The thunderstorm rolls into Havana suddenly from the west, from tobacco country, and immediately besieges our two-tone DeSoto. Walfrido, the driver, flicks on the wipers - nothing. Cooly, he gets out, tweaks something under the hood and the wipers swish to life, pushing away the warm, grape-sized drops. Getting in, he explains it's lucky to get wet in the season's first rains. It's yet another example of resolviendo or "just do it," Cuban-style.

Although politics, revolution and a middle-aged trade embargo have conspired to make life complicated for ordinary Cubans, they maintain a cool and enviable elan others could learn to emulate. That spirit is most immediately tangible in "La Habana," Cuba's capital in every sense of the word. On a recent morning there, I leave the elegantly restored Hotel Florida ready to inhale the city. I'm in Habana Vieja, the old city, named a UNESCO World Heritage site for its amazing repository of history and culture, including gems like the grand colonial-era Plaza Catedral. Stepping off a corner onto the cobblestones, I hail a pedicab and ask the driver for a lift to Partagas, the renowned cigar factory responsible for such coveted smokes as Cohiba and Romeo y Julieta. It's behind the Capitolio, the old Cuban capitol building that is an exact replica of the Washington DC original. It's an ironic sight, especially with a bank of the vintage American cars that line Havana's streets parked in front.

Taking the long way home, we swing past the celebrated Malecon, the seawall where lovers, dreamers and the merely idle stare out across the Florida straits. We end up at Callejon de Hamel, a small street in the Vedado area that's been turned into one artist's vision. A riot of color, the buildings, walls and fences have been transformed into an extended canvas by Salvador, an artist and santero - a priest of the Afro-Cuban religion. After admiring his Santeria-inspired murals and a cherry-red '58 Ford CustomLine, I move on. Later, Walfrido gives me a lift to Finca Vigia, the small ranch Hemingway lived in just outside Havana that he bought with his first royalty check from "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Now a museum, the space remains just as he left it, full of game trophies, firearms and books - a clean, well-lighted place where the writer's presence still looms large.

My appetite for the city is sated later that night at La Guarida, Havana's hottest restaurant. Garnering fame initially as the location of the Oscar-nominated film "Fresa y Chocolate," the restaurant has become a magnet for Cuban cognoscenti and foreigners, thanks to an inventive menu and excellent mojitos. Almost ready to call it a night, I head instead to the Tropicana, the original shrine to bump-and-grind. Dictators, gangsters, revolutionaries and camera-toting tourists alike have for seventy years watched lithe dancers put on a heat-seeking show here. Like an aging diva herself, Havana can appear neglected, but she still seduces those open to explore her undisputed grandeur and cosmopolitan character.

Eric Hiss
Photography David LaChapelle/A+C Anthology

THE LIST
Gran Car Vintage Car Rentals(w/Driver)
Ph: 011.537.41.5180 & 41.7980
Partagas Cigar Factory
Industria #502
Ph: 011.537.33.8060
La Guarida Restaurant(Reservations a must!)
Calle Concordia #418 between Gervasio and Escobar
Ph: 011.537.62.4940
Hemingway Museum
Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula
Tours: 011.537.33.9884
Calle Hamel Murals
Hamel #1054
Ph: 011.537.78.1661
Hotel Florida
Calle Obispo and Cuba
Ph: 011.537.62.4127
Hotel Conde de Villanueva
Calle Mercaderes and Lamparilla
Ph: 011.537.62.9293
Tropicana
Calle 72
Ph: 011.537.27.0110