Our last stop on our long Tuesday tour was Plaza de la Revolucion, which is dominated by yet another Jose Marti statue, as well as the Marti Monument. Our tour guide, Henry, sent us off on our own after the cab parked. We paid one CUC each to walk up and around the statue, with views of the Communist Party headquarters in the back.
Underscoring how much Cuba is changing (still lots more to go), I took a picture of the Party HQ and no one blinked an eye -- I half expected someone to come up to me and make me delete the photo. I am sure there are things in Cuba (as in the US) you can't take a picture of, but I didn't find it!
Across the square is the Ministry of the Interior, which is dominated by a big view of Che Guevara.
Hey, it's Che!
Also, the Ministry of Communications, with has a big "thing" of Camilio Cienfuegos. (Sorry, I don't know what to call the "thing" -- it's not a sculpture, painting, statue, or anything else.) Carol and I, and apparently others, mistook Cienfuegos for a poorly done attempt at Fidel. The good news is, it doesn't look anything like Fidel, and it actually isn't him. The bad news is, it looks more like an Iranian Ayatollah:
Cuban revolutionary,
or Ayatollah? You decide.
Beyond the government buildings (including the national library and a theater) are sweeping views of much of the city.
We decide not to go into the Marti monument, as we were pretty knackered by that point in the day (turns out there is an elevator to the top -- next time), and wandered back down to the car. We drove past the Christopher Columbus cemetery (he's NOT buried there, but supposedly it is very neat to wander around in), past John Lennon park and his seat statue on a park bench, as well as the famed Submarine Amarillo (a bar) before being deposited at the famed Hotel Nacional.
Arriving at the hotel, we looked forward to checking in and relaxing, but that would be too easy!
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