Back Blip - End Of An Era

We got home from the club the evening before to learn that Fidel had past away.  All the TV channels had become a single news event.  It seemed surreal thinking that he would probably live forever and then again a sigh of relief.

I wanted to go into Havana to make a reportage and get a sense of this epic moment in history.  We had already planned an outing to the beach for our last day and so stuck to the plan.  Things were maybe a bit quieter than usual, but nothing really notable other than the flags flying at half staff.  We were curious if the Americans would lower their flag in a sign of respect as many other embassies had done (most all others Latin American or South America).  The American flag was at full staff.

All the flag poles you see here was a Cuban response to the Americans who had put a big LED banner on top of the embassy to show pro-American messages.  I can't remember when.  The Cubans responded by putting up tons of TALL flag poles and flags to completely obliterate the view to the banner.  The Americans had to eventually give in and remove the sign.  The Cubans lowered the flags but not the flag poles - as a reminder.  Détente.

Living among family for the week has given some insight, but still a lot of enigma surrounding 50+ years of communist rule and what it means to live underneath it.