Cuba 2012, I mostly saw only Havana. A combination of chaos and colour, confusion and joy, a study in contradictions. I visited briefly in 2012, would love to go back some day better informed from my first visit. Viva Che! Viva Fidel!
1 History of the Revolution for school children.
2 Hotel Presidente - my hotel. Built in the 1920s, not much changed since then.
3 El Presidente from the back/pool side
4 El Presidente Hotel lobby
5 Nearby apartment building
6 Taken in the hotel outdoors bar. I gave the bartender my running shoes on my last night there. He was ecstatic.
7 The pool
8 Another pool shot with some nice 70s moderne architecture in background
9 Pool 1
10 Pool 2
11 Pool 3
12 Pool 4
13 Pool 5
14 Cuban schoolkids singing the national anthem and raising the flag in the morning
15 View out my hotel window
16 Old Havana
17 Street musicians
18 Street musicians
19 Old square
20 Oldest square in Havana
21 The Floridita Bar, where Hemmingway drank, home of the daiquiri
22 Floridita - basically a ripoff bar for tourists now, where you pay 3 times the normal rate for anything.
23 Street ladies in creole outfits
24 Havana street scene
25 Street scene
26 Plaza de Armas
27 Calle Obispo
28 Cafe Paris
29 Cafe Paris 2
30 Cigar seller
31 National Bank
32 Hotel courtyard - once a private dwelling.
33 Art deco building
34 Calle Obispo 2
35 Hotel Nacional - built by the mob in the 1930s
36 Courtyard of H. Nacional
37 Palm in courtyard
38 Hotel Nacional courtyard
39 Typical freelance cab
40 I liked the 60s-70s feeling to this theatre
41 Manuel, and his cab with no springs. Tried to sell me cigars, a restaurant meal, cheap rum, and then gave up.
42 Manuel's cab
43 Street scene
44 Calle San Ignacio
45 Street scene
46 Street scene
47 Typical Havana street
48 People live here
49 I discovered mojitos in Havana. Many of them!
50 Electric railway
51 Dos Hermanos - another reputed Hemmingway hangout
52 Dos Hermanos
53 Juan - I hired him and his car for a half day.
54 Juan's car
55 Juan was great, totally friendly, and spoke enough English to be able to understand.
56 National opera
57 Opera
58 Looks like the Flatiron Building in New York
59 Narrow Havana street
60 Street scene
61 Monument to the Revolution
62 Che Guevara on a government building
63 This tail light is a small work of art in itself
64 Juan at the wheel
65 Some insane kind of multi-stemmed ficus trees
66 Trees 2
67 Trees 3
68 Street singers
69 This cop was playing spoons with the band - but it looks like he has other things on his mind in this picture!
70 The coolest guy in Havana
71 Mr Cool 2
72 Street scene with part of the old wall
73 Ancient square
74 Square
75 Loved the flowers here
76 Old Spanish church
77 Calling all typographers - what is this typeface?
