No music or rum for tourists in Cuba after Fidel Castro’s death
Tourists looking to drink daiquiris at El Floridita, a favourite haunt of legendary US author Ernest Hemingway in Havana, found the entrance gated shut.
It’s a historic moment that you’ll remember. In a few years, we’ll be able to say that we were here
Others hoping to eat dinner while watching a music and dance show at El Guajirito restaurant stared at an empty stage with a closed curtain.
Authorities have banned alcohol sales, while shows have been cancelled, leaving foreign visitors with few options for entertainment – though some restaurants ignored the prohibition.
A Spanish couple was sipping lemonade at the Bilbao bar in Old Havana instead of one of the many bottles of rum or beer on display behind the counter.
“As a tourist, you would like to drink a beer, but it’s understandable,” said Vicente Pavon, 28, a section chief at a home improvement company in Madrid.
“It’s a historic moment that you’ll remember. In a few years, we’ll be able to say that we were here” when Castro died, said Pavon, who nevertheless would have liked to drink a daiquiri next to the life-size bronze statue of Hemingway at El Floridita.
Others like Pavon took the booze and music bans in stride, appreciating that they landed on the island at a momentous time in history, as Cubans bid farewell to a man who ruled the island for almost half a century.
