Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Cuba

The Once Great City of Havana
"Almost every picture I’ve ever seen of Cuba’s capital shows the city in ruins. Una Noche, the 2012 gut punch of a film directed by Lucy Mulloy, captures in nearly every shot the savage decay of what was once the Western Hemisphere’s most beautiful city."
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"Perhaps the wrecked part of the city—which is to say, most of it—strikes more people as photogenic. But I don’t think that’s it. The reason restored Old Havana is ignored by photographers, I believe, is because it looks and feels fake."
Yup. Way back when my oldest was about 20 months old (and I was pregnant with the second), we went to Cuba, and Havana was old and crumbling even then. Paint was pealing off of nearly every building. We noticed that the tourists got the best food, while the locals went without.

The only good thing about Cuba was the deserted beaches. Beautiful long white sand beaches and hardly anyone on them, although the one we were at was across a bay from a sulphur plant and the wind carried the stench over the bay toward the resort. Believe me, when you are in the early months of a pregnancy, you don't want to be smelling something the very nearly induces vomiting all by itself. And this was in a tourist resort!

About the only thing good I remember was my son (at less than two, I should point out) seemed to learn the alphabet while we were there. I remember him scratching the letters into the sand on the beech by the hotel. He was a real hit with all the other tourists. I remember standing outside a building (I think it was a restaurant) waiting to be let in. There was a lantern on the exterior wall, with a small flame inside it. A whole bunch of tourists that we had met earlier were standing with us (must have been some kind of organized tour event or maybe it was in the resort village where we were staying) and I remember in particular one Portuguese woman who had really taken a shine to our little gaffer.

Anywho, the flame was shaped like a W and our kid, carrying on the theme, pointed at it and said "Hot blubbleyou". Everybody laughed, especially the Portuguese lady.

Well, hopefully, some day soon, Cuba will shake off it's communist government and Havana will be reborn. The country certainly has the potential to be a thriving tourist destination.

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