A real life “walk”

Steven: It was great to be able to take a real life ” walk” through my hometown. THANKS. That was pretty amazing. I could see not only the actual block where your dad and I lived but even my school and the courtyard in the middle. It’s sad to see so many things that are gone. I’m sure your dad told you that all the hotels including ours, were razed throughout the entire coast line. The government realized that they did not know how to run the businesses after all and the proximity to the water provided too much of a hiding place until dark as they tried to escape to the US. I could hear at night the machine guns from the Cuban coast guard interceptor boats. Sometimes in the morning, bloated bodies riddled with bullets would roll in with the waves. Men, women and children. Well enough of that. Your sky shot was pretty close to our home. You could see the Guanabo River. If you followed the coastline eastward, about 1200 meters as the crow flies or approx. 12 blocks. You will come to a gray area a little larger than some of the other plots or blocks. Starting at the river, move left through the shore, it’ll soon come to a point (Punta de Macao) and then it swoops down again towards our house. Look at the map I sent you earlier and find 484 street. Our hotel was to the right of that street at the point where it met the shore. The east/west avenue that formed the southern border of the hotel was Avenue 1 A. It is no longer there either because it is all covered with sand. Looking at the map, you can still see portions of Ave. 1 A in other stretches of the shore line that were not affected. The portion of the shore where we lived was in the shape of a stretched out horse shoe. We were in the center of it. From where we were, we could not see the river because it was on the other side of Punta de Macao. All our family used to walk many times eastward towards the river. It took 15 to 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. Other times we would walk westward towards Santa Maria del Mar where the other point of the horse shoe was. That was a longer stretch. That may vive you some idea where to find us in the satellite photo.