I joined another Damien Lovegrove organized photo group on a trip to the island of Cuba. Six photographers plus Damien, a model and a 'fixer' (thank you Javier) spent a week in Havana (mostly) and Trinidad (on the south coast for a couple of days.) Travel was a bit painful -- a long line going though immigration on the way in and then dealing with all of the return flight problems after a large storm hit the US east coast while we were there. But! The often discussed issues around visiting Cuba from the USA were simply non-existent. On my return, US CIS never even asked me where I had been, even though it was obvious I was returning from Cuba. The only constraint is that you do need to have plenty of cash. US bank credit cards are not honored and even the hotels won't take US credit cards. If you're from Europe, no problem.

Here is what I will remember most when I think of this trip:

This was our model Rocio and a random guy we just came across sitting on his porch in Old Havana. Obviously we set up this shot (it was actually his idea to go fetch the maraccas from inside his apartment) but he'd have been there playing music and enjoying life even if we had never walked down his street. And he had a great time joining in the photo shoot. I think we paid him a few dollars for his time but he could have cared less.

Rocio is a student at the University of Havana. A lovely young lady supplementing her income by doing modelling gigs. Damien found her through the local tour company that set up our itinerary. During the week she adopted several different personas, all delightful:

Music was everywhere, people were super friendly and they seemed to be doing just fine. The hotels are good (if expensive), the so called 'Casas Particulares' -- basically B&Bs -- are everywhere and really good quality; taxis are plentiful and cheap; same for food. Even wandering through some of the more isolated areas seems perfectly safe. Street lighting is definitely, er, toned down and, unlike the USA, people actually turn off their interior lights to conserve energy/money, so streets can get pretty dark:

And, of course, the legendary cars...

They are everywhere, most in use as taxis (and quite a profitable business it is driving around the tourists in a memory of their youth!) A lot of these cars have had their internals entirely replaced for reliability reasons, but there are a bunch of clunkers too that still seem to be operating on 1950s engine and transmissions!

Visiting Trinidad on the south coast of Cuba is a lengthy bus ride (5 hours). Our guide entertained me by telling me that, even though internal flights exist, he was not sold on their safety/reliability! Regardless, it is an interesting drive. Cuba is a large land mass: 40,000+ square miles and just under 800 miles from west to east. At its widest point it is close to 120 miles. It has significant terrain within its interior (wouldn't call them mountains but wouldn't go hiking without some serious equipment either.)

Trinidad has a different vibe:

And, yes, they try to pull tourists into the whole 'horse thing' but they actually do seem to be using these animals for real work. And it has some different things going on. Yes, that is a pig's head...

Trinidad skyline from a restaurant we ate at. And to answer the prevalent question: I had absolutely zero gastric incidents the entire time I was there.

Truly the only pain in the whole trip was dealing with the problems getting home due to the earlier storm and it wouldn't have been any different coming from any other place in Latin America. Go visit Cuba, you'll have a great time!

More pictures here.