Havana Study Tour
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HAVANA STUDY TOUR JANUARY 10-20, 2021 TOUR LEADER: DR STEPHEN WILKINSON HAVANA Overview STUDY TOUR Havana is a unique city, with a complex history of colonialism and revolution, and a vibrant cosmopolitan culture. This 11-day study tour led Tour dates: January 10-20, 2021 by Dr Stephen Wilkinson, Chair of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba, takes you beyond the ‘rum and rumba’ stereotypes, and gives Tour leader: Dr Stephen Wilkinson you special access to the knowledge to understand Cuba for yourself. Tour Price: $6,880 per person, twin share The tour begins with Havana’s UNESCO World Heritage listed Old Town, where the city’s history is alive everywhere you look, from its colourful Single Supplement: $610 for sole use of colonial architecture, 1950s Americana, and the distinctive bars, cafes and double room music that reflect the diverse influences on Cuban culture. With these historical contexts in mind, we explore Revolutionary Cuba, with a close Booking deposit: $1000 per person look at Cuban politics, the birth of a distinctively Cuban revolutionary architecture, and an overnight excursion to Santa Clara, where Batista Recommended airline: Qantas was defeated and Che Guevara was laid to rest. Maximum places: 16 All of this history is part of a living culture that we experience throughout the tour, including visits to Fusterlandia (a fishing village converted into a wonderland of mosaics and sculptures by Jose Fuster, a Cuban artist Itinerary: Havana (9 nights), Santa Clara inspired by Picasso and Gaudí), the Fábrica de Artes Cubano, the (1 night) epicentre of cutting edge contemporary art in Havana, and a walking tour exploring Havana’s street art. And then, of course, there is the music, Date published: May 11, 2020 markets and dancing that are such a part of everyday life in Havana. The tour also includes day trips to the beautiful Las Terrazas, an eco village established in the late 1960s as part of a project to restore a landscape blighted by logging and plantation farming, and little-visited Study Tours Matanzas, “the Athens of Cuba” and the birth place of rumba. Academy Travel study tours are designed to provide in-depth intellectual stimulation. The Your tour leader tours feature regular background lectures, morning site visits and more time for individual Dr Stephen Wilkinson is the Chairman of the exploration or optional visits with the tour leader. International Institute for the Study of Cuba, he holds a PHD on the subject of Cuban literature. Study tours are more physically demanding than He is a Lecturer in Politics and International other Academy Travel tours: walking tours are Relations at the University of Buckingham. He significantly longer, we use local public transport is also editor of the International Journal of for journeys within a city, and visits include Cuban Studies, a contributor to IHS Sentinel rough, uneven surfaces and historic buildings Reports on Cuba and consults on a variety of without elevators. media projects related to the island. Stephen first visited Cuba in 1986 and has been travelling to and writing about the island ever since. He has led groups to Cuba from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian and for Academy Travel. Enquiries and bookings His wealth of contacts in Cuba adds greatly to the experience, and we will be joined on some days by some Cuban experts on Cuba, who will also For further information and to give you insight into their country, its history, economy and politics. secure a place on this tour please contact Hannah Kleboe at Academy Travel on 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email [email protected]. au Tour Themes SEE IT FOR YOURSELF Much is written about Cuba, for better or worse, which is not surprising given that it has been a thorn in the paw of US foreign policy for 70 years. See it for yourself and understand this unique place better with the expert guidance of Dr Stephen Wilkinson, Chairman of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba. THE COLONIAL LEGACY From Spanish conquest, to French migrants from Haiti, the mass importation of slaves from Africa, expats from the American period, Havana’s location at the crossroads of New and Old Worlds has left a complex legacy, seen in its vibrant cosmopolitan culture and in the efforts to repair the environmental damage of plantation farming. THE CUBAN REVOLUTION Castro and Guevara are among the most iconic leaders of the 20th century, and their legacy is felt well beyond Cuba’s borders. Explore the revolution in detail, from Santa Clara where the battle against Batista was won, to the new revolutionary art and architecture, and the complex social and economic legacy of one of the last communist states. VIBRANT HAVANA From the African infused sound of the rumba and music on the streets, to bars, clubs and cafes, colourful streetscapes, private restaurants, a rapidly evolving street art scene, artisan markets, neighbourhood life – experience the vibrant culture of Havana with all your senses and understand how it thrives despite the hardships imposed on the country. LAS TERRAZAS Set in the Sierra del Rosario mountains west of Havana is one of the world’s first eco-villages and biospheres. Created in the late 1960s in an effort to restore the forests that had been destroyed by plantations and charcoal production, Las Terrazas provides a model for sustainable villages: we visit the village and its artisans, explore the canopy and visit a coffee plantation. Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D. Tour start & finish time The tour begins on Sunday 10 January in the late afternoon at Hotel Sevilla in Havana. The tour ends on Wednesday 20 January at Hotel Sevilla, after breakfast. Sunday 10 January Arrive The tour begins in the late afternoon in our hotel in Old Havana. Please check your individual travel documents for arrival in Havana. After introducing ourselves, we take an orientation walk of the district, famed for its colourful buildings, bars and music clubs, and we have dinner in a paladar (private restaurant) near the hotel. Overnight Havana (D) Above: Old Havana, where colonial architecture meets 1950s Americana and contemporary life Monday 11 January Below: Malecón, the broad Esplanade where people promenade Old Havana between the city and the sea Bottom: Fidel Castro making a speech in Revolution Square in Havana was founded by the Spanish in the 1500s to take 1965, celebrating the Revolution (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) advantage of the natural port provided by the bay and quickly became the Spanish Empire’s main port in the Caribbean - a gateway between Spain and the colonies of mainland America. The colonial city with its elegant baroque and neoclassical façades, colonnaded passageways, palaces and churches are well preserved in the old town and it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. But the architecture of the city also evokes an eclectic range of influences, from the Spanish Moorish style, to French colonialism, and Catalan-influenced art- nouveau from the first half of the 20th century. The presence of the past and its many layers is palpable. This morning after a lecture in the hotel, we explore Old Havana on foot, visiting the plazas, monuments and neighbourhoods that reveal the many- layered history of the city. After lunch together, we take a classic car tour of the city, to taste the style of pre-revolutionary Havana, a haven for international expatriots seeking warmth, fun and gambling. The evening is at leisure. Overnight Havana (B, L) Tuesday 12 January Cuban politics The Cuban Revolution set the country on an inestimably different course, in which a centralised socialist state monopolised power in order to implement sweeping social and economic reforms. That Cuba has maintained its communist system with the decline of its political allies worldwide and the liberalisation of the global economy is a curious anomaly. The policies and practices of the government continue to elicit a wide range of responses worldwide, from condemnation to praise of the effectiveness of its health and education systems despite its troubled economy. Today we explore politics in Cuba, beginning with a lecture in the hotel. We then visit the Museum of the Revolution, whose exhibits – including Che Guevara’s town car, Russian made T-34s, and material from post-revolutionary Cuba – are a dramatic contrast to lavish interiors of the building, which was the Presidential Palace from 1920 to 1959. After a break for lunch, we visit the José Martí museum. Martí is one of Cuba’s most celebrated intellectuals – a poet, essayist and a political theorist whose writing and activism had a profound influence on the formation of Cuban communism. Later afternoon and evening at leisure. Overnight Havana (B) Wednesday 13 January Las Terrazas biosphere In the late 1960s, when environmentalism was quite radical, a small community set about restoring the natural environment of the Sierra del Rosario, the mountains west of Havana, one of the most deforested and over-farmed regions of Cuba and the location of the first large scale coffee plantation in the New World. The community quickly became self-supporting and ecofriendly – the first of Cuba’s eco-villages. By the mid-1980s the area was listed by UNSECO as a World-Heritage biosphere, and continues to provide a model for new sustainable communities. Today we travel by coach to visit Las Terrazas (“The Terraces”), where we visit the eco-village and its artisans, explore the forest canopy, and, after lunch, visit a sustainable coffee plantation. Returning to Havana, the evening is at leisure. Overnight Havana (B, L) Thursday 14 January Revolutionary Architecture The Revolution brought with it a form of utopianism in which architects saw themselves and their buildings as having a key role in the radical transformation of society.