Cuba was an amazing (though expensive) place to travel.
We started out in Varadero, a boring beach resort town…
at the Hotel International, which had an interesting nightly Cabaret show.
Thankfully we only stayed two nights in Varadero, before heading to La Habana, the most interesting city I have ever been to.
A city of crumbling buildings…
old cars…
unique architecture…
Cigar Factories…
museums
and an indescribable character.
We spent time in the various plazas, and cafes, always in awe of what was around the next corner. We saw locals arguing fanatically over which Baseball team was superior, Industriales (from La Habana) or Santiago de Cuba (the two teams left in the Cuban league post-season, even going so far as making offerings to Santería deities, complete with coffins representing the various teams. It was all very confusing and little over my head.
We were also luck enough to participate in the massive May 1st labor day celebrations in La Habana, where hundreds of thousands of people parade infront of the Plaza de la Revolution.
Unfortunately Fidel Castro’s miraculous recovery may have not been as complete as was believed; he did not make an appearance for the festivities. We had to settle for Raul Castro.
Our Travels also brought us to Trinidad, and Viñales, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites for good reason.
Trinidad is a small sleepy colonial town…
that retains its colonial architecture…
and friendly locals.
Viñales is a small town located in a spectacular limestone valley, where some of the best tobacco in the world is farmed…
using mostly traditional non-mechanized methods.
The local campesinos are incredibly friendly…
and will easily take you to an illegal combate de gallos (cockfight) if you ask.
In the two and a half weeks we spend in Cuba we only saw a small fraction of the country, and made some amazing friends. It is truly an amazing place, the people are happy and helpful. Cuba is a country that I will surely be revisiting… hopefully sooner rather than later.
¡VIVA CUBA LIBRE!
Varadero:
La Habana:
Trinidad:
Viñales:
Hello! I was born in Pinar del RIo Cuba. I came with my family when I was very young. My family and I came to USA due to political and social reasons. I am fasinated with the fotographs of the cockfights in Pinar Del Rio. I was wondering if i can upload them to my computer or I can send a money order for a reasonable price for copies. Also, do you have video of Pinar Del Rio and the cockfights.
Thank you
QUE VIVA LA PASION GALLERIL! MAY COCKING PASION LIVE! le Coq Sportif!!!Pasion au VIE!
As far as I am concerned downloading the pictures your your computer for personal use falls under fair use, plus all the pictures of the cockfight are licensed under the creative commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike license (as are all my pics) so as long as you are not using the photos for commercial proposes (ie selling them) then you should be able to do what ever you like with the photos.
Here is the specifics of the license
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en_CA
Also I am not sure if you checked out the Flckr gallery with all the pictures from the cockfight:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scruffydan/sets/72157600202148953/
I also have some film pictures that will be eventually scanned and posted to flikr and my future photography website at eyeofdan.com.
Sorry I don’t have any video of the fight.