I was able to visit Cuba in September with a friend through a local travel group that had a special permit with the Treasury Department. Because we were all from the U.S. we had to be on an organized tour as part of a "people to people cultural exchange". I had never done a tour but it was much better than we thought and allowed us to see things we may not have seen on our own.
We flew direct from Los Angeles to Havana (4 1/2 hours) on a chartered United Airlines jet. We were scheduled to stay in a hotel a few blocks from the Habana Libre (Havana Hilton), but a few weeks before we left we were notified that we were going to be staying at the Habana Libre where the Polynesio is. We spent 4 days in Havana, 2 days at a beach resort, and back to Havana for our last 3 days. After our bus, and or walking tour, we were on our own after dinner. Each night in Havana we started at the Polynesio for drinks before going out for local music. The bars and clubs are open until 4am and we had to be on the bus by 9am so we ended up getting less than 40 hours of sleep in 8 nights (didn't want to miss anything).
We tried to talk our group into joining us but most were not interested. since our meals were included, we were always full and never tried the food there. The place was empty almost every night with the exception of two or three tables. We were usually the only ones in the bar. Most of the drinks were pretty good.
Here are some photos from the Polynesio
I won't post much of the interior as nothing has changed from the other posts.
This is a picture from a sign they had in the hotel near the stairs (open and all is repaired) leading down to the exterior entrance on a side street to the Polynesio.
They had mugs that were not for sale at any price. I really wanted the Rum Barrel (the drink in it was very good and was called the "Tiki") The bartenders said that they only had 10-12 of each design due to breakage and theft. I saw no Port or Starboard glasses. The glass pitcher that they served the Mai Tai and Daquari in has the Trader Vic's logo.
The bartender brought out this fog cutter mug to show the difference between it and the one they have been using for a while. It was smaller and he said that was the only one of the original fog cutter mugs from 1958.
The guy in the middle was bar tending the last 2 nights we were there. Osvaldo Sainz is the manager and has worked there since 1986. After talking to him for a while (still couldn't wrangle a mug) he brought out a family photo album and allowed me to take photos of some of the images. Most of these are from the opening night of the Polynesio with lots of movie stars, Bautista's wife and some I don't remember. All I had was my iphone so here you go...
Ernest Hemingway
I asked Osvaldo who the gentleman was in this photo and it turns out to be his Grandfather, Jesus Sainz who worked there from 1958 to 1983. Osvaldo's Father, Enrique Sainz also worked there from 1960 to 1989.
Here are some shots of original post cards from Trader Vic's
We finally got a few people from our group to join us the last night
