Monday morning saw us headed out of Havana. As usual there was a lot of street activity as people went about their wok in the cool of the morning. As a last glimpse, I noticed this young man who had dropped his cabbages.
I really found myself hoping that his load of vegetables was headed for the pig farms and not the restaurants as I watched him frantically pick up the stray crucifers and put them back in his crate!
Our first stop was an odd art installation about 20 minutes west of
Havana. It was created by an artist, Jose Fuster, who had achieved
international recognition before coming to the little fishing town of Jaimanitas about ten years ago. He is described by Wikipedia as a ‘naive’ artist.
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| 'Love with love is paid' |
He started creating mosaics all over his home.
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| You can see my travelling companion, Frances Peters, in the black shirt under the blue 'umbrella' to the right. |
His neighbors really liked what they saw and asked him to decorate their places as well. As a result he has worked on 70 houses, although thankfully they are not all as elaborate as his own.
We arrived right at opening time, but so did the classic car entourage from Havana......
Within moments, it was crawling with people......
........while the drivers sat back and took a 'chill pill'!
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| I thought this little face was adorable |
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| This one reminded me of Diana's Licorice Allsort's |
So yours truly got to work (Fran took this photo, not me!) to bring you little treasures......
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| What is he thinking? |
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| Rub-A-Dub-Dub? |
Even the rest room was decorated. It was always worth visiting, as one never knew when we might see the next one, or what condition it would be in. In western Cuba, they were generally in decent condition, with a few oddities that took adjustment. It was customary to have an attendant who provided paper for .25 CUC. You can see the attendant here in the turquoise shirt. It was often difficult to find change to pay for this service, so we made sure to squirrel coins away whenever we got some.
Next stop was a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, called Las Terrazas, which started as a reforestation project in 1968.
The area was void of trees and the mountains were barren. The trees had been stripped by the Spanish for timber and then people after that used any that grew back for charcoal. The project took on the task of creating 1,500 km of terraces on the hills to reduce erosion (hence the name Las Terrazas) and then planted 7 million trees, mostly native or hardwood such as ebony, cedar and hibiscus.
We were told there were 137 families living here in the beginning, now there are 1,000. Our guide was keen to have us know that the families who had 'believed' in the validity of the project from the beginning and had stayed in the area were living in individual houses....
...while those who joined the project later lived in apartments, shown on the right.
There was a lovely pond in the midst of the community.... which housed a few flamingos. I thought they were quite elegant.
We also visited 'Estudio Ariel' a small space in which recycled paper was used to create small gifts.
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| Recycled paper masher |
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| Paper making bath |
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| The creative space |
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| Hanging it out to dry |
Finally, the artist has a medium to work on and the shelves are filled.
We finished our visit to Las Terrazas with a lovely lunch in a mountain setting at Cafetal Buenavista........
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| The kitchen was busy... |
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| ....there were many others there..... |
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| ....along with musicians..... |
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| ....and as always, the drivers found a cool spot to visit! |
A few hours of serious driving got us to our final destination for the day - Vinales, another UNESCO site - this time a World Heritage Site. The name means 'pine forest', but it is renowned in particular for its limestone 'karst' topography, characterized by steep hills that jut out of the earth.
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| First sighting from the overlook |
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| I liked the tobacco shed in the foreground of this, with the little steep outcrop to the right |
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| Just plain pretty! |
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| Our last view from the day at Agroecologico El Paraíso - an organic farm |
Perhaps this is the owner of the organic farm, Wilfredo Garcia Correa, or not. Whoever he is, I was entertained by his cigar-in-mouth watering style!
Finally, a dinner at the farm rewarded us with a lovely sunset.
What a beautiful experience, Alwynne! Thank you so much for thinking of me and sharing it with me.
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin who is married to a Cuban whose father was imprisoned during the Castro regime. He wrote wonderfully gripping poetry. Again, many thanks!
Love
Ruth