In case you missed it, check out our first day in Cuba here.
For our second day in Havana, we set up a tour with I Love Cuba Tours. Our guide picked us up at our casa and we walked and learned about Havana. Later, we went with a driver to places that were farther away.
One of the first things our guide pointed to was this mural of Trump sitting on a cactus.
As we walked, I took photos of more of the architecture. We saw a bit of what we’d seen the day before, but this time we heard more stories and history of the places we passed.
We visited a cigar factory and watch cigars being hand rolled.
Next we stopped at the Plaza de la Revolucion. This was where Castro held rallies. We learned that people received the day off from work for these rallies and they were required to attend.
Next, our tour guide brought us to our requested location – the Gran Sinagoga Bet Shalom, since we had a particular interest in seeing learning about the Jewish community in Cuba. There is a very small Jewish population remaining in Cuba today.
The next location we visited was the Callejon Hamel, a street decorated with murals, sculptures, mosaic tiled-walls by artist Salvador Gonzales Escalona.
Next, we went to the other side of the harbor, to where the La Cabaña fortress and Morro Castle are located. Now we had a view of Havana from the other side of the water.
This was Che Guevara’s house.
More of the fortress:
We ended our tour there. Later in the day, we visited the bar at a famous restaurant called La Guarida. These are views from there:
On our third day, we left the city of Havana and I will write about what we did next week. However, on the last day we were again in Havana. Before we left for the airport, we visited the Museum of the Revolution. Formerly the presidential palace, the museum tells the story of the Cuban Revolution.
This was followed by some last photos of Havana:
El Floridita, the restaurant Hemmingway frequented.
Inside the Center for Dance in Havana
The car we took to the airport.
This must have been my favorite street because I took a photo of it on both the first and last days of our trip!
Like I said, if you come back next week I will share what we did on the day we traveled outside of Havana!