Mountains Of Travel Photos
Home | Cuba Main | References | Contact 

Cuba Havana Vedado and Tropicana Photo Gallery

Vedado is a Havana neighbourhood to the west of Havana Centro, containing the art deco Hotel Nacional, the Ministerio del Interior with the large Che Guevarra mural, and the Memorial Jose Marti. Farther on is the world famous Tropicana cabaret show.

11 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Ministerio del Interior Che Guevara mural The Ministerio del Interior is an ugly concrete block on the northern side of the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana Vedado, famous for its huge mural of Che Guevara., with the words Hasta la Victoria Siempre (Always toward Victory) underneath.

11 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Ministerio del Interior Che Guevara mural

12 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Ministerio del Interior Che Guevara mural close up The huge mural of Che Guevara on the Ministerio del Interior in Havana Vedado is a copy of Alberto Korda's famous 1960 photograph.

12 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Ministerio del Interior Che Guevara mural close up

13 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Memorial Jose Marti The 109m high Memorial Jose Marti, Havana's tallest structure, was constructed between 1953 and 1958 using gray marble from the Isla de la Juventud.

13 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Memorial Jose Marti

14 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Memorial Jose Marti - Jose Marti statue close up The Memorial Jose Marti in Havana Vedado has an impressive 18m marble statue of a seated Jose Marti in a pensive Thinker pose, the work of artist Juan Jose Sicre.

14 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Plaza de la Revolucion - Memorial Jose Marti - Jose Marti statue close up

15 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Revolution Slogan Near the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana Vedado is a billboard with a revolutionary slogan: Ante La Amenaza Y La Agresion, Cuba Responde: Mas Revolucion – Cuba responds to threats and aggression with more revolution.

15 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Revolution Slogan

16 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Monumento a Jose Miguel Gomez The Monumento a Jose Miguel Gomez sits atop a hill below the Castillo del Principe. This classical memorial is the work of Italian Giovanni Nicolini, and was sculpted from Boltiano and Carrera marble in 1936. Gomez was a Cuban General in the Cuban War of Independence who went on to become the second President of Cuba from 1909 to 1913.

16 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Monumento a Jose Miguel Gomez

21 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Hotel Nacional Hotel Nacional is the grandest of art deco hotels, built in 1930 in Havana Vedado.

21 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Hotel Nacional

22 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Hotel Nacional Outside and Lobby Here are views of the Hotel Nacional in Havana Vedado from directly in front from the Malecon and the front gardens, and from behind. The lobby of the Hotel Nacional in Havana Vedado has Spanish type mosaics, deep leather couches, chandeliers and precious hardwood ceilings.

22 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Hotel Nacional Outside and Lobby

23 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Edificio Focsa, Hotel Nacional, and Malecon The Malecon stretches from Havana Centro towards Vedado with views of the Hotel Nacional and Focsa. The modernist Edificio Focsa building was built between 1954 and 1956. With 36 floors, it was on its completion in June 1956 the second-largest concrete structure of its type in the world, constructed in its entirety without the use of cranes. I wanted to eat at the top-floor restaurant La Torre for both the food and the views, but the weather was too bad.

23 Cuba - Havana Vedado - Edificio Focsa, Hotel Nacional, and Malecon

31 Cuba - Havana Miramar - Russian Embassy The strikingly ugly Russian Embassy sticks out like a sore thumb in the graceful avenues of Playa and Miramar in Havana, casting its dark Stalinist shadow over an otherwise quiet and attractive neighborhood. With its imposing double tower visible for miles around, this monstrous structure is testament to the once weighty influence of Cuba's superpower patron on the island.

31 Cuba - Havana Miramar - Russian Embassy

41 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Charlotte Ryan and Peter Ryan With Cigar The entrance fee to the Tropicana cabaret show in Havana is outrageous, but includes a cigar and a Cuba libre. Are Charlotte Ryan and her son Peter Ryan smoking a cigar?

41 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Charlotte Ryan and Peter Ryan With Cigar

42 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Big Start To Show The Tropicana nighclub opened on December 31, 1939, and is still going strong. Set in a shady, open-air auditorium, the show has over 200 dancers and a big band.

42 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Big Start To Show

43 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancer Mulatta dancers wearing next to nothing or sequined costumes and giant plumed headdresses parade and perform to the whole gamut of Latin-American music at the Tropicana in Havana.

43 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancer

44 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancer Graham Green in his book Our Man in Havana used the Tropicana as the location where Jim Wormold takes his overindulged daughter Milly to celebrate her seventeenth birthday. “Chorus-girls paraded 20 feet up among the great palm trees, while pink and mauve searchlights swept the floor … The piano was wheeled away into the undergrowth, and the dancers stepped down like awkward birds from among the branches.”

44 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancer

45 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancer The sea of lithe dancers, the exuberance of their costumes, and the sheer excess of it all is worth the trip. It all occurs under the stars in the shadow of tall overhanging trees.

45 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancer

46 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancers The costumes keep changing at the Tropicana cabaret show in Havana.

46 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Beautiful Dancers

47 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Acrobats The Tropicana cabaret show in Havana even features acrobatic acts. There are also some very good singers.

47 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Acrobats

48 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Dancers dance with audience at end of show The mulatta dancers dance with the audience at the end of the Tropicana cabaret show in Havana.

48 Cuba - Havana - Tropicana - Dancers dance with audience at end of show


This album has 18 items in total    |    Album was updated 2008-09-27 09:25    |    Generated by Jalbum 8.0, custom skin ExhibitPlus 1.5