Cuba - 14 December 2011

Our start time is supposed to be 10:00 am. Today is to be the “Day of the Dead”. We will be visiting several cemeteries. The first cemetery that we visited was the Ashkenazi cemetery. It had a “normal” Holocaust memorial. Our next stop was the Sephardic cemetery which had an American section where some gangsters were buried. There were two Holocaust memorials; one put up by the Sephardic community and one by the expatriate American community. We wandered around these cemeteries which could use some fixing up. For the most part it was neat, but there were broken stones which would require more than unskilled labor.

Ashkenazi Cemetery on the outskirts of Havana

Holocaust Memorial in Ashkenazi Cemetery

Holocaust Memorial

Sephardic Cemetery

Sign at gate

Love poem left by Husband who married another woman 6 months later

Sephardic Holocaust Memorial

Holocaust Memorial

Holocaust Memorial constructed by Expatriate American Community
Gangster buried by his friends and possibly also made dead by them

Our next stop (cost 5 convertible pesos) was the home of Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway had lived in Cuba for twenty or thirty years and had hidden some friends who had fallen in trouble with the Batista regime. Hemingway was noted to be eccentric. The home was in my opinion well laid out and looked extremely comfortable. When Hemingway died, he left his boat which had been built in New York to his boat’s captain. The captain turned it over to the government to be part of the Hemingway museum. It was interesting that we were not permitted to enter the house, but doors and windows were open so that we could see virtually everything.

Hemingway Home

Walking to front of house

Front Door

Living Room

Living Room with guard to make sure no one enters

Another Room

I loved this vase

Looked like an office

Looked like a bedroom

Bathroom - looked bathrooms in Marla's Home

Bathroom

Office in separate building

View from tower that Hemingway used to write

View from Tower

View from Tower

View from Tower

I liked the tiles

Hemingway's boat - used for fishing

Me with boat in background

Swimming pool - rather deep at deep end

Most of us wanted to see the famous beeches; not to swim, but just to see them. We stopped at a roadside restaurant, where the food turned out to be better than some of the more elegant restaurants that we had gone to in the early part of the tour. I am sorry that I didn’t get a picture of the place. Lynn watched the cooking process as it was open. I tried to order grilled chicken, but they were out of chicken. Most of the other dishes were either pork or shell fish, so I just ordered plantain chips. I originally wanted fried potatoes, but they apparently didn’t have that either. After we finished eating, we wanted to walk to the beach, but it started raining. We stopped at the “big” hotel in the area to use the bathroom. By the time we were done, the rain had stopped; consequently we were able to walk on to the beach. The surf was pounding and the red flags were up indicating that you couldn’t go swimming. We got back in the bus.

Visiting the beach - Note roaring waves

Note red flag warning bathers away

View down the beach

Me on the beach

Our next stop was the Christopher Columbus cemetery, which is the largest cemetery in Cuba and contains significant ornate monuments. In the center of cemetery is an octagonal chapel with some lovely stained glass windows. After wandering around for while, we got back in the bus and headed back to the hotel to rest for our “farewell” dinner.

Christopher Columbus Cemetery in Havana

Monument for Jose Marti's Mother

Sign at monument

Important General who fought the Spanish and lived to tell

Gothic architecture

Memorial to fire fighters who died in line of fire

Interesting design on door

Fire fighter monument

Sign on Monument

Fire monument

Note interesting trees

We left for the farewell dinner which was held at the Restaurant Oriente. The food was actually good and it was quite pleasant. After we came back to the hotel, we gathered in the lobby to work on the bottles of rum that Steve had accumulated.

Out to dinner for farewell dinner

At the table

At the table