Monday in Cuba

When we finally got up, it was 12:00 noon by the time we were ready and raring to go! We left a buck and our dirty laundry lavenderia for the chamber maid. Today we got a taxi to go to the Plaza Revolution. It’s a vast empty square- quite a barren grey and depressing site; reminiscent of the old Potsdamer Platz in East Berlin.

Overseeing the square was Che Guevar’s outline on the building of the Ministry(?). Later we saw photos of the square just packed with throngs of people gathered to hear Castros’ speeches.

Right across from the plaza is the monument to José Marti -a tall towering marble block; and also the balcony from where Fidel orated, or maybe still orates. We took a fare share of photos, saw the building housing Fidel’s office, although residents tell us that where he lives is “mysterioso”.

Our taxi driver was smart enough to have waited for us across the street. There was not much else in the area except for mucho hente gente waiting for buses and rides, and a guy we observed riding a bicycle without a seat – which even fell completely apart on him.

It’s a pity how resourceful they have become. Everywhere people are working on their autos, trucks, engines, and bikes- busy making repairs to keep them running. A lot of times, cars stall at stops and break down.

Rain clouds were dark and looming, and we asked our taxi driver to take us to Partagas Cigar Factory. Some reason, he wanted to show us another one instead, farther away, and saying something about tour times…

Sticking with our plan, we got out over by the marble monolith Capitolo, which incidentally was modeled after the U.S. Capital building.