Itinerary LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE ALUMNI TRIP TO CUBA: May 16 - 23, 2024

12:30 pm ~ Lunch at paladar Los Mercaderes. We’ll stroll down the oldest street in Havana, Calle de los Mercaderes (Merchants Street), to have lunch in a beautiful restaurant built inside the home of the owner.

2:00 pm ~ Four plazas Habana Vieja walking tour continued. You will have the option to explore the historic core individually or join our guided walking tour. Continue down Calle Los Mercaderes to la Plaza de las Armas, Havana’s first square and the origin point of the city’s settlement. We’ll continue to the Plaza de la Catedral where we’ll visit the collective graphic arts workshop, Taller de Gráfica. This public studio for local artists was established by Pablo Neruda and Che Guevara at the beginning of the Revolution as a place where artists living and visiting Havana can work on printmaking. Around the corner. we’ll see an exhibit at the Wilfredo Lam Center. Walk down Obispo Street to Central Park.

4:00 pm ~ Time at leisure. Continue exploring Old Havana or return to the hotel to connect to WiFi at the hotel, recharge your batteries, or take a siesta.

8:00 pm ~ Dinner at Tierra. Tierra is just as much about the Havana arts scene as it is about food. Built into the VIP section of the Cuban Art Factory built out of recycled shipping containers. This paladar pushes the limits of private industry and government cooperation in a 100-year-old previously abandoned cooking oil factory along the Almendares River between the Vedado and Miramar neighborhoods. We’ll enter through the front door of the FAC and get to skip the long lines that typically go around the block.

9:30 pm ~ La Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC). Experience Havana’s hippest new urban magnet: an old peanut oil factory transformed into a multi-level and almost infinite art and music space exhibiting contemporary photography, installations, sculptures, three music stages, tapas, and seven bars. This new cultural hangout is an entrepreneurial project of Cuban rock star X Alfonso. This “Cuban Art Factory” is a shining reflection of what the future might hold for Havana as it reemerges as the cosmopolitan trend-setting capital stronghold of Latin America that it once was.

DAY 3: SATURDAY, MAY 18 | FREDDY'S CUBA

7:00 - 9:30 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations.

9:00 am ~ Introduction to Cuban music and life with Professor Freddy Vilches and his Cuban colleagues. Lewis & Clark Professor of Hispanic Studies Freddy Vilches will lead a Lewis & Clark seminar-style lecture, demonstration, and discussion on Cuban music. He will deconstruct the various genres of Cuban music with his friend and musician Victor Linen, a music producer and the director of the world-renowned band Conjunto Chappottin. Freddy will also share his experiences of living in Cuba with his family while teaching at the University of Havana.

For the following two activities before and after lunch, we will split into two groups to alternate between the two activities in tandem at 11:00 am and 2:30 pm:

11:00 am ~ Visito to Capitol building. Cuba’s stunning "Capitolio" was constructed after the forming of the Republic of Cuba and adopted the exact same architecture as the U.S. Capitol but made to be one meter taller. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959 the Castro government moved out of this building into new government offices built around the Revolutionary Square. The former capitol sat empty for decades until undergoing a massive restoration initiated ten years ago that was finished only a few months ago. It is now being used again as the seat of the Parliament and the National Assembly under Cuba’s first new president post-Castro. It is also a museum that is open for guided tours only.

12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Cinco Sentidos. Nestled in the heart of Old Havana, Cinco Sentidos restaurant is a culinary gem that promises a sensory journey like no other. Its charming colonial-era ambiance is transformed with a chic contemporary artist flare and a menu that pays homage to the vibrant flavors of Cuban cuisine. From succulent ropa vieja to perfectly grilled seafood, each plate tells a story of Cuba's rich culinary heritage.

2:30 pm ~ Visit to the homes of Afro-Cuban spiritual leaders. Meet Afro-Cuban religious practitioners in this authentic and once-in-a-lifetime invitation to go inside the homes of a “palero” (Palo del Monte) and a “babalawo” (Santería). As sacred Congo and Nigerian worldviews, respectively, combined with Catholicism, new belief systems emerged in Colonial Cuba. Members of these religious traditions will share their altars that are made to communicate with the dead, the saints, and a pantheon of African deities. The journey will take place in Cayo Hueso, beginning in Parque Trillo and ending at the Callejón de Hamel. This is an opportunity to discuss religious practices that continue to have great importance in Cuban culture.

4:00 pm ~ Time at leisure. Connect to WiFi at the hotel, recharge your batteries, take a siesta, or explore the city on your own.

7:30 pm ~ Dinner at La Guarida paladar. Anyone who has been to La Guarida will find it difficult to disagree that Enrique and Odeisys have managed to create their own magical home restaurant. The building, originally known as La Mansión Camagüey, shows its former grandeur from the magnificent wooden entrance door through the marble staircase up the two flights of stairs to the restaurant itself. The location for a classic scene from Cuba’s most iconic film “Fresa y Chocolate,” La Guarida has gone on to become one of the most popular restaurants in Cuba. On the menu is a choice of squash soup, eggplant caviar, or smoked marlin tacos for a starter; fish, chicken, or pork for the main course with sides of rice, black beans, fried yuca and plantains; and a cocktail, spring water, and coffee for dessert.

9:30 pm ~ Jazz concert at La Guarida Sessions. The hottest new music scene in Havana is happening on this rooftop patio on Saturday nights. Tonight we’ll get to hear some of Cuba’s greatest jazz musicians (TBA) perform above the city’s skyline.

DAY 4: SUNDAY, MAY 19 | CUBA'S HISTORY

7:00 – 9:00 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations.

9:00 am ~ LECTURE: The Cuban Political Economy with Rafael Betancourt. The Cuban economic and political system is designed to have almost nothing in common with the US system. This morning we begin our day at our hotel with an insider discussion about how Cuba’s planned economy works and doesn’t work and what changes the state is working on for the future. We’ll better understand current events and where Cuba is at during this challenging moment in its history. Rafael Betancourt is a Cuban economist and entrepreneur who has been successful in starting businesses both in Cuba and the U.S. throughout his career.

11:00 am ~ Ernest Hemingway’s Finca Vigía. Visit the hilltop house of American writer Ernest Hemingway where he lived from 1940 – 1960 with his wife, Martha Gellhorn, and their children. Cuba was Hemingway’s most frequented country where he wrote The Old Man and the Sea, To Have and Have Not, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway donated his Nobel Prize to the Cuban people. His home in San Francisco de Paula has recently been the subject of a massive preservation effort by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. At this farm, you will see his sportfishing boat, the Pilar. The Finca Vigia estate and the fishing village of Cojimar are considered the most significant locales for those interested in Hemmingway’s history.

12:30 pm ~ Tapas at El Del Frente. Have lunch at the hippest and tastiest new restaurant in Havana. El Del Frente is in Habana Vieja and makes food and drinks that will rival any popular restaurant in Portland, OR.

2:30 pm ~ Private Concert of Septeto Nacional. Fans of the Buena Vista Social Club will be in for a treat to see the legendary and historic Septeto Nacional de Cuba perform a concert in an unexpected venue. These old timers are masters and great innovators of Latin music over the past 80 years.

4:00 pm ~ Discussion on Cuban Literature with Freddy and Megan.

5:00 pm ~ Dinner and evening on your own. Take the opportunity to wander the streets and take photographs, seek out places of special interest, practice your Spanish, go on an excursion, go shopping, or spend more time somewhere we visited but didn’t get enough time. Havana is like Paris in the sense that it is a great walking city to be a flaneur in. You can wander the small streets, make discoveries, and interact with locals. Alternatively, Freddy and Megan will be taking those who are interested to see the National Museum of Fine Arts. Dinner is on your own (optional – transportation and entry cost not included).

9:30 pm ~ Suggested activity: TROPICANA NIGHTCLUB. The Tropicana was the world's most famous nightclub from 1939 to 1959. It contains one of Cuba’s most significant modern buildings, the Arcos de Cristal (1952), a thin-shell concrete structure by architect Max Borges Recio. Built in the gardens of an early 20th-century residence, the club continues to operate almost exactly as it did in its heyday and is the only one of Havana’s famous clubs to survive the Revolution (optional - entry cost of around $100 is not included).

DAY 5: MONDAY, MAY 20 | VIÑALES

7:00 – 8:30 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations

9:00 am ~ Depart for Viñales Valley. Enjoy the scenic drive through the Western province of Pinar del Río, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This pine-populated, red-soiled tobacco-growing region of Cuba features lime stone mountains called “mogotes” that jut out of the valley floor.

11:00 am ~ Visit to the tobacco farm Finca Montesino. On our way to Viñales we’ll stop by a 3rd generation tobacco farm that grows and prepares tobacco for the Cohiba brand. The farmer will show us the process of how the world’s finest tobacco is created.

12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Finca Agroecológica El Paraiso. Have lunch on what some might consider one of the most scenic farms in the world. For four generations this family has owned and operated this organic sustainable agricultural project. Enjoy a farm-to-table family-style meal at their house perched on top of a hill with a magical view of the Viñales Valley. The farmers will take you on a tour of their “finca” after lunch.

3:00 pm ~ Check into private bed & breakfasts. The people of Viñales are as friendly and inviting as its landscapes. We will have the chance to split up into small groups and stay in these country homes in the center of town. This is an interesting and personal way of experiencing the Cuban “guajiro” way of life, an opportunity to practice your Spanish, and engage in direct people-to-people contact with the Cuban people.

4:30 pm ~ Optional: Afternoon walk or horse back ride through the Cuban countryside with City Historian. Meet with the City Historian of Viñales Ricardo Alvarez who will stroll with us through the small farms, town center, geological wonders, and world’s finest tobacco-growing region.

8:00 pm ~ Dinner with your host families. Your host families will cook dinner for you. Make sure to schedule the time and menu with them when you arrive.

9:00 pm ~ Live music. Gather with locals and foreigners alike to dance and listen and dance to Cuban rhythms in one of Viñales' great live venues (optional).

DAY 6: TUESDAY, MAY 22 | WEST HAVANA

7:00 – 9:30 am ~ Breakfast at our casas. Your house chef will cook you a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham. Ask your hosts for an early breakfast if you want to go on a morning stroll through town before leaving.

10:00 am ~ Depart for Havana. The drive is two hours with a rest stop along the way.

12:00 pm ~ Farm tour, lunch, and discussion about sustainable agriculture and food in Cuba at Finca Marta. This small experimental agro-ecological farm 15 miles southeast of Havana aims to demonstrate that farms focused on biodiversity and intensive management can thrive in a rapidly changing economy by producing high quality products without the need for transgenic crops, mechanization, or state-run distribution. Founded in 2012 by the renowned Cuban agronomist Dr. Fernando Funes-Monzote, La Finca Marta serves many of Havana’s restaurants, schools, and nursing homes. It pays its workers on total sales rather than a predetermined salary. Recent political reforms like legalizing direct sales and the emergence of private food and transportation cooperatives are allowing new models of privatized agriculture and culinary development. We'll enjoy a farm-to-table lunch and then a tour of the farm led by Dr. Monzote.