When I told people I'd be visiting Cuba, anyone who'd been said the same: "Great trip, but the food was terrible!" "You'll be eating rubber chicken and rice & beans all week." Not so, on this trip with Arrangements Abroad. They took us mainly to "paladors", privately-owned restaurants. We dined at @8 excellent such restaurants in Havana. Some were on a higher floor of a residential building, or what appeared to be an otherwise vacant former industrial space. While many served similar foods, I was still happily surprised at the variety. Below are photos from our visit to Finca Agroecologia El Paraiso in Vinales, which claims to be the first organic/farm-to-table restaurant in Cuba. Rachel, the owner (standing next to our local guide, Nelson, and above two seated members of our tour, Donna and Michael) started the restaurant with her father, converting a junkyard into a terraced vegetable garden. The view of the mountains, a UNESCO world heritage site, is breathtaking. The food is served family-style. What isn't used at the restaurant is donated to local schools. It was hard to dine so well guilt-free, knowing that many Cuban people don't eat as well as we did. While I recognize that ours was a position of privilege, I was glad we patronized mainly family-run restaurants. lynda murphy
