Well, I have returned from my photography workshop in Cuba and it was quite the experience. I have put my photos (which I think represent what I saw) in my website www.lindsleyadventures.com. First page is CUBA. Slideshow will take only about 7 minutes.

It was a lot of long days and a lot to take in over the eight days. We visited schools, met with Fidel’s artist and Fidel’s photographer (but no Fidel), went to the Havana Market, drove four hours to the UNESCO city of Trinidad (and spent the night), walked around a few outlying villages around Havana, saw the Buena Vista Social Club, did some dancing with a seniors dance club, went salsa dancing, drank too much Cuban rum, etc, but mostly just walked around neighborhoods and took photos of people, cars and buildings. Great fun!

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I’ll share a few impressions:

1) Havana must have been an incredible place in its heyday. Most of the old buildings in Old Havana are crumbling now, but the architecture and color is amazing. But the old walls have their own charm – like a faux paint job – my fellow students kept making fun of me for taking photos of the walls.

2) In many ways the city (and country) look like they hit a time-warp in 1959 (Fidel’s revolution) – and stayed there. The old cars are one vestige of that – as are the old buildings. There are also very few NEW buildings.

3) The lack of any real infrastructure is scary – especially if the US opens up to general tourism of Cuba. You can’t drink the water, there are very few decent restaurants, and not a lot of hotel rooms. It’s gonna be a mess.

4) There is NO marketing you can see. Quite a difference from the states. The only billboards or messages of any kind are supporting the Revolution, Castro/Che/etc., socialism, etc.

5) The people are incredibly friendly. The music is terrific. Food – in a few of the top restaurants - is great – but most restaurants are owned and run by the government – and are terrible.

6) The only people who make real money work for the government, or tourism. I had a taxi ride with a taxi driver who was a doctor moonlighting as a driver. He and his wife are both docs and they each make $44 a MONTH as a doctor. He makes more money ferrying around tourists in his taxi…

All in all it was a great learning experience – but I was glad to come home the good ole USA…and phone service and internet…