It's a quintessentially Cuban experience: Capping off a meal with a snifter of rum and an aromatic cigar.

This Caribbean nation is renowned around the world for its pungent Cohibas, Montecristos and Romeo y Julietas, but on the island, stogie-lovers are increasingly being told to take it outside.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez left for Cuba on Sunday for what he said would be a thorough medical exam after undergoing multiple rounds of chemotherapy in his battle with cancer.

In brief remarks before departing for Havana, Chavez told official VTV television that the visit was to "continue a process we have been following for about four months," but did not reveal further details of his health.

Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro turns 85 on Saturday amid celebrations in his honor that he so far failed to attend.

Cuba has been partying since Tuesday, with concerts, ballet performances and art exhibitions organized on behalf of the man who led the island nation for nearly 50 years before ill health led him to cede power to his brother Raul in 2006.

Cuba readied a huge military parade Saturday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its victory over the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion for a Communist Party congress setting new political and economic goals.

Painters, electricians and audio operators put the finishing touches on Plaza de la Revolucion, as troops drove tanks and other military vehicles to their designated locations along the streets.

Napoleon Bonaparte goes on display in Cuba Friday with the reopening of the Napoleonic Museum of Havana, which boasts the largest collection of French revolutionary and imperial items outside of Europe.

Napoleon never set foot in Cuba but his physician, Corsican-born Francesco Antommarchi, who treated him during his last days in exile on Saint Helen, moved here after the emperor died in 1821, bringing with him the French icon's death mask.