We spent a few hours walking the area around the capitol building (left), which is modeled after the White House in Washington, DC. Our first sighting of it was in a painting at the Casa Particular we were staying at. It baffled us where the scene was from, since it seemed a combination of the US building and Cuba streets, until we came across the building ourselves.  As seen above, it is currently under renovation, so cannot be entered by tourists. Surprisingly, buildings right across the street from the capitol where totally dilapidated.

About two blocks from this street, there is a large sign spanning a street announcing “Welcome to Chinatown,” much like similar signs we have seen in both San Francisco and Manhattan. We entered, and were surprised to see only one Chinese business in sight — a Chinese bar directly under the sign.  When we asked our Cuban guide about it, he said that it was a historic sign, but there are very few Asians in the area any more.

There are many statues around town, with images above-right only showing a tiny sampling.

One of our sunrise photo shoots took us through the various squares around Old Havana, shown above.

Watching people is always a big part of visiting any new city, and Havana was no exception.  One thing we quickly noticed was that the central park in each city had hundreds of people sitting around staring at their phones (lower left).  Internet is still illegal in private homes, though a very few government owned cafes were allowed to offer such access starting in 2007.  In 2015, Cuba opened the first public wifi hotspots, which required a special card to access, at a rate of $15 per hour (remember, the official Cuban official wage is $25 per month), putting it out of reach of all but the most wealthy.

Since then, internet has now been made available at most central parks in most cities throughout Cuba. The cost has dropped, first to $10, then to $5 per hour.  A few months ago, it was lowered again to $2, and when we went to buy cards, the price had dropped yet again to $1 per hour.  The cards are difficult to buy though (we stood in line for almost an hour to buy some), and difficult to use (must enter two 10-digit numbers, and the card then becomes useless after one hour of use, requiring another card and set of digits to continue access).  However, every park was swamped with people accessing the internet on their phones from mid-day until well into the night.

Unfortunately, with that many people crammed in each wifi location, the internet performance was slow — when you are able to log on at all.  It often took us a dozen or more attempts before we could even get logged in (typing all 20 digits on each attempt).  When we finally did get in, the effective speed was roughly the same 1200 baud of the modems we used in California in the 1980’s.

One highlight was a visit to Danzabierta, a local avant garde dance company.  Susana Pous is the artistic director and choreographer of the modern dance troupe, and has personally performed throughout the world.

They performed a number of compelling and innovative dances for us, with the above being only a small sample of 700 images we shot in that session.  Lower-right shows our photo group lined up on one wall happily snapping away during their performance.

After their choreographed dances, the performers modeled for us. Susana Pous is shown upper-right.

One day in Havana, we were driving along the Malecón and saw the waves crashing over the wall. I called out that we should stop and photograph the scene, which we did.  Again, this is a big benefit of being on a photography tour over other types of tours.  When there is something photographically interesting, we stopped and took advantage of the situation.

After spending a night in Hanabanilla, we joined up with the formal photo tour led by Johnathan Esper, whom we met in Iceland in 2014, and Joel Hernández Marin, a professor of photography in Havana. We will be staying in Casas Particulares throughout our travels in Cuba, which are rooms in private homes. In Havana, we stayed in the Vedado neighborhood, which is in one of the wealthier neigborhoods. While the exteriors of the buildings appear shabby, the interiors have been remodeled and are immaculate for guests.

On the surface, Cuba has not changed much since 2005, when we first visited.  There has been almost no new construction, and buildings that were rundown then still appeared in the same condition now.  However, under the surface, there have been some major changes that are only apparent if you talk to the locals and ask.  When we were last here, Fidel was still in power, though in failing health.  Raul, his brother, was assumed to become president once Fidel stepped down.  Since he had been in charge of the military for 46 years, it was feared he would be even stricter than Fidel on controlling the populace.  Surprisingly though, he actually opened up parts of the economy and relaxed some of the harsher laws.

In 2013, Raul announced that two terms as president was enough and that he would not run for a third term. As such, Cuba will have a new president in 2018.  When we were here last, cars and taxis were not allowed to travel between cities without a permit — they can now travel freely.  In 2005, people legally owned their own homes, but were not allowed to sell them — Raul changed that in 2006 and people can now buy and sell their homes, which has led many to be converted into restaurants and short term rentals. When here last, gasoline was rationed, and we spent many hours traveling with a driver from gas station to station, trying to find someone willing to sell a ration coupon, so the driver could keep going — now gas is unlimited, though very expensive.  In 2005, Cubans were not allowed to leave the island — they are now allowed to leave, though most countries are rather strict on who they allow to visit, for fear the Cuban visitor will overstay their tourist visa.

Two of the more visible changes are the diversity of restaurants and rooms for rent (Casas Particulares mentioned above). When here last, it was legal to rent out rooms to tourists, but not legal to advertise.  As such, it was hard to find rooms. Each place we stayed had a “cousin” in the next city we were heading to, so our rooms were arranged the day of our travel through this informal network.  Now, many of them are listed on AirBnb.

In 2005, it was hard to find a restaurant open at night, and we had one taxi driver knock on the door of a home, asking them to cook a meal for us.  Now, there are a zillion restaurants in every town we visited, ranging from “basic fare” to extravagant feasts literally fit for a president. One of the restaurants (San Cristobal Paladar)  where we ate at had been visited by President Obama, and the owner bragged that nine presidents had eaten at his restaurant.  That meal was completed with a complementary (high quality) cigar — which we still have, but are determined to smoke at some point. ☺

Cubans earn between $20 to $40 per month.  That includes doctors, since all health care is socialized in Cuba.  Thus, a new “rich class” has evolved, which are those people who deal with foreign tourists, who will pay that much for a single meal, or double that for a room for one night.

Our second evening in Havana was spent on the Malecón, watching the sunset with the skyline as a backdrop. Many men (almost no women) were fishing on the wall, making for dramatic foregrounds.

Most people think “American Classic Cars” when they think of Cuba.  Yep, they are there, and we hired some to model for us on multiple occasions on this photo trip.  The lower right image was from a sunrise shoot in front of the Gran Teatro de la Habana, home of the Cuban National Ballet.

However, these cars are not as universal as most Americans believe. There are plenty of modern cars in Cuba — just not modern American cars.  Toyotas, Hyundais, Hondas, Chinese-made Geelys are all very common.  The American vintage cars are mostly used for tourists as taxis, and rent out for up to $60 per hour (for a convertible), complete with driver, or $5 for a short taxi ride.  I did a count several times, and found that the Classic American cars account for about 1 out of 8 cars on the road around Havana and Trinidad.

Many are held together by “glue and bailing wire.”  Opening the hoods of almost any of these cars shows modern engines from the likes of Toyota or Honda, and in one case a Chinese tractor engine was installed. Likewise the suspensions and pretty much every part of the car has been replaced since new.  Only the exterior body remains the 60-year old American classic.

Many Cubans cannot afford a car at all, so horses are a very common means of transportation in all the rural areas.  With gasoline costing $6 per gallon, a typical government salary of $25 a month puts cars out of reach for most people.

Each of the cars that were hired as models were well cared for with highly polished exteriors to be displayed for the tourists.

In addition to the cars we hired to model for us, we spent an hour or so photographing the Classic American cars that were driving past us near the National Hotel.  There were also several 3-wheeled, auto rickshaw-type vehicles (Coco taxis — upper left) though we were warned they are actually the most expensive taxis in town.

As part of the exploration of Old Havana, we visited various churches and squares, and had an opportunity to drive to the Colon Cemetery (above) in American vintage convertibles. For each place, we were shooting in good light, and took long siestas when the light was harsh. Such is the difference between taking a standard tour vs. going on a photo tour such as this.

Havana Cuba Restaurant Dance from Burt Johnson on Vimeo.

We were about to leave after dinner at one restaurant, when a band started up.  We stayed to listen for a bit, and were about to leave again when this pair of dancers started strutting their stuff.  They were the highlight of the evening.

On our 2005 visit to Cuba, both of us got sick, with Evelyn’s cold developing into bronchitis, so we’ve wanted to come back to experience the real Cuba for some time. When we got to the airport, it took more than an hour to get our luggage and clear customs. Then, we changed money into CUCs ($1 USD = 1 CUC), which is the official Cuban currency. There is a 10% penalty for changing US Dollars, but we had been warned in advance to bring either Canadian dollars or euros, so had saved Euros from our Europe trip earlier this year.

We were picked by a 1952 Chevy with a tractor engine (without muffler), and dropped off at a Casa Particular (private homes where rooms are rented out) in Old Havana (pictures above). Across the street was a Vietnamese Cultural Center, where they were celebrating until 2:00 AM, making sleep difficult. We could hear all of the urban noises from people talking on the streets below, tuk tuks (3-wheeled taxis, also known as Coco taxis), garbage trucks, and classic American cars rolling across the cobblestone streets below. Cuenca’s cobblestone streets are relatively flat and safe compared to those in Old Havana.

Prior to the start of our photo tour, we wanted to experience another part of Cuba. Our tattooed guide, Monica, recommended a place where Cubans go for vacation, Hanabanilla, which she considered to be one of the most beautiful places in Cuba, and which has been untouched by tourism.

After a 4-hour drive in another classic American Buick, we rolled into a village in the middle of a heavy rain. Our driver asked some questions and followed a barefoot boy up a dirt path. We observed the boy getting into a dilapidated metal boat, scooping water out of the bottom of the boat, and starting up an outboard motor which poured out black smoke. Our driver then pointed for us to get into the boat at the bottom of the grass slope in the middle of nowhere. The boat barely fit the two of us with our backpacks, but we puttered across a body of water for 30 minutes, then landed on a dirt patch (top right). The boy indicated we needed to climb the tree-rooted dirt path up to our room. This turned out to be another Casa Particular, where we were fed a home-cooked lunch, dinner and breakfast, and shared a bathroom with 3 generations of a Cuban family, three dogs, 8 chickens and roosters, and two turkeys.

We were experiencing the daily life of this family. The little boy had much fun dragging around the elderly dog by a rope around its neck, while the dog appeared resigned to accepting his role in life. The father was working on projects around the home with his machete, and hopping on and off of boats working on other neighboring projects. Grandma was sweeping the dirt yard, and hanging the clothes, while others were cleaning and cooking. At night, the family got together to watch local TV.

The single bathroom was shared by the entire family, and they used newspaper for toilet paper. Toilet seats seem to be a rarity in many rural parts of Cuba. When Burt was asked whether he wanted a hot shower, he did not expect that 15 minutes later, he would get his bucket of lukewarm water in the bathroom. Yet, even though very poor, the people seemed genuinely happy.

On the final morning, we were taken by boat to the highlight feature of this lake – a 20′ high waterfall.