Ernest Hemingway first discovered Cuba in 1928. He spent a good portion of his life in Cuba. His fondness for the island is evident in his life and in some of his writings. Most of Hemingway's time in Cuba was spent in Havana. From 1932 to about 1939, Hemingway took up residence in Room 511 of Havana's Hotel Ambos Mundos. In 1939, Hemingway became a permanent resident of Cuba with his purchase of the Finca La Vigía, a villa in the suburbs of Havana. Finca La Vigía was built in 1886 and was Hemingway's home from 1939 to 1960. Hemingway wrote many books while living at Finca La Vigía including - Islands in the Stream.
Along the north side of Cuba there are many strings of small island keys. These are home to a wilderness of coral in bright turquoise waters. Thousands of flamingos live in these untamed, verdant sanctuaries. Ernest Hemingway spent a lot of time in the waters of these island chains during World War II - hunting German Nazi U-boats in his thirty-eight foot boat, named -The Pilar. The secrete code name for Hemingway's covert operations was "Friendless," which he had coincidentally named after one of his favorite, big, black, sassy cats. Hemingway's adventures and the time he spent here were the inspiration for his classic novel, Islands in the Stream. Like Hemingway, the main character of Islands in the Stream spends time tracking German U-boats in the north side of Cuba.
Hemingway was known to frequently haunt two of old Havana's bars in particular. One of his favorites was the El Floridita which was originally founded in 1817 under the name of La Piña de Plata, meaning "The Silver Pineapple." Over time, the name eventually changed to El Floridita. Hemingway liked to order his modified version of a daiquiri, a drink with white rum, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, cane syrup, maraschino syrup, and crushed ice, all well shaken. The other bars weren't interested in accommodating Hemingway's daiquiri request. Because the El Floridita was the only bar that would, this became the place that Hemingway continually patronized for his modified daiquiris. Today, at El Floridita, there is a statue at one end of the bar honoring the exact spot where Hemingway always sat.
Islands in the Stream has been described as a quasi autobiography of Hemingway. A good portion of the book involves ordering daiquiris in a bar called El Floridita. The spot where Hemingway sat in the actual El Floridita is also described in the novel: "He took his seat on a tall bar stool at the extreme far left of the bar. His back was against the wall toward the street and his left was covered by the wall behind the bar."
Hemingway started writing this novel in the early 1950's. He mysteriously set it aside, and it was not found until after his death. Mary Welsh Hemingway, his fourth wife and widow, discovered it. Islands of the Stream was posthumously published in 1970.
