Havana and a visit to Cojimar
Once again we went on an early morning photo shoot. We started off by going to a nearby hotel and taking some photos from their rooftop.
I noticed in Havana there was a lot of construction which apparently had not been seen in other years.
Another old, colourful hallway and stairs.
Ten miles east of Havana is Hemingways' Cuba house- Finca Vigia, meaning "lookout house". We spent some time walking around the grounds and looking into the various rooms through the windows. Almost all of his books, trophies and furniture remain. No one is allowed in the museum but the windows and doors are opened so you can look in most of the rooms. I noticed bookshelves full of books in every room. This was the office with Hemingways' old typewriter on the desk. Finca Vigia is located in a small, working-class town of San Francisco de Paula. The Cuban people respected that Hemingway chose to live in a modest town among the people he fished with. Hemingway lived in this villa from 1939 to 1960.
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Hemingway's living room (above left). Outside on the patio (above right). The house was built in 1886 by a Spanish Architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer and was purchased by Hemingway in 1940 for a cost of $12,500 (he had previously been renting the house). It was in this house that Hemingway wrote two of his most famous novels: For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. After years of neglect, restoration and preservation work has begun to fix up the property.
After visiting Hemingway's house we visited Cojimar, a small fishing village. The Torreon de Dojimar is a military fortress presently occupied by the Cuban Coast Guard. The old spanish fort was build in 1649. It was the first fortification taken by the British when they attacked Havana from the rear in 1762. This town of Cojimar was an inspiration for Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It is also the location where during the 1940s an enormous Great White Shark was caught which is one of the contenders of the largest specimen of all times. However, there is some controversy about the accuracy of Great White Shark measurements taken before modern times.
A memorial to Ernest Hemingway was erected next to the fort by the residents of Cojimar in 1962. Hemingway was delighted with Castro's overthrow of the Batista regime in spite of the fact that Finca Vigia was later expropriated by the state after the Bay of Pigs. By then Hemingway was on his way out of Cuba- his health and mental state were in serious decline and he was fed up with the houseguests and tourists to his estate. He ended up moving back to the state of Idaho where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.
A pier in the fishing village.
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This car was parked near where we ate lunch.
After lunch I came across some kids practising for a Cuban celebration.
Back in Havana in the late afternoon I went for a walk near the hotel.
Meet Garlic man as Charlene liked to call him.
A cute little girl all dressed up in a beautiful sun dress.
At the end of the day Liban (our Cuban guide) and the bus driver took Keith and I for a drive- by this time everyone else wanted to do their own thing. We stopped to look at the Christ of Havana (in Spanish- Cristo de La Havana). The statue is located on a hilltop overlooking the bay in Havana. It is the work of the Cuban sculptor Jima Madera who won the commission for it in 1953. The statute is carved out of white Carrara marble, the same material for many of the monuments of the Colon Cemetery. The statute is about 66 feet high including a 10 foot base and weighs approximately 320 tons. The statute was built from 67 blocks of marble that had been brought from Italy after having personally been blessed by Pope Pius XII. The statute was inaugurated on December 24, 1958. Just fifteen days after this Fidel Castro entered Havana during the Cuban Revolution and the same day the image was hit by lightning and the head was destroyed. It was subsequently repaired.
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After we left the statute we made our way to the Morro Castle (Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro). This fortress guards the entrance to Havana. When the fort was built in 1589, Cuba was under the control of Spain. The lighthouse was added in 1846. The Castro Regime imprisoned the Cuban poet and novelist Reinald Arenas at the castle for criticism of the government. The photo on the left side shows Liban posing in the underground tunnel. |
This is a photo where you can actually see Liban, our guide.
Goodnight Havana.