Necropolis

A big walking day. A guy halfway up La Rampa said we were “crazy” to walk all the way to the Cemetery – we didn’t tell him we’d already strolled down to Havana Vieja, where we spent a bit of time in the Cathedral trying to shake off a new ‘friend’ we’d made with a Hemingway beard and a baseball shirt, and then walked all the way along the Malecon from the Fort to the Hotel Nacional, where we’d given up and fled inland. We swerved the ‘Cuban institution’ of Coppelia, the massive modernist ice-cream parlour as it had massive queues, massive prices, a general odour of cheap strawberry ice cream and architecture that turned out to be a bit more Smithfield Centre than Las Seitas. The Cemetery (or Necropolis Cristobal Colon, to give it it’s full title) is pretty great though – a huge, veritable sea of marble. Even Beck, who is slightly less of a boneyard aficionado than me, had to agree. The walk back seemed even longer – and the near constant chorus of “Taxi? Taxi?” had mysteriously dried up just when we decided we might actually need one – but at least we got to revisit Revolution Square and pay our respects once again to Che and the Other One…