The Photo Page shows Susan Hubbard’s photos of flowers from Gary’s water garden – WOW – then return to see more of my visit to Cuba!

MORE ON CUBA VISIT:

Naturally, megacities have more than 2,000 people – To me that is a lot of people.

Hooversville, Pa – three miles from the farm I grew up on has 625 people.  TGO where I live in Florida has approximately 1,800 during the season – less than half that in the summer.  Drummond Island. Michigan, where I live in the summer, has 1,117.  The other Island I lived on for 15 years – Block Island, Rhode Island – has approximately 1,051people.  Stonewall, Texas in 1990 – just before we established the J Bar G Ranch 2 miles south of Stonewall  – had 246 residents. We left in 2007 but today, I understand it has almost 1,000 residents –  See, even Stonewall is on its way to become a megacity!

Do you think downtown TGO or Drummond Island might look like this in a few years? Yipes!

Back to my visit to Havana, Cuba – it has 2,106,246 residents.  As a megacity it makes,  for country folks like me, great photos, many questions, and great stories.  That is why I love to visit megacities for a day or two.

One question I had, what does the city of Havana do with the large number of bodies that need to be taken care of, each day, in a megacity of 2-3 million?

Let me tell you a story about one Havana cemetery and it’s handling the bodies of loved ones:

Colon Cemetery, founded in 1876, is 140 acres with more than 800,000 graves and 1 million interments. Space in the Colon Cemetery is at a premium.  Therefore, after three years the remains are exhumed, boxed and placed in a storage building or in the small tomb at the head of the regular tomb.  The regular tomb is then reused.  I understand, it may be 4 or more caskets deep.

Now for a legend of Colon Cemetery:

The cemetery’s most famous grave is that of Amelia Goyri de Adot-  La Milagrosa (The Miraculous Lady).   La Milagrosa  died in childbirth at the turn of the century, and was buried in the cemetery with her baby. Legend has it that when the grave was exhumed a few years later, the mother’s  body was found intact and her baby, who had been buried at her feet, was found nestled in her arms. Her husband commissioned a statue of his beloved wife holding her child.

As the legend grew, droves of devout Catholics started lining up at the Milagrosa’s grave to pay their respects, leave offerings, and hope for miracles. They told us that there is a constant line-up of people at the grave. There is a specific way to visit La Milagrosa’s grave and ask for your wish. You  approach the tomb and knock on the cement grave, say your name and think of the miracle you wish for, place your offering in the container, touch the baby, then back away from the grave without turning your back to her. Our guide, very reverently, visited the grave that way!

Now to other photos I enjoyed taking – From Fort Hill – here is our ship Norwegian Sun – seeming to dwarf the city of  2 million people.

Nature photo in Megacity of Havana

As, we take leave for the USA, the beautiful wake of the Norwegian Sun with Havana on the horizon.

Oh my – If you live in the megacity, swing through the country for a day or two, If you are fortunate enough to live in the country, swing thru a megacity for a day or two. That way we all get to know each other better.