The next to last day in Cuba was an interesting one.  The day began with a visit to the Literacy Museum.  I thought it was going to be a little dry, but I was wrong.  In 1961, the Literacy Campaign finished up, after one year, with the success of teaching 707,000 people how to read and write in Cuba via 100,000 teachers.  That is a staggering number.  These “teachers” went out into the country side to teach the people of Cuba.  Only 43,000 of the 100,000 “teachers” were “degreed” teachers.  The rest were volunteers; the youngest being third graders.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Third grade students and up were part of the 100,000.  Can you imagine sending your 8-year-old out into the country side, without a family member, to help teach people?  I just can’t fathom it.  Today, their literacy rate is 0.2%, the lowest in the world.

After stopping at an Afro-Cuban religious museum, we made our way to visit the home of Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite stops while in Cuba.  It is now a museum.  He bought it fo $18,500. It sits on 35 acres.

His wife had a tower built for him for use as his writing space, but he didn’t like it much.

He loved cats. He had 50 of them.  He also liked dogs and created a dog cemetery for them:

You can see his yacht in the background of the cemetery.  Here is a better shot:

He LOVED books.  There were everywhere in his home:

He did his writing on this typewriter (such a cool picture) while standing up.

Here are some other shots of his place:

This is his garage.

A peek inside his closet.

His house, hidden by the trees.

My next post on Cuba will be my final one, as it was my last day.  I hope you have enjoyed my journey thus far.