367-50 Week 20

Wow - week twenty and heading for the halfway mark. This week it's a lot of stuff from my trip to Havana. The phrase which served me well was "puedo tomar photo" which means roughly "can I take a photo?"

26/03/12

On Monday, we had booked a day trip out of Havana to see some of the countryside along the coast between Havana and Varadero. Accompanied by our driver for the day, we saw many things such as the highest bridge in Cuba, an old coffee plantation, had a boat trip on a river, went to the beach and swam in the Carribean and also visited the decayingly beautiful city of Matanzas. One of the highlights was a stop at at the home of a couple of local farmers, Maria and her husband Yanqui (pronounced yankee). Their home was a clapboard shack thatched with palm leaves. This is a shot of Yanqui through the chicken wire windows. Lovely people who I could write an essay on.

27/03/12

This is a local hood/spide called Lazaro who I met at 7am in the morning. He insisted that I take pictures of his tattoos before joining him and his mate William for rum in a local bar. I was then taken on a tour of the local slums of Centro Habana in search of cheap cigars and ended up in the flat of a gentleman called Raul. Cigars were purchased. In hindsight, none of this was clever.

28/03/12

Walking the streets of Havana Vieja is one of the most interesting things I've ever done. There are photographs to be taken everywhere. This gentleman offered to give me a trim until I lifted my hat and displayed the rather short buzz cut I had before leaving Belfast.

For more of the same, check these out on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_mick2009/sets/72157629704330715/

29/03/12

As well as street shots, there are so many old and eccentric cars in Havana that you could fill your memory cards just with these. Old american cars, some pristine like this one, some held together with polyfilla and paint. Again, there's a lot more here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_mick2009/sets/72157629697485539/

30/03/12

This was the old theatre across the street from our hotel. It appeared to be advertising films which I have bever heard off (even in Spanish) although Willem Defoe also gets a mention. Old car, old theatre, old style processing.

31/03/12

Back to freezing cold Belfast. Bollocks, but at least I have returned armed with cigars, duty free rum and fags and 1200 photos of Cuba. Had a quick gander at the Lockdown festival at T13 this afternoon and was impressed. No more so that with this chap Verse Chorus Verse, formerly with the NI band ASIWYFA. Solo acoustic set that sounded like Springsteen at his best (Nebraska, Tom Joad) and Billy Bragg. Mind you, I'm a sucker for acoustic guitar and mouth organ. 

1/04/12

My three big uns came round for a BBQ Sunday lunch and to get their Che-related presents from Cuba. The berets seemed to have gone down well, although Conor's insistence that he was doing a Charlie's Angels shot was a bit misplaced. He then bettered this by asking if "philanthropy" was "that thing in hospital where they stick a tube up your bum." How we laughed.

367-50 Week 19

Belated but here we go. A few days in Belfast before flying to Cuba on Thursday. I'm really excited about our trip to Cuba - I'm half ashamed to admit that this is the first time that I have been off the continent of Europe (I don't think Turkey counts).

20/03/12

I was on the way back from Larne to my office in Ballymena when I saw this little lamb actually "gambolling" in a field beside the Shanes Hill Road. I still had the big Tamron 70-200mm lens on the camera and leapt out to take a photo. The lamb immediately stopped gambolling and walked off in a huff.

21/03/12

Taken on my iphone today in someone else's office. I loved the way this has been written so that it looks like "fall else fails" which is pretty much how this phrase is pronounced in Northern Ireland. Or Norn Iron.

22/03/12

And here we go......all the way to Havana, Cuba. We got to our hotel pretty late on, after nine hours in the air and a rather unexpected smoke break in Holguin airport. Checked in pretty easily and once unpacked, we repaired to the hotel terrace for a small mojito. This was tonight's house band - every hotel, bar and eatery in Havana have a house band. 99% of them all play the same stuff - Buena Vista Social Club standards and Guntanamera.

23/03/12

I was unable to sleep in the mornings, despite liberal applications of exceptionally cheap alcohol and tended to get up early (6.30 am) and have a wander through the streets around the hotel. I met this lovely guy who claimed to be a german medical student who needed money for text books. It was the most inventive way to take my money that I encountered all week. Anyway, I slipped him a few pesos and he let me take his photo.

24/03/12

Open-topped bus tour today. These are the famous buildings in Revolucion Square with the large portraits of Che and Fidel, I don't think Fidel's does him justice, but he's a lot less apparent in Havana than images of Che, who dominates graffiti, buildings, t-shirts, caps, prints and so on. They were setting up the square for the visit of Pope Benedict the following Wednesday, but this was of more interest. Trust me.

24/03/12

The Musee de la Revolucion - which is Batista's old palace and comes complete with the original bullet holes. There's a lot to see and enjoy here, but for me the large ballroom on the 1st floor was just amazing. The light in the room, the huge multi-panelled mirrors and the chandeliers are stupendous.

I'm starting from 1200 shots from 6 days in Havana - these are a quick pick based on the days I took them. There's a lot more to come - next week there may even be a picture of a classic american car or two and some run-down buildings.