Fidel's Gone. Yawn.

10:49 a.m.: A fresh-faced Herald reporter pauses at the cafecito counter while talking to his editor on a cell phone. "It was pretty raucous earlier," the reporter says excitedly. "One guy was dressed in a tuxedo! He was screaming in Spanish." The reporter gets off the phone. "Pretty wild, hunh?" he says.

10:54 a.m.: A photographer from one of the many Cuban periodiquitos asks a group of old men holding Cuban flags to pose for a picture near the Versailles Bakery entrance. "Like this," the photographer cries, thrusting his fist up in the air. Nearby, a cameraman orders a cafecito and says, "Nothing's gonna change in Cuba. Nothing's gonna change there until the rats start eating each other."

11:23 a.m.: The rain has stopped. A guy named Eddie, wearing a Sean John T-shirt, wades through a puddle in the restaurant parking lot to talk to a man in a Herald T-shirt. Turns out the Herald guy is setting up a small kiosk so he can sell subscriptions; as a gift for signing up, folks can choose a domino set, a T-shirt, or a cooler. Eddie, who smells faintly of liquor, selects a Copa Latina 2008 T-shirt.

11:25 a.m.: CNN erects a second tent in the Versailles parking lot.

11:31 a.m.: Across the street, someone hangs from a tree a large sheet airbrushed with the likeness of Elián González.

11:41 a.m.: A singer who says his name is Andy Thomas hawks DVDs in the crowd. "It's a comedy about the death of Fidel Castro!" he says. "It's set to the music of The Lord of the Rings. Only five dollars!"

11:44 a.m.: Reporters prepare their stand-ups for the noon newscast. Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Al Diaz stands in the middle of Calle Ocho to get a shot of the traffic, which is backed up for blocks. A guy with six Cuban flags on his car sports a sign on the rear window that reads "To Honor Those Who Are Given the Life for Us." This confusing message is rivaled only by a man holding a pink sign that says "The Times Is Now. No Castros."

Associate editor Frank Houston and staff writers Francisco Alvarado, Calvin Godfrey, and Janine Zeitlin contributed to this report.