SEPT WHAT’S ON 2013 HAVANA ! Back to school? Time for one last party… V Festival A sugar of a The ultimate Leo Brouwer journey guide to de Música de by Christopher The Agro Cámara Baker by Conner Gorry Sept 24-Oct 13 p 3 p 25 p 33 PRODUCED BY .COM .COM Cuba Absolutely is an independent platform, which seeks to showcase the best in Cuba culture, life-style, sport, travel and much more... we seek to explore Cuba through the eyes of the best writers, photographers and filmmakers, both Cuban and international, who live work, travel and play in Cuba. Beautiful pictures, great videos, opinionated reviews, insightful articles and inside tips. ALL ABOUT CUBA, ALL THE TIME HIGHLIGHTS HAVANA RESTAURANT GUIDE We have reviewed over 150 places to eat in Havana from the coolest new paladar to the old favorites. Check out. The Ultimate Guide to Dining out in Havana. 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Bringing people together through travel Music, dance and cultural trips to Cuba PRODUCED BY .COM recommends these European Travel Providers for independent travel to Cuba The largest independent travel company specialized in Cuba Everything and everywhere in Cuba Bespoke Luxury Holidays in Cuba for the discerning traveler Leading provider of cycling tours through Cuba with over 15 years experience For the sophisticated traveller, tailor-made, with style and the individual touch WOWcuba: discovery Cuba inner beauty PRODUCED BY .COM page 2 WHAT’S ON HAVANA W ! HAT’S ON HAV SEPTEMBER 2013 ANA Cuba may not celebrate Labor Day to mark the end of summer but there is always time ! for one last party before school starts. In fact this August has seen more concerts, festivals and other events then I can remember. Event promoters, Saroa and Proyecto Analógica have taken the electronic dance music scene to a whole new level. Viva la Habana Fárandula. While September may be a relatively quiet month in Cuba as Cubans get back to work, tourists largely steer clear of the muggy hurricane season and there are few prestigious cultural festivals, don’t make the mistake to assuming that there is nothing interesting happening this month. Lovers of classical music shouldn’t miss the prestigious V Leo Brouwer classical music festival, (Sep 24th to Oct 13th). Elsewhere look out for the always-innovative modern dance Compañía Rosario Cárdenas performing Tributo a El Monte and the brilliant Monse Duany in Las lágrimas no hacen ruido al caer. And, between you and me, I am sure the texts announcing the next hip party will keep on coming! We are delighted to welcome Christopher Baker onboard who takes us on a Sugar of a Journey on the anachronistic Hershey electric train. Welcome back to Conner Gorry with her authoriative Guide to the Havana Agro and a big thumbs up to Cuba Libro (Havana’s 1st English-Language Bookstore & Café), which a month in, is going strong. Cover photo by Ivan Soca We hope you enjoy this review. Any feedback and/or notices about events are always appreciated. You can contact us at [email protected] PLASTIC PHOTO- DANCE ARTS GRAPHY The Rosario Cárdenas Stainless Exhibition by Company innovative art Chilean Fernando Tributo a group at Sierra Morande El Monte del Rosario art p 9 p 12 gallery p 8 MUSIC PERFORMING OTHER The 5th ARTS EVENTS IN Leo Brouwer Las lagrimas no HAVANA p 28 Chamber Music hacen ruido al OTHER Festival caer, featuring AROUND p 25 Monse Duany CUBA p 30 p 26 FOR KIDS p 29 The best bars & clubs in Havana p 31 HAVANA The best place to eat in Havana p 32 Conner Gorry’s Ultimate guide to The Agro p 33 GUIDE Directory / Address book p 36 Read more at www.CubaAbsolutely.com A sugar of a journey by Christopher P. Baker Photos by Christopher P. Baker © You may never arrive. There will be delays. But a journey antique two-tone-green Sarría electrified cars from 1944, on the anachronistic and creaky old Hershey electric train donated by the city of Barcelona. is worth every centavo of the CUC2.80 that foreigners are charged. Even if you don't make it all the way to Matanzas. I recall my first journey with fondness. It was a sugar of a journey—a combination of the picturesque and the Rail journeys hold a particular magic, none more so in prosaic—despite the lack of steam rising sibilantly Cuba than the “Hershey Train,” which runs lazily—too lazily between giant piston rods. I began, as passengers still do, at times—between Casablanca and Matanzas year-round, by hopping onto the funky ferry that chugs across Havana three times a day. harbor to Casablanca from the Muelle de Luz wharf, opposite the Russian Orthodox church, on Avenida del The train has its origins in a chocolate bar and was born Puerto. when Cuba was on a sugar high. “What time do we arrive Matanzas?” I asked, naively. The Before the Revolution, the Hershey estates belonging to woman at the ticket counter merely shrugged her the Pennsylvania-based chocolate company occupied 69 shoulders, then closed her eyes and gave me a sideways square miles of lush cane-fields around a modern sugar- sour lemon look. factory town, or batey, named Hershey, founded in 1918 with a sugar mill, baseball field, golf course, movie theater, Arrival is never guaranteed. Nor is departure! Mechanical a hotel, and an orphanage—an expression of one of the failure is common. Loose tracks. Pantographs that come many good deeds of enlightened industrialist Milton unloose. Substation shorts. The mainline train is Hershey. The mill closed in 2002 after 86 years in sometimes even rerouted to complete trips via branch operation and Hershey is now a run-down shell, named lines that connect to Guanabo, Canasi, and Santa Cruz del since the Revolution for comandante Camilo Cienfuegos. Norte. Sometimes the breakdowns can last days or weeks, when “No train service until further notice” is scrawled At its peak, the estate near Santa Cruz del Norte had 140 onto ticket office chalk-boards. kilometers of rail network. Operating on coal and oil, the original steam locomotives were expensive and their The gold-leaf lettering on the two rusted carriages had sparks constituted a serious fire hazard. In 1921 they were long since faded, as had the exterior green-and-beige replaced with seven 60-ton General Electric locomotives itself, and the hard wooden seats, many broken, were built especially for the Hershey-Cuban Railroad, which guaranteed to turn the most inured ass to stone. linked the estate to the port in Havana—the only electrified system ever built in Cuba. Milton Hershey also The conductor tooted the horn two minutes before introduced a three-car Brill electric passenger train departure and a mad rush to board ensued. The train service between Havana and Matanzas, operating every jolted to life. As we gathered speed slowly, stragglers hour, to serve his workers. jumped aboard, like hobos hopping freight. Some even jumped up into the operator's cab. The vermilion Brill engine, which looked like it could have fallen from the pages of a story about Thomas, the little Soon we were creaking along the harborfront with the "live" engine, was retired in 1998 and replaced with eight pantographs singing merrily overhead and the rhythmic rattling of the rails beneath, interspersed with a frequent Read more at www.CubaAbsolutely.com page 3 WHAT’S ON HAVANA ! Stopping at places whose names themselves appeared from a dream: Concuní, Corral Nuevo, Dos Mangos. The conductor displayed a laid back approach to protocol or schedule. He stopped wherever and whenever passengers requested, just like an almendrón—the beat- up old classic taxis that jug along Havana's streets. Passengers alight via a thin metal staircase directly onto the track. No need to mind the gap with a platform. We juddered to a halt in the middle of nowhere in front of a simple thatch-and-adobe bohío framed by flame-red bougainvillea beneath a tousled Royal palm. I thought the train had broken down. Then a young woman stepped down from the train clutching a newborn child swaddled in blankets. A sun-baked guajiro in tattered straw hat and faded army fatigues pulled himself up from an Adirondack jolt that made the train shudder. Clickety clack, clickety chair beneath the shady eave and emerged into the harsh clack, clickety clack… KLUNK! Cuban sunlight. He strode forward unsteadily, beaming, his arms outspread as if to embrace all the world. The door remained open, providing plenty of breeze, as the locomotive wobbled drunkenly down the track past The whole train looked on as he leaned forward to kiss his rusting refineries and factories and finally into the open granddaughter.