Frozen in 1959, running on rum, classic cars, and pure stubbornness
One of the most visually arresting cities in the world — crumbling pastel colonial buildings, American cars from the 1950s still running as taxis, and a music culture where son, salsa, and Afro-Cuban jazz play live in the streets every night. Cuba's economic stasis since the US embargo (1962) has inadvertently preserved an architectural heritage intact that development would have long since demolished. The food is straightforward — rice and black beans, roast pork, plantains — but the paladares (private restaurants operating out of family homes) have transformed the dining scene since they we…
Founded by the Spanish in 1519, Havana became the wealthiest city in the Americas — the last stop for treasure fleets loading silver from Mexico and Peru before crossing the Atlantic, protected by the massive Morro Castle fortress. Cuba gained independence from Spain in 1898 following the Spanish-American War, spent decades under US-backed governments, and then saw Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement seize power in January 1959. The US embargo, imposed in 1962 after Cuba nationalized American property, has shaped every aspect of Cuban life since.