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Havana is probably the most exciting city
in Latin America managing to be both seedy and stylish. The
province owes its growth and prosperity to the almost
natural perfection of its harbour.
The Spanish, in the course of their
conquest of Central and Latin America, earmarked the city as
the ideal stopping-off point for their ships. In order to
protect their vessels from English, French and Dutch attack,
the Spanish built a wall around the city and constructed
huge fortresses at the entrance to the harbour.
As Cuba's political and economic center,
it has become a museum to a broken communist dream, yet it
is much more than just that: it is the focus of Cuba's youth
culture; the place where you'll find the most magnificent
hotels and the liveliest discotheques, where the Revolution
seems to have come full circle and, uncannily, recreated the
absurdly decadent world of Graham Greene's Our Man in
Havana.
Havana is an exhilarating place, but it
can also be exhausting. There is a neurotic, anxious edge to
life here, quite unlike anything you'll find in the rest of
Cuba.
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Central Havana:
Along with Habana Vieja, Centro Habana is the
most populated and overcrowded part of the city. It is a tumbledown
residential / commercial area, the city's main shopping street,
Calle San Rafael, traverses it from the Parque Central westwards.
The large Partagas tobacco factory, directly behind the Capitolio,
is the biggest export factory in the country, with 200 rollers
turning out 5 million cigars a year.
Walking around this area you understand why
Havana is sometimes referred to as a City of Columns; almost every
buildings displays either one or a mixture of the Corinthian, Doric
or Ionic types of this structure.
Vedado:
This part of the city is occupied primarily by
office blocks and hotels, business is centred on La Rampa. Directly
east on Calle San Miguel between calles Ronda and Mazon is the fine
Museo Napoleonico, this mansion is house of a remarkable collection
of Napoleonic memorabilia. Vedado's top sight is undoubedly the
Cementerio de Cristobal Colon.
Miramar:
Further to the west this area is home to some of
the most expensive hotels, restaurants in Havana and the majority of
the country's foreign embassies, the tree-lined avenues and stately
mansions on and around Fifth Avenue suggest that this is where
Havana's elite reside.
The area contains a few interesting museums, most
notably the Museo del Ministerio del Interior which will be of
interest to any one wanting to brush up on the antics of the cold
war.
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