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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2017 13:11:02 GMT
Thank you for the information on the mural and the sculpture of the women's head. The artist rendered the grace and poise of a dancer perfectly. The placement of her looking out to sea enhances the piece magnificently. If it were somewhere else it would be notable but not as powerful.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 2, 2017 16:56:25 GMT
OK Bixa...you would totally rock the one on the left (but I don't think the other one would suit Kerouac....)
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 2, 2017 16:59:08 GMT
Kerouac the top pic of pastel coloured buildings is divine....makes me want to get my watercolour paints out
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2017 11:50:33 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2017 14:48:06 GMT
OK Bixa...you would totally rock the one on the left I thought the EXACT same thing when I saw this pic!!!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2017 14:52:30 GMT
Bixa thought the same thing. That's why she took the picture.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 3, 2017 15:37:36 GMT
So true. Yet I fear that now I'd come across as far more Margaret Dumont than Rita Hayworth. It's fun getting to see Kerouac's pictures, especially since he often came up with a different angle or vision on things. More of my impressions ~
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Post by lugg on Dec 3, 2017 18:51:28 GMT
Enjoying as ever the latest up-dates to this thread. I am lost for words really; the more I see the more I cannot decide whether I really want to go see it for myself or whether someone would have to drag me there kicking and screaming. Such contrasts. As before, I really enjoy your different views / angles in the photography.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 3, 2017 20:36:53 GMT
This is getting delicious and I am eating it up. I'm getting jealous too.
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Post by breeze on Dec 4, 2017 15:22:36 GMT
You two are intrepid travelers on your own, but do you find that when you travel together you are even more intrepid? Because I see places in your reports that I wouldn't have gone to on my own and I bet a lot of visitors don't find.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 4, 2017 16:03:36 GMT
My favourite at the moment is the blue building with the blue sky and the yellow Fiat type car.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 4, 2017 16:06:25 GMT
I don't know about intrepid, Breeze. Remember that I live in Mexico, a place that can look worse than it is compared to more developed countries' standards and Kerouac has traveled in SE Asia, about which the same can be said. Really, we would have used up the gussied-up tourist area in a couple of days, plus it has that air of tourist area that is always sort of a turn off. We did venture into the 'burbs on foot and got driven across Havana twice. That, plus researching let us know that most of the reality of Havana life was in Centro, where we elected to stay. The streets, stores, and buildings you're seeing in the pictures were all around us and that is the reality of Havana. But getting back to intrepid and what we managed to see -- I'd say that is down to both of us liking to walk and to see what's around the next corner. Also, when you're traveling with another person in the same age group, no one wants to be the first to give up. Edited to say to Mark that we simul-posted & I didn't see your comment. Car people would have been constantly agog in Havana, and not only for the well-publicized old American cars. There were all kinds of Russian and I suppose East German models there, too. Thanks for the comment on the photo. We have so many building pictures that probably a separate thread will be made for them. What is really astounding is how very elegant the buildings were -- possibly as elegant as any anywhere in the world.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 4, 2017 16:33:52 GMT
Cars do not rock my world and I have never owned a vehicle of any sort, not even a bicycle. Not even a tricycle! As for the vintage cars of Havana, I am unfortunately old enough to have known these cars when they were new. Now they are not so new. Big deal. However, I do admire the love they have been given in Havana over the years, so sometimes I looked at the details. And the details of design are s true delight. Can you think of any modern cars that give you this sort of thrill when looking at the name or the tail lights?
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Post by breeze on Dec 4, 2017 18:24:55 GMT
I love to see those balconies and arcades. The architecture is impressive, even when it's dilapidated.
I'm trying to see what's behind the stucco, and I think I see some brick, some concrete block, maybe even quarried blocks of stone.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2017 19:18:06 GMT
Bixa, you mention that you were driven across the city a couple of times.
Any "Taxi Tales" worth sharing?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 4, 2017 20:50:47 GMT
Apologies to Lugg and to Fumobici for previously failing to acknowledge their kind words! I am lost for words really; the more I see the more I cannot decide whether I really want to go see it for myself or whether someone would have to drag me there kicking and screaming. Lugg, quite honestly Havana is almost overwhelming at first. Even though I'd seen pictures, I wasn't quite prepared for the reality. That said, everything about it is fascinating, from the political history through trying to learn how the populace gets along. I mention in #74 above how we decided where to stay, but undoubtedly the two adjacent areas to Centro (Habana Vieja and Vedado) might be less of a shock to the system. Still, I would not change a thing about our stay, including the slight lack of enthusiasm I initially experienced. I think that was normal & that feeling ultimately turned into enthusiasm for Havana as a destination. I'm trying to see what's behind the stucco Breeze, I'll eventually find the pictures, but some of the shells of those buildings are being held up by quite elegant iron columns and beams. Any "Taxi Tales" worth sharing? Casimira, we did have one illuminating ride. It was a long trip across all of Havana on our way to see a really fabulous art neighborhood. I managed to get the driver talking & he waxed eloquent about socialism and Fidel and the glory days of Russia in Cuba. Since he was obviously too young to remember much of that, I asked his age, which was 35. He was pleasant to us, but had a general air of disgruntlement. I politely probed as to why things were so wonderful when Russia was there & he cited the fact that even though wages were lower (I guess compared to now), there was more to buy and it was affordable. He was particularly enthusiastic about how workers were treated back then, emphasizing that his father, a policeman, earned a house for merit in his work. (I kept my dark & cynical thoughts to myself about that.) He mentioned the embargo, but quite realistically didn't seem to blame all of Cuba's woes on that. I told him it was my perception that many workers seemed very grumpy and indifferent about their jobs and sort of took it out on whomever they were serving. He said that was true and it was because people weren't doing the jobs they wished to be doing. He said that for instance many lawyers were driving cabs instead of lawyering. I asked if that was because there weren't enough openings for lawyers and he said no, not at all, but that they could make more driving a taxi. Make of this what you will, but I came away with the idea that Cuban citizens, as happens in the rest of the world, don't always have a good grasp on the overall history and causes of their country's state, nor of what could be done to better it. Maybe this is too broad of an opinion to have after my brief time there, but I also thought that the idealization of Fidel by so many people could be a deterrent to progress. It's rather passive to think that if he were only still alive things would totally improve because of his hands-on approach that they so admired.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 5, 2017 5:43:31 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2017 13:39:36 GMT
While it appears that most of these buildings show signs of being inhabited, some of them, actually alot of them appear to be abandoned. I'm wondering if this would invite bands of squatters to take advantage of. Along these same lines did you see or detect a homeless population?
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Post by lagatta on Dec 5, 2017 14:56:14 GMT
See a couple of useful cycles; the man elegantly delivering flowers and the more humble but comestible pig parts and beer on a cargo trike...
May Day is not for labour and social movement protests in that country...
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 8, 2017 5:09:37 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Dec 8, 2017 6:30:11 GMT
Great shots of everyday life with people going about their business. I love the fancy wrought-iron on your third photo. It makes me wonder if the person who actually made it was the designer as well, or if the resident handed over a detailed sketch and said "Here, make this complicated burglar guard for me but remember I'm related to your mother's brother's wife, so want it cheap"
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 8, 2017 6:42:37 GMT
I really like that picture of the guy pulling the doors on the flat cart, Kerouac. Here's a companion for your Repair photo above ~ While it appears that most of these buildings show signs of being inhabited, some of them, actually alot of them appear to be abandoned. I'm wondering if this would invite bands of squatters to take advantage of. Along these same lines did you see or detect a homeless population? Casimira, it was a constant source of surprise to see signs of life is apparently abandoned buildings -- an apartment house that looked as though it had been deserted for years might sport a line of washing out of an upstairs window, for instance. And at night, we'd see dark buildings that we were sure were completely vacant with a light here and there inside. Sometimes in the ground floor windows of a battered wreck of a building we could see a rather nice lived-in parlor. To answer your question about the homeless: I did not see anybody camped out on the street in the general image of homelessness. Nevertheless, I did notice some garbage-picking, including one poor soul who looked to be barely clinging to life. Here is a somewhat less dire looking individual ~
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2017 15:37:10 GMT
Thanks for that reply Bixa. It has been a point of curiosity throughout all these threads and while I could see clothes hung out to dry, plants etc. so, so many buildings seemed to be completely uninhabited.
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Post by bjd on Dec 8, 2017 15:51:06 GMT
Inspired by the photos of this trip to Cuba, I just went to the library and got another book by Leonardo Padura, Mascaras, in Spanish this time. It's from 1998 so there have been some changes (cell phones!), but I imagine Havana mostly still looks the same.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 9, 2017 0:00:27 GMT
The appliance repair sign with only Christ saves - was that an excuse if his repairs didn't work out?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 9, 2017 0:39:32 GMT
I just went to the library and got another book by Leonardo Padura, Mascaras, in Spanish this time. It's from 1998 so there have been some changes (cell phones!), but I imagine Havana mostly still looks the same. Bjd, thanks for mentioning that writer again, as I want to see if I can find something by him. I'm pretty sure that 1998 was the year that Kerouac went to Havana last time, so you can look at his old report in order to compare. LaGatta, you gotta admire truth in advertising!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 9, 2017 7:12:39 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 9, 2017 22:42:37 GMT
Killer shot of the silhouetted statue with that sliver of a moon!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 10, 2017 7:07:36 GMT
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Post by bjd on Dec 10, 2017 9:14:03 GMT
Interesting to see those rickshaws. In that book I mentioned earlier, when the narrator talks about them, he says that the drivers are all poor guys who come to Havana from Oriente province to try to earn a living, and live in terrible conditions in the city.
Any idea what they were supposed to vote about in November?
All the pictures of el Che and Fidel are from when they were quite young. None of Fidel as a doddering old guy in a track suit.
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