Sunday, May 16, 2010

Part 15. The revolution museum

So we continued up the Prado until we came to the Museo de la Revolucion. I had heard nothing buy good about this place, and it's on all the "do not miss" and "sights to see" lists, but did I like it? I gotta tell ya...not so much.

It's the one thing in the whole trip that I found disappointing, and not meeting my expectations. And that is sort of odd, because I have really quite an admiration, in some ways, for both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Yes, yes, I know...Communism and all that, but really, they both had good intentions and Cuba was still far better off under Castro's rule rather than Batista.

First though, the museum. The building itself is pretty amazing. It was the presidential palace of all the Cuban presidents, including the infamous Batista, and it was obviously spectacular in it's time.

Now it is somewhat faded, drab, and sort of sad and dusty. The displays are poorly set up and just not that interesting. Now I will admit that people who took a guided tour had a far different outlook than I did, and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I knew a bit more about what I was seeing.Some of the displays were touching, and sad, like the bloodstained clothing of Che, some were creepy, such as torture devices, one in particular was a complicated device used for pulling out fingernails.

Some are a little overwhelming, like the entire boat, the Granma, that took Castro and his revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba which is housed there almost as a shrine.

All in all, I'd give it a 4 out of 10.

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