DarrenBarefoot.com

Hola from Havana. We’ve been in-country for three days, exploring the crumbling beauty that is Havana Vieja (’Old Havana’). The city is like no other I’ve ever seen–decrepit, but full of life; impoverished, but joyful; free of advertising, but full of enterprising spirit. The oddities run on and on–despite having such a poor populace, it’s nearly free of crime, and probably safer than most North American cities.

Mercifully, the city is light on tourists. This may be down to the time of year and the focus on the all-inclusive resorts, but I certainly appreciate it. The tourists that you do see are a great polyglot–Mexican seniors, Colombian students, German volksporters.

The city is a photographer’s dream–there are beautiful, unique sites no matter where you look. I’ve done my best to capture some of them, but my best isn’t going to do much justice to what we’ve seen.

The high point of the last three days has been a tour of the Teatro Gran, a 19th century theatre currently being restored in the centre of town. While the auditorium was impressive, more interesting was the busyness going on in the halls about it. The theatre houses a flamenco school–I mistook the thunderous roar of dance practice for construction noise. We passed a classroom where the students learned other subjects. As our guide put it, “maths, English, make-up.”

In another room, a chorus was preparing for the forthcoming production of The Magic Flute. There were more people at work in this theatre than any I’ve ever seen. The most interesting room was the cavernous scene shop, where we stopped to chat with the designers and scenic artists. They were sitting around, “waiting for supplies”. A cat slumbered peacefully in a chair.

We’ve got one more day in Havana, then it’s onward to one of the aforementioned all-inclusives in Veradero for four nights of maxin’ and relaxin’. Maybe there’s something to this socialism, after all. Remind me when I get back, though, to write about tourist guilt.