Cuba
Map
March 05–13, 2000
I really wanted to visit Cuba before Fidel died.
The most striking thing in Cuba is all the old cars that are still around. Time has stood still here since the revolution — no new cars have imported since and there’s a ban on taking cars out of Cuba.
Cubans have grown tired of having the same old cars for three generations. That’s why they adorn the bonnets in all sorts of ways, adding little birds, signs, mirrors, and so on.
A car will only be taken out of service if it is physically completely destroyed. Some of the car’s units might break down, but that is no reason to cart it off to landfill.
The main mode of public transport is lorries with a series of bus bodies welded together and attached to them.
The buildings here are also eternal. The main principle governing architecture is that there must be galleries running the length of the ground floor. They protect pedestrians from the sun.
The builders never forget that every building should have its own name.
A police box of some sort.
Bus stop.
Both shop windows’ design and their contents are socialist.
On the door of the Capitol you can see the head of a historical figure who fell from favour (Gerardo Machado y Morales) that’s been turned into a globe.
Fidel is still alive ten years after I went on this trip.
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