Cuba - Santiago de Cuba, Fidel's Last Stop

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Drove down from "El Morro", past the city's port to the city's main cemetery to view Fidel's grave.

Had Arrived in Cuba just after Fidel Castro had been laid to rest..... symbolically returning to the region where he launched his revolution. The funeral cortege had transited the length of the island, about 500 miles, retracing the route to Havana once taken to topple Batista.....attended by millions along the way.

At the cemetery, a mausoleum to Jose Marti is... just behind Fidel's grave. Returning to the city center you pass Revolutionary Square where, like in Havana, nearby buildings brandish large metal sculptures evoking Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the other two of the Revolutionary "trinity" of commanders.

Fronting these, across the square, a very large - and surprisingly modern/abstract -  monument to Antonio Maceo one of the independence wars heroes ..as he was in his original country the Dom Rep. 

(Historical note: Hispaniola twice exported its civil tumult to Cuba: first, expelled French sugar plantation owners from Haiti, then successful rebel generals from the Dom Rep who continued their animosity against Spain in neighboring Cuba.)

Oriente Province, historically much bigger than what it is now, was where many of the independence wars/Cuban revolution leaders came from or originated their rebellions: Cespedes, Gomez, Maceo, Garcia, Fidel....a province big enough to support a rebellion and yet too far away for Havana-based Spaniards to successfully suppress the rebels/revolutionaries.

December 2016

Link to Photo Album:

Fidel's Gravesite, Santiago de Cuba,  Cuba

  

EURO 2015 - Russia, St. Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo, The Grounds

 

 

 

Notes:

The grounds of Catherine the Great's country palace blend the prevalent European landscape designs of 18th Century (rectilinear pathways connecting small,well-tended parks each surrounded by precisely- shaped hedges) with the emerging "English" design which allowed for plants and trees to retain their more effusive "natural" appearance. Among the buildings on the grounds: apartments for Catherine's lovers, notably Prince Potemkin; a Greek-Roman Pantheon with an exterior gallery exhibiting the busts of famous "enlightened" figures, ancient and contemporary... overlooking a "classic" garden; a small "retreat" on the edge of a small lake where Catherine spent most mornings poring over state documents....with only strong coffee as sustenance; on exit, a long view of the Palace's exterior.....and,finally, passing a statue of Pushkin who spent his summers in Tsarkoe Selo some decades later and for whom the nearby town is now named.

Link to Photo Album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cciwCRRD8bBQhWHt7

May 31, 2015

Italy - Sardinia, Tharros

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Something close to half of the UNESCO World Heritage sites are in Italy... the majority of which are beyond the "must-see" Rome-Florence-Venice tourist arc. These others, though smaller, are equally steeped in history. At Tharros, there is a small medieval chapel where undoubtedly the local priest exhorted the local peasantry to join the Crusades. Just beyond, there is an extensive archaeological site with layers of history one built upon the other... ...Nuraghi, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Aragonese. Tharros served as a commercial port until sea-borne Saracen raiders made it no longer tenable......and it was abandoned for the safer location of Oristano. Underfoot at the site.... the footpaths and streets... paving stones still very much in place.

May 6, 2015

Link to Photo Album:

Italy - Sardinia, Tharros

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Argentina - Cordoba, Cavanagh 

Link to Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/FeFoMWAzdpJCrvY89

Notes: 

...weekend with L's relatives deep in the "Pampas Humedas"; dinner with all and sundry then walking it off with tour of the downtown sights. Next day, home- cooked 'tallarines" and reminiscing with photos and the memories they spark. (Panorama of Carlos Paz...350 kilometers later).