This Might Be The Coolest Building In Havana

Careful readers of the blog noticed I said "this might be the coolest building in Havana"  and wonder why I couched it with "might."  That's easy -- I haven't been in all buildings in Havana.  Of course, reckless readers blew right past that subtle nuance and really don't care about my carefully constructed headline.  That's okay -- "you do you" as the Millennials would say.

(It's okay -- my daughters would tell you I'm an honorary Millennial.  Wait for it. . .)

(There is it. . .that high-pitching howling you hear right now is my daughters screaming like they are on a bridge in Oslo, as painted by Edvard Munch -- in case you didn't catch the analogy.)

Anyhow, the very cool building I refer to is the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales on east side of the Plaza de Armas.  Completed in 1792, it served as the residence of the Spanish governor of Cuba, and then later spent 18 years as the first President's Palace of Cuba, till 1920.

The marble came from Genoa, the grillwork from Bilbao, and the bricks from Malaga.  Built by slaves, it also housed a prison for 40 years.  The first floor has a limestone facade with multiple marine fossils embedded.  Built in a Cuban Baroque style, it's quite the building.

The courtyard is striking, with palm trees, other tropical plants, and a statue of Christopher Columbus occupying it.  We had gone into the courtyard in 2016, but no further.  This time, we paid the four CUCs to go in.  We went upstairs, where every room was interesting.

A tour guide glommed onto us, and gave Carol a tour in Spanish., with some modest English thrown in.  She took us through the rooms that were still preserved with a lot of the original furniture and decoration.  It had collections from everywhere, and gave off a "poor man's Versailles" vibe as it were.  

I would have figured that this sort of thing would have been destroyed by the commies after the revolution, but I would have been wrong.  It's neat the way the history has been preserved.  Other parts of the building were other museums, but after having tipped this guide for the rooms she took us through, we would accelerate past guides in other parts of the museum so we would not have to take their tour and tip them too.

(The first guide was great, and we didn't mind tipping her, but we also didn't want to spread money around in the less interesting portions of the building.  Given our speed getting past the other guides, I won't say how many NFL teams have expressed an interest in me trying out for wide receiver, but let's just say my agent is happy I have choices.)

After going through the palace, we walked back out onto the street bordering the Plaza, just as an Afro-Cuban band and female dancers on stilts came by.  Dressed in stunningly colorful costumes, they put on quite a show.

We walked across the plaza to the Castillo de la Real Fuerza.