Fotune Teller of Old Havana

I really have to get over being shy about asking strangers for their picture, because I saw many interesting portraits on our trip to Cuba. With the lady above, I couldn't resist asking. When I did she held up her index finger and said "One peso". I dug into my pocket to get one and realized that I gave my last peso to a museum attendant that let us into off limit areas. I replied "Desculpe, no peso" to which she smiled and posed for this picture.

More on my Flickr

Tropicana Havana

On our second full day in Cuba we decided to take a tour of Havana plus Tropicana Show. We were picked up at our resort at about 8:30 am, did the tour of modern and old Havana, stopped in nearly every bar that Ernest Hemingway drank (incredible lush), had dinner and went to the Tropicana show. On arrival the women were given carnations and the men were given cigars. Then we were sat at a table with a liter of rum for each group of four and a can of pop each. Whatever we didn't drink went onto the bus to take us back to our resorts at nearly 4:00 am.
Good times.

Compay Segundo and More From Cuba

Here is my favorite souvenir from Cuba. It is a painting of the late great Compay Segundo. Señor Segundo was a master Cuban musician in the 30s and 40s that had received a resurrection to Cuban fame with "The Buena Vista Social Club" recordings initiated by American recording artist, Ry Cooder. I found the photograph that this painting was inspired from here.
The song below, titled "Chan Chan", quickly became a favorite of mine. A few more photos of the trip to Cuba have been uploaded to my Flickr Photostream.

Cuba 2009

So we returned from our great trip to Cuba on May 1st. I meant to post about it much earlier but came home to find that my laptop battery was dead, so it has taken a little while to get pictures online.


One of the great things Cuba has to offer, and something that became a great subject of my photography taken there, were all of these vintage cars. What was cool was that they had, not only classic North American models, but also some old Russian and European cars like Skoda, Citroen and weird three wheeled trucks.

There are only about 7 pictures uploaded to my Flickr page, but in my defense I haven't even pulled them off of my camera yet so expect more soon.