IT IS EERILY QUIET THE DAY I ARRIVE at Cayo Guillermo, a small tropical island in the Jardines del Rey archipelago off Cuba’s northern coast. The Covid-19 pandemic has decimated the country’s tourist industry, and most of the hotels are closed and empty. The newly constructed Grand Muthu is the only place in business, its 500 rooms accommodating just 26 guests. I am one of them.
It is my 25th visit to Cuba, but the first time I’ve stayed on Cayo Guillermo. I don’t have much choice. During the first phase of its post-Covid reopening, the rest of the country is still sealed off. Yet, with a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream stuffed in my bag, I have an ulterior motive.
This was where “Papa” Hemingway came to hunt for German U-boats during World War II. Accompanied around Cuba’s wild northern cays. Outwardly a fishing vessel, secretly carried grenades, machine guns, and rocket launchers. It was an experience Hemingway fictionalized in his posthumously published novel But, like so many Papa stories, the truth often gets confused with the legend.
