Cuba
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Havana at night...
This was a Friday night in Havana. It seemed alive and vibrant, from a distance it could have been a city anywhere. This is looking off our the balcony of our "apartment" on the 14th floor toward the Capitol and Old Havana. I got to know Havana pretty well, but just barely in my week there.
Along the Malecon
The Malecon is a broad roadway and Seawall that stretches 5 miles along the cost of Havana. When conditions are right, the wind pushes the sea in the right direction, so that it breaks over the wall and on to the road in a spectacular way. Those were the conditions on my first walk along the Malecon.
The Innovation of Cuba...
You notice the cars right away, and again the old and new. These cars are many people's primary transportation (if they have any at all), and they love them. Cuba I think has the most innovative and imaginative people in the world to keep these old things running and looking good.
In the Habana Riviera
I walked over to this old hotel called “The Habana Riviera”, along the Malecon, and it was right out of the Twilight Zone. This old hotel setting, seemed a set from a 1950’s James Bond movie, with these 2 beautiful women playing music for seemingly nobody. The bartender stands ready at the bar, but nothing happens, and life in Cuba just continues to go on...
In front of the Habana Riviera
I just took it all in, like with a group of men outside I imagined were plotting a deal, it was all just surrealistic. As I left this Twilight world of monotones, I could almost hear Rod Sterling in the background saying "Something strange had just happened here"...
What can you say....
The Plantation
At least an hour out of Havana, were to the ruins of the Coffee Plantation of Antiguo Cafetal Angerona. The woods, fields and roads were quietly alive with people, hitch-hiking or moving quietly about their business. The place was old, and only the stone remnants of the structures remained. Brenda and Carla, both Cuban dancers took the long ride out with our team, and again, no English, but I would find that with all the dancers.
It was rumored that the owner of this plantation, Souchay Cornelius, who died in1837, had a forbidden relationship with one of the slaves. He built a small house for her next to his mansion, and he allowed his slaves on this plantation to make money, have a market on site and have families. The slaves were treated different on this plantation than any others on the island, they could make money and it largely was a self-sufficient village that had up to 450 slaves/residents at 1 point.
Ramses Studio
Deep in the middle of Old Havana, Ramses hosted us for dinner one night at his studio. It was in an old building that he had purchased and restored in a style that’s hard to describe. The dinner was catered and he gave us a presentation on work his foundation does with youth in Cuba, like mentoring, teaching art and photography as well as disaster relief. As with everything I saw and learned in Cuba, there is so much more than meets the eye.
Ramses invited our whole team, as well as some of his students, and a few others who I believe were fine art collectors....
Ramses work...
Ramses had a lot of his work hanging in his studio. Here kids run in the streets of Old Havana when Hurricane Irma hits Cuba in 2017...
Playing with the shadows on the walls in Ramses studio...
The Alicia Alonzo Grand Theater, the Grand Staircase.
In the middle of Old Havana, on the Prado and next to El Capitolio (the Capitol of Cuba) sits the Grand Theatre. With its polished marble and gold, the people of Cuba are so proud of their Theatre and their Ballet, even though it stands in contrast to much of its surroundings.
