Back to Havana and Home to Mexico

Havana
After breakfast at 7:30. we walked to hotel Arenas Blancas with our little backpack and caught our pre arranged tour bus ( we were just taking the transportation portion) back to Havana. We sat in the very front seat and our guide shared lots of interesting information. Cubans can only have one house but later we were told that if it is in the city, thy can have one in the country. Toilet paper in Cuba is made from by product of sugar cane. (hence sweet paper) They must be able to document by receipt what they have in their homes so there is no chance of hiding extra money through purchases. Cuba has 11 provinces, 32 km at its narrowest,  Venezuela  is there major trading partner. The Royal palm is Cubas' national tree and the entire palm is used, the red fruit to feed he pigs, the centre of the trunk to make brooms, the leaves for palapa roofs, wood for houses and one part for wraping cigars.
Also that multi generations of family tend to live together.
We arrived back in Havana from Veradero and went to our previous Casa Particular. WE knew that they were booked but as they promised , found us an apartment with someone they knew. The young woman down the street was waiting for the return of a  couple from Borgoine France to arrive to pick up their things, whom we met. We left our bag there and and returned at 4 pm where she was just finishing cleaning up. It is a total apartment with a comfortable bed, very spartan of course. She said that this was her job to manage it and that she and her mom had bought it.  When we asked her about the elderly in Cuba, she said that they ar given accommodation and 2 meals a day, and that Cubans receive monthly rations of beans and rice for a very inexpensive price. ( we had seen rice patties as we travelled by bus.
While we had been waiting for the apartment we went to the museum of Anthropology and we had a good tour of things that had been dug up like bottles, ceramics and saw frescos on the wall that had been exposed under layers of plaster. Then we went to the Museum de la Revolution and saw many photographs and artifacts. Up the marble staircase there were many bullet holes where they entered to attempt to assent Battista ( the dictator supported by the American government) Under his dictatorship. many Cubans were tortured, lost their lives, as well as suffering abject poverty. Fidel, Raul, Che, and others took power in 1959 after fighting against Batista from 1954 to to the end of 1958. When they finally won, the Americans tried to intervene again and tried to take away the success of the revolution and encourage them to install an interim government. The Bay of Pigs  was in 1962 where we saw the tank that was used against the Americans who were supporting a group of dissidents from Cuba.
Che is revered in Cuba and is face is on everything. After he was made a Cuban citizen by Fidel ( he was a wealthy Doctor from Argentina) he served in important governmental posts for a few years until he left for Bolivia to fight. It is said that after he was wounded there, he was killed by the CIA. After that we went to the Rum Museum and learned about the production, getting the molasses from the sugar cane, then fermented and distilled. There are only 8 or 9 cubans that have the recipe and deal with the production. The colour of the rum is related to the oak barrels purchased from Scotland (used whisky barrels) We picked up 2 seven year aged bottles. Then on the way home to our apartment we came across a train. It happened to b Batista's and the first ladies train. There are 2 others in existence, one in the States and one in Mexico. It was very sulubriously appointed. After a short rest we went to Bodequito del Medio for dinner. This is where Earnest Hemingway and the rich and famous in its heyday. They serve Mojitos, and dinner wasn't bad.
The following day we walked to our first Casa Particular where we ate breakfast. There was no hot water or water this morning so we are showerless. We explores the bells Artes Museum and had lunch at a paella restaurant where we listened to a group play Cuban Music. That evening we walked over to the Buena Vista Social Club for dinner and a show. The show was enthusiastic, energetic, talented and involved the audience from many countries to participate.
The streets became almost silent during the night and then crescended with life from bicycles, taxis, bread veers who placed it in a bag and was lifted by road to the balconies above, children playing ball in the streets, elders and others sitting on door stoops, and motorcycles.Life vibrates in the streets. If you visit Cuba, bring things that you think will be useful to the people and it will be heartily welcomed, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, needles, clothes. They put their best out for you in all ways. Beautiful people who don't seem to have any differentiation with skin colour,  profession, and they all earn más o menos the same amount of income.