The Varadero Hotel International is one of the symbols of my adolescence. I stayed there twice, and if you spent a vacation week in Varadero you had to go to the cabaret at night, there were no discotheques then, your spent your beach nights there or at the Kawama cabaret. The International is linked in my memory with daring attitudes that were only summer kisses. I loved coming into the spacious lobby and finding familiar faces, even an ugly photo next to a vase of artificial flowers that they had in the vestibule.
For those like me, who have treasured the image of Varadero for more than twenty years, the familiar and beloved silhouette of the Hotel International will be no more. It is going to be demolished to reaffirm the loss of identity of Varadero in pursuit of the new, more Benidorm, more Cancun. Rounding out my feeling of loss, is that I haven’t even been able to find the ugly photo.
October 14, 2010
