El PASEO DEL PRADO

 visto por Samuel Hazard 

     Now let us take a dash outside the walls, to the Paseo Isabel, that stretches outside the old city  walls in a wide, handsome street, extending down to the sea, being know as the "Prado" in that  part of it lying beyond the Tacon theatre, towards the ocean. 
     This Paseo is, in some respects, the finest in the city, being wide, well built on both sides, laid out with walks and carriage drives and long rows of trees, and having upon it some of the principal  places of amusement; nearly all the gates of the city, when the walls were standing, opened onto it, and it is the general thoroughfare between the old and new town. 
 In 1857, there were five rows of shady trees all the way down the Paseo, but they have been torn down, in part by a tornado and in part by the authorities, and others, yet small, put in their place; the street has also been lately beautified in several places by  the making of new improvements. Fountains are scattered at intervals along the street, some of which add a fine effect. There are other paseos on the bay side of the city, where it is pleasant to go and get the fresh air from the sea, morning and evening. 
     Beyond the Paseo Isabel is the fine "Calzada de Galiano," a handsome paved highway, with long rows of well-built, striking looking houses, most of them with pillared fronts. 
     (pág. 67-68) 
     . 
     But here we are strolling up the Paseo, and again we pass by the Fountain of India, even more beautiful by moonlight than in daytime. Now, as we reach the Paseo opposite the Tacon, look at the quiet beauty of that scene towards the sea: here, in the foreground, the Parque of Isabel, with  its velvety grass-plots surrounded by neat wire borders, dusky figures in contrast to the more  fairy-like ones beside them; the fine facade of white buildings to the left, over which the moon casts a beautiful, mild tint; the long perspective of  the colonnaded buildings, with the shadowy avenue of trees, broken here and there by silvery light; while in the distance is the calm sea, whose gentle murmurings against the rocks of La Punta we faintly catch. It seems like fairy-land, indeed, or something to dream of; and so, amigos, "buenas noches."
     (tomado de Cuba with Pen and Pencil, by Samuel Hazard)