A Journey Around Cuba

Havana is the capital and largest city of Cuba and started as a Sixteenth-Century Spanish colonial settlement, built around a natural harbor. The forces of Fidel Castro overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, and established a Communist state.

During the Cold War, Cuba trained large numbers of doctors who provided medical assistance in Communist countries across the world. I am sure that the country could earn a lot of money by providing medical procedures to patients from the U.S. and Canada.

The first of the following scenes are inside, El Capitolio, the Capitol Building in Havana.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

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The Morro Castle, guarding the entrance to the harbor, is the original castle of Havana. The following scenes begin there, with views along the Malecon, which is the seaside street and promenade.

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The following scenes begin in Revolution Plaza, where Fidel Castro often addressed crowds. The memorial statue and tower of Jose Marti can be seen, as well as the famous murals of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.

Like Mexico, Cuba had a two-stage revolution. The first, for both countries, was independence from Spain. For that stage, Cuba's Jose Marti played a role similar to that of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico. 

In Mexico's second stage of revolution President Porfirio Diaz, who was perceived as corrupt and who allowed a few wealthy people to dominate the country, was overthrown by popular revolt. This second stage was mirrored in Cuba with the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista, whose policies and activities were almost a mirror image of Diaz, and brought Fidel Castro to power.

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Here is a general look at central Havana, starting near Plaza Cathedral.

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Finally, in Havana, we come to Plaza Vieja, which might be the best-known of all of these Plazas, or squares, in Havana.

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Varadero is on the north coast of Cuba, not far from Havana.

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Havana is the largest city and capital of Cuba. At the other end of the island, on the south coast, is Santiago de Cuba, which is Cuba's second city. Do you remember Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball's husband? This was his hometown. The Cuban Revolution, which ultimately resulted in victory for Fidel Castro, began in Santiago de Cuba. Following are some scenes of the city.

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Here is another city in the south of Cuba, Bayamo. Like Havana and Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo started as a Sixteenth-Century Spanish settlement.

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Outside of the cities, here is what life is like in a Cuban town. This town is called Sibanicu.

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Concluding our journey, in the central part of Cuba, this is the city of Camaguey.

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