Finca Vigia
Hemingway’s Wheeler-built cabin cruiser Pilar now rests on blocks on the tennis court at his home of Finca Vigia, outside Havana, Cuba.
Built in 1934, the boat is preserved as a monument to the writer's relationship with Cuba. This began when Hemingway started to visit the island in the 1920s, and culminated in his meeting Fidel Castro in
1960, the writer and the revolutionary enjoying big-game fishing trips.
Cuba is the backdrop to The Old Man and the Sea, and Hemingway donated his Nobel Prize for Literature to the Cuban people. Since then, 'Ernesto' has become a focal point of Cuban heritage. Pilar can be found at the Museo Hemingway, at Finca Vigia. Previously, Hemingway's boat resided in the fishing village of Cojimar, east of Havana.
Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway's magnificent fable is the tale of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. This story of heroic endeavour won Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature. It stands as a unique and timeless vision of the beauty and grief of man's challenge to the elements.