Parque Lenín Calle100 y Cortina de la Presa, Arroyo Naranjo. South of Havana. Taxi US$15 one way, negotiable. Northwest of Rancho Boyeros and the airport, Parque Lenín is a huge 745-ha green space on the edge of Havana, which is a popular weekend escape for Cuban families. The park is a great place to unwind from the city hubbub for a day and there is plenty of entertainment for adults and children. There is an amusement park, ampitheatre, horses for hire, outdoor cinema, boating lake, motorcross circuit, rodeo, bicycle hire, four swimming pools, art galleries, book shops, an aquarium, a range of cafés and upmarket restaurants. Jardín Botánico Nacional de Cuba Km 3.5, Carretera Rocío, Calabazar, south of the city beyond Parque Lenín, T 547278. Mon-Sun 0900-1600. US$1, children US$0.50. A multilingual guide will meet you at the gate, no charge. Take Camello M6 and omnibus 88. Taxi from La Habana Vieja can be negotiated down to US$15 one-way, the best value if there are several of you. Many hotel tour desks offer day trips with lunch for US$25, better value than going independently and less effort. Opened in 1984, the botanical garden is well maintained with excellent collections, including a Japanese garden with tropical adaptations. You can take a ‘train’ tour along the 35 km of roads around the 600-ha site, which takes about two hours. There are few signs, so it is not as informative as it might be, and a guide is helpful, describing unusual plants, which are grouped geographically in various zones. The inter-connected glass houses filled with desert, tropical and sub-tropical plants are well worth walking through. There is a good organic vegetarian restaurant using solar energy for cooking. There is only one sitting for lunch, but you can eat as much as you like from a selection of hot and cold vegetarian dishes and drinks for US$12. Water and waste food is recycled and the restaurant grows most of its own food. Parque Zoológico Nacional Km 3, Carretera de Capdevilam, south Havana, T 447613. Tue-Sun 0930-1530. US$3, children US$2, including tour bus trip. Taxi US$12-15. Opened in 1984 and more akin to a safari park than a zoo, Parque Zoológico Nacional contains more than 800 animals and 100 different species sprawled across 340 ha, including elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, zebras, lions and antelopes. A scientific and educational research centre, the zoo plays a large role in the preservation of endangered species. There is a reproduction area, a laboratory, clinic and a taxidermist. There is also an interactive children’s area, Zoo Infantil, with smaller animals and pony rides. Finca La Vigía San Francisco de Paula, San Miguel del Padrón, T 910809. Mon, Wed-Sat 0900-1600, Sun 0900-1230, closed Tue and on rainy days, US$5. 11 km southeast from Havana Centro. If you have time and patience, Bus P1 from Línea and P2 from 26 y 41, Vedado. Hemingway tours are offered by hotel tour desks for US$35. Hemingway fans may wish to visit Finca La Vigía (Museo Ernest Hemingway) where he lived from 1939 to 1961. The signpost is opposite the post office. Visitors are not allowed inside the plain, whitewashed house, lovingly preserved with Hemingway’s furniture, books and hunting collections, just as he left it. But you can walk all around the outside and look in through the windows and open doors, although vigilant staff prohibit any photographs unless you pay US$5 for each one. There is a small annex building with one room used for temporary exhibitions, and from the upper floors there are fine views over Havana. The tropical garden has many shady palms. Next to the empty swimming pool are the gravestones of Hemingway’s pet dogs, shaded by a flowering shrub. Cubanacán district Architects Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi and Vittorio Garati were involved in designing a revolutionary national school of art, begun in 1959. The complex was to combine schools of modern dance, plastic arts, dramatic arts, music and ballet, using domestic rather than imported materials. Deemed a “new spatial sensation”, the Escuela Superior de Arte, Calle 120 1110 esquina 9, T 288075, was an ambitious project of the early 1960s. Some parts were not completed and less practical schemes have been abandoned. You can still visit the Escuela Superior de Artes Plásticas, a series of interlinked pavilions, courtyards and sinuous walkways designed by Porro (which has been described as laid out in the form of a woman’s body, although some see it more as the womb itself, with a cervix-like fountain in the centre). There is also the Escuela Superior de Artes Escénicas, built by Gottardi, in the form of a miniature Italian hill-top town, rather claustrophobic and quite unlike Porro’s sprawling, “permeable” designs, which are full of fresh air and tropical vegetation. Porro’s Dance School, although part of the same complex, is not accessible via the Country Club (now the Music School, the 1960s Music School by Garati being now in ruins). Lack of maintenance, water leaks, a faulty drainage system, structural defects, vegetation and vandalism have led to deterioration of both the finished and unfinished buildings and there is a lack of funds for drawing up a master plan as well as carrying out repairs. Western Havana Off Av 5, 20 mins by taxi (US$10-15) from Havana. The Marina Hemingway tourist complex is in the fishing village of Santa Fé. Fishing and scuba diving trips can be arranged as well as other watersports and land-based sports. The Offshore Class 1 World Championship and the Great Island speedboat Grand Prix races are held annually during the last week in April. Other tournaments held here are listed under Festivals. There are 140 slips with electricity and water and space for docking 400 recreational boats. The resort includes the hotel El Viejo y El Mar, restaurants, bungalows and villas for rent, shopping, watersports, facilities for yachts, sports and a tourist bureau.
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Havana - £7.99
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