Havana hotel hosted a storied name in literature
Havana’s Hotel Ambos Mundos is quite happy to provide people with clear reminders that it was a favourite haunt of a man who became a household name in literature and loved Cuba’s capital as well.
Ruben Herrera Tobierre, who oversees the landmark Old Havana property, notes that Ernest Hemingway routinely stayed in the hotel during Havana visits, with a room for years set aside for him now a showcase for those seeking insights into the novelist, whose works include The Old Man and the Sea, which had a Cuba setting.
“Ernest Hemingway liked this hotel because it’s central,” Herrera Tobierre said of the hotel, within easy walking distance of such famed Old Havana watering holes as La Bodeguita del Medio, El Floridita and Sloppy Joe’s, all of which Hemingway patronized.
Ambos Mundos — the name of which translates as Both Worlds and refers to Havana being a meeting point of the Old and the New Worlds – has permanently set aside Room 511, which Hemingway regularly stayed in. Hotel guests can visit the room for free, while non-guests are charged a fee to see it. The room now has newspaper clippings about Hemingway, photographs of him, displays the heads of a couple of animals he shot while on safari in Africa and has the likes of a typewriter as well.
Also featured is the telegram notifying him that he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“This is a museum. You can’t stay in this room,” Herrera Tobierre says of Room 511. “This is a very famous hotel. This hotel is known because Hemingway stayed here.”
Herrera Tobierre says Havana remains proud of its ties to Hemingway, who also had a retreat on the city’s outskirts. Ambos Mundos dates back over a century and its features include a rooftop terrace overlooking Old Havana where guests can have both meals and drinks. There’s also a lobby bar that Herrera Tobierre notes serves the likes of daiquiris, a distinctively Cuban cocktail that Hemingway appreciated.
Ambos Mundos’ Old Havana location appeals to tourists, says Herrera Tobierre, while recalling how a Hemingway wife and a Hemingway mistress once fought outside the hotel while an amused Hemingway watched. Despite the Ambos Mundos’ long history, guests will find modern touches, such as guest rooms having the likes of free Wifi, flat-screen TVs and air conditioning.
The Hotel Ambos Mundos is now part of Gaviota, which offers tourists hotels throughout Cuba.
