana we go to the tiny Chinatown area to see if Hemingway's favourite Chinese restaurant, El Pacifico, is still there. And it is, a monumental barn of a place, occupying several floors of a building in a narrow street in the Cayo Hueso area. They say that in the old days the restaurant occupied the ground floor and the floors above were arranged in ascending order of decadence - first: gambling, second: sex, and third: drugs. The penthouse presumably offered gambling, sex and drugs, and possibly donkeys as well.

There is no trace of any dissipation in the darkened entrance where an unimpressive menu is advertised and no one on the staff seems to know or care if Hemingway used to bring his family here for Sunday lunch.

So we go across the road and eat our meal in the small back room of another Chinese establishment - not too small, however, for a six-piece band to squeeze in and supply 'Guantanamera' with the steamed rice.

A last round of mojitos at the Patio restaurant in the fine old Cathedral Square. Normally at this time the place is ringed with professional ladies weighing up business prospects, but tonight I'm told there has been one of the periodic police crackdowns and only the real die-hards are left.

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PALIN'S GUIDES

Series: Hemingway Adventure
Chapter: Havana, Cuba (ninth day)
Country/sea: Cuba
Place: Havana
Book page no: 227

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Havana, Cuba