Page 78 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

76  HA V ANA AREA B Y AREA

shop window of the Casa del
Agua la Tinaja, which for
centuries has been dispensing
well water purified by very old
but still quite efficient ceramic
filters. Next door, La Mina
restaurant serves food and
cocktails outdoors and brightens
up the whole block with live
traditional music (see p270).
Among the most fascinating Wooden “azul avana” blue doors of the
shops in this part of the street colonial house at No. 117
is the old pharmacy called
Taquechel, which sells square, there are more modern
cosmetics and natural and shops offering everything from
homeopathic products, all embroidered shirts to books.
Casa del Agua la Tinaja, vendor of purified created and produced in Cuba. Next is El Floridita restau rant
well water Quaint shelves boast a pretty (see p270), known as “the cradle
collection of 17th- and of the daiquirí”. It was here, in
9 Calle Obispo 18th-century glass and Italian the 1930s, that barman Constante
majolica jars, as well as (his real name was Constantino
Map 4 E2.
alembics and antique Ribalaigua) perfected
The liveliest and most pharmaceutical and the original cocktail
characteristic street in Old medical objects. mixed by Pagluchi
Havana is like a long, narrow No. 117–19 is the (see p269). The new-
bridge linking the two oldest house in style daiquirí, a blend
architectural souls of Havana (see p28). of white rum, lemon,
the historic centre, One of the major sugar and a few
the colonial and the sights in the street is An old letter box at drops of maraschino
Art Nouveau-eclectic. the restored Hotel No.115 and ice, was devised
At one end is the Plaza Ambos Mundos with the help of
de Armas, the Cuban (see p256). This charming, Ernest Hemingway, who was
Baroque heart of the eclectically decorated hotel is a regular. Today, in El Floridita’s
old city, while at the rich in literary memories. The luxurious interior, besides
other is Avenida de writer Ernest Hemingway stayed Constante’s classic cocktails
Bélgica and the famous here for long periods from 1932 you can feast on lobster and
El Floridita restaurant, to 1939 (see p118), and began shellfish in the company of
which mark the start of writing his famous novel For a bust of the great novelist.
the more modern district. Whom the Bell Tolls in room 511. It was sculpted by Fernando
The street is called Calle Towards the end of the street, Boada while Hemingway was
Obispo because in near the small Obispo y Bernaza still alive.
Old filter, the past the city
Taquechel bishop (obispo)
pharmacy resided in the
building situated
on the corner of Calle Oficios.
Thanks to the restoration
work promoted by the Oficina
del Historiador de la Ciudad,
headed by the charismatic
Eusebio Leal Spengler, aimed at
salvaging the best buildings in
the old area, Calle Obispo has
retained the elegance, vivacity
and colours of the colonial
period. Street lighting makes
for enjoyable evening strolling.
A plaque on the left-hand
side of the Palacio de los
Capitanes Generales bears
quotations made by the great
Cuban patriot José Martí
concerning Garibaldi’s stop at
Havana. Opposite is the small Typical majolica jars on the shelves of traditional pharmacy Taquechel
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p256 and p270

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