In 1983 efforts continued to restore the beauty of Havana's boulevards.
Behind Havana's Parque Central lies Capitolio, the house of government, completed
in 1929. The building has a marble interior and a cupola that rises 310 feet.
Havana Harbour.
At the head of Opisbo Street one finds the former Hotel Ambos Mundos, where
Ernest Hemingway stayed during his first visit to Cuba in 1932. Here, in Room 511 he
wrote To Have and Have Not and the first three chapters of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
On December 5, 1963, Cuba issued a set of three stamps honouring Ernest
Hemingway. This design depicts a scene from The Old Man and the Sea
which is set in the Cuban fishing village of Cojimar (Cohima) where there is
a monument to this writer who is described by James Michener as "loved,
revered" by Cubans. His status is evident from the way in which the Cuban
government has preserved Hemingway's home, La Vigia and his boat Pilar.
The Central Railway Station on Avenue del Puerto
reflects Havana's commercial and industrial importance.
The background design is from a photograph of the mail slot in the colonial
era building which housed the philatelic sales centre in the central plaza.
© Grose Educational Media, 2003