this must be the place

Somewhere, I have notes on fam­i­ly and names, the infamy of Cuban fare, being alone togeth­er, break­ing the seal, pass­ing Damian on the way to Havana, salty hair from salty air, rum and brown, thread­ed fin­gers, not enough euchre, every life-guard try­ing to sell me lob­ster meals, pat­terns on palms, plus 20 min­utes Cuba time, find­ing out how deep my scars run, blush­ing through my sun­burn, sand every­where and in every­thing.

beach

Katie and Seth
travelers
Florida birds-eye view

The sun sets on the sun­shine state.

Bacunayagua Bridge

Bacunayagua Bridge, the high­est bridge in Cuba, built through one of many vir­gin forests.

balconies
man pets dog

All kinds of dogs roam the streets of Varadero, most of them mangy and ema­ci­at­ed, also known as “the goofy-faced hunger”.

el templete

El Templete, a mon­u­ment for the foun­da­tion of the town of San Cristóbal.

Castillo de la Real Fuerza

Castillo de la Real Fuerza. Thanks to it’s inef­fec­tive­ness as a star fort (built too far) in the Havana har­bour, it now boasts being the old­est sur­viv­ing stone fort in the Americas.

Thanks to George and his machete.

try the churros
Genevieve

People always ask me about the short-haired blond girl.

dog
Plaza Vieja fountain
cab ride

Sitting in a time machine, aka 1952 Ford Crestline Victoria. Classic American auto­mo­biles are the stan­dard rather than the excep­tion, due to the scarci­ty of replace­ment parts from the US embar­go.

Hotel Nacional de Cuba — lounge

Lounge at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, host to the infa­mous mob sum­mit dra­ma­tized in The Godfather Part II.

piggyback
Christ of Havana

Cristo de La Habana, built from 67 blocks of Carrara mar­ble that were shipped from Italy after being per­son­al­ly blessed by Pope Pius XII.

christ-of-havana

Catedral de la Virgen María de la Concepción Inmaculada de La Habana.

hold me
couple in the water
cat crossing

Kitty!

soda cars

Many baubles are upscaled from recy­cled mate­ri­als. Soda cans are turned into purs­es and toys, and the teeth of forks bent to form stone set­tings for jew­ellery.

Explanada del Capitolio

Paseo del Prado, a street that divides Centro Habana and Old Havana. They say Havana is a city of con­tra­dic­tions — old and new, rich and poor — and it’s no more appar­ent than here. This was right across from city hall, where gov­ern­ment spon­sored girls are paid to give you a lip­stick kiss you for a peso.

starry sky in Cuba
watching construction

They’re watch­ing “Construction in the Capital”, sea­son 421.

yank tank

A yank tank. Not every­one can afford to keep a car well-main­tained, espe­cial­ly with a dimin­ish­ing pool of parts.

Jeff
Gran Teatro de la Habana

The Great Theatre of Havana.

by the pool at a resort
Hotel Raquel
Elisa angel
playground

Many places are left to desue­tude, poor­ly kept, and not even worth tear­ing down.

stadium
cooling off
alleyway
fisherman
Havana cars
John Lennon Park

A stat­ue of John Lennon was made with his icon­ic wire­frame glass­es, but they kept get­ting stolen, so they hired this secu­ri­ty guard to come place the frames on his face when request­ed by vis­i­tors. I imag­ine there was some stiff com­pe­ti­tion for the role.

Jose de la Luz y Caballero statue
overlooking Old Havana

Overlooking old Havana.

last stop

The cool kids sit in the back.

4 comments

  1. Beautiful pho­tos, Jeff. When were you in Cuba?

    • Thanks! It was a cou­ple months ago, which was very much appre­ci­at­ed cause the weath­er was still cold in Ottawa.

  2. YOU WENT TO CUBA????????? Wow.

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