Havana good time

Go with the flow

There is a place in Havana where all is peaceful and tranquil. A place where you can barely make out the non-stop salsa, Afro-Cuban jazz and Latin sounds that emanate from the city's thousands of professional musicians.

Look towards the harbour beyond Plaza de Armas, the oldest square in Havana and the site where the city is thought to have been founded in 1519. But of course, you will still have to sidestep the moustachioed chap wearing a sombrero with a guitar welded to his chest, who will attempt to serenade you for two minutes and expect a few dollars for his 'hard' work.

A better bet is to go with the flow. Forget about the sound of silence and head back into the centre down the main thoroughfare Obispo, where every shop, bar, restaurant, hotel and home blares out live and recorded music at any time of day or night. The narrow street is a perfect illustration of a Havana at odds with the globalisation taking over the rest of the world - there are no branded chains here, the Cuban flag is the only recognisable symbol and tourists and locals alike dodge the potholes.

Try as you might, it's impossible to avoid the ghost of Ernest Hemingway in Havana and the Hotel Ambos Mundos on Obispo is where the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist stayed on and off between 1928 and 1939 until he moved to a house in Finca Vigia, just outside Havana. Room 511 remains as it was during his tenancy, although if you've booked to stay, be assured the other rooms have since been refurbished.

Retracing Hemingway's steps down the street will lead you to his favourite bar El Floridita, dubbed 'the cradle of the daiquiri', an essential stop for any visitor. On the wall, above his favourite spot, there is the bronze bust inaugurated in 1954 for his Nobel Prize for Literature. The surroundings are luxurious and authentic - a daiquiri will cost you $6, two or three times more than in any other watering hole.

Hemingway's other spot was La Bodeguita del Medio, around the corner from Ambos Mundos. Equally famous for its mojitos, Cuba's national drink, it forgoes the plush decor of El Floridita in favour of scrawlings on the walls from its many visitors over the years. Any misapprehensions you had about Cuban food will be resolved here - ask nicely and the welcoming staff will bring out roast pork, fried pork, rice and black beans and black bean soup. Simple it may sound, but it's quite a revelation.

"You want cigars, my friend?" became a conspiratorial whisper in my ear - a mantra throughout our two weeks in Cuba. "Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta - good price," buzz the voices beyond earshot of officials. The most coveted smokes in the world are only 'prescribed' through official private enterprises, given the communist status of Cuba. Blackmarket cigars and fakes are widely peddled as their value to Westerners is well-known - a box of 25 that might cost over $200 back home could come in under a quarter of the price.

From Obispo, across Parque Central, the bustling hub of Old Havana, is the magnificent Capitalio building, modelled on the US Capital building in Washington DC. And behind the Capitalio you'll find the Partagas cigar factory, which - given the reputation of Cuban tobacco - is definitely a must, even for non-smokers.

After the revolution, private enterprise was nationalised, hence all the major brands are produced under the one roof - Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba and Montecristo. Despite producing 25,000 cigars a day, everything is still done by hand: following nine months' training, workers are expected to make up to 120 cigars a day, depending on size, using just a wooden board, metal knife and small guillotine. Walking through the factory, we viewed every process, from separating the tobacco leaves into sizes and rolling the cigars through to 'quality control' and the final process conditioning room.

The rolling process seems remarkably simple and yet there's clearly method and skill in selecting the correct leaves to distinguish each cigar's flavour, smell and burn. In Orwellian 1984-style, Granma, the official party newspaper, is read to the workers over a loudspeaker in the morning followed by a novel in the afternoon.