Cuba from Space
I have a fascination with Cuba. There was a time when it was the vacation hot spot. And that time is one I love. So, in 1959, Cuba sort of stopped in time. It went from a beautiful hot spot to a defunct place. The old buildings deteriorated, but hold some magic. The old cars keep roving the streets in new incarnations. The great music keeps trickling out. I would love to visit Cuba before it someday becomes open again and it loses that weird glory.
And so while wandering the Internet and thinking about such things, I trained my Google Maps on Cuba and expected to see nothing. “Forbidden” But I was surprised to see detailed satellite images. I wandered down some coast and saved these links to interesting areas. Take a look and if you feel the urge, post links to your own discoveries in Cuba.
Circular Tunnel entrance Zoom out a bit to see the exit on the other side of the inlet.
Market for Trader Vic’s Cuban menus soars
I blame it on tiki newbies. About a week ago, one of the Trader Vic’s menus from the Havana location came up on Ebay. These were printed with a note inside, supposedly “hand written” by Vic himself, saying something about that stinker Fidel. I am guessing the buyer thought it was really written in Vic’s hand. The auction went for over $75.
So, then this one just sold. And, suddenly everyone is trying to unload this rather common menu for huge profits and so you have this one, and this one, and this one.
This menu is similar to the Don the Beachcomber menu that is so common because it was printed as a souvenir, and not actually used. They made them in large quantities.
My suspicion is there is a lot more to the Trader Vic menu. Was he trying to make a case for ousting Fidel? Did he want that rum back in his restaurants? There must have been an agenda in that message on that menu. I’d love to know what he had in mind.
And I’d love to unload one of these menus for $75!
UPDATE: The trend is continuing to go up! $121! Clearly people are not reading my blather… This one I can understand. It is not the reprinted menu with the Vic anti-Castro slogan. It’s a real, 1958 menu from the Habana Trader Vic’s. Given that the official date of the end of the Castro overthrow was January 1st, 1959, that makes this an interesting piece of history.
