Man, That Is Very Good

cuba

It's tough getting used to the heat and humidity there (+35 Celsius every day, 100 percent humidity), and tough also retuning to our dry Alberta climate.

The sunsets are beautiful there. These were taken from just outside our hotel room at around 8:30-9:00 PM.

We went on a ady trip into Havana, which was overall really cool. The old buildings were fascinating, though a bit depressing to see how many have fallen into disrepair, though restoration projects are underway. It was certainly geared for tourists, with all the trappings, such as the kissing girls, who run up to you, kiss you on the cheek while a photo is taken and demand a dollar.

I guess for Cubans, university is free, and you either take sports or art. We saw a few art centres, colourful courtyard settings with painters painting, peacocks strutting around, surrounded by murals and metal sculptures. It was very "artist colony" feeling.

It was kind of like a time warp seeing all the old American gas guzzlers mixed in among the Volvos and Hyundais. It was like an ongoing classic car rally.

We saw a graveyard containing incredible mausoleums, statues, and in the neighbourhood of 53,000 graves. To conserve space, they bury you (paid for by the state), leave you for four years, exhume you, and rebury your remains in a smaller space, usually a family plot.

Puppet Mike had a grand time. We went out for breakfast, he posed with the aforementioned kissing girls, as well as with the wedding couple and other nieces and nephews. He spent time on the beach, too.

I got bored on the plane ride home so I took a series of self portraits.

To quote MST3K, "Well, they're out of fumar, now what do we do?"

Anybody who wants to see more, feel free to go to my online album, to peruse more photos of buildings, sunsets, Puppet Mike, and more. Anyone that would like copies of the original higher-res images, let me know and I'll send.

posted by Unknown @ 11:14 AM