Cuba – Cienfuegos and the road to Trinidad – Sally Wakelin

slogan — Your example lives – Your ideas will last. A permanent reminder of Che Guevara, with his iconic image high above the main square opposite the Cathedral

transport — Of course there are cars and plenty of gorgeous vintage cars from 50’s and 60’s but the streets are filled with bicycles, horses and carts of all kinds as well as pedestrians.

woman in doorway — I thought I was taking a photo of a dark doorway but I lightened the image a little and discovered that I had caught a woman in the shadow who was obviously crying and upset. I hope I didn’t intrude.

blue building — Cuba IS colour, a building painted blue as blue can be with a matching car parked outside, who could resist. I waited for a figure to walk into the archway so that he would be silhouetted against the sunlit wall behind.

bars and mojitos — One of the many traditional bars we visited in Cuba, mojitos were the favorite drink, white rum, brown sugar, lots of fresh mint, ice and soda, refreshing and notso strong that you had to stop at one.

distant mountains — Not sure of this exact location but an expansive view of a green valley and blue mountains, I followed the rule of including foreground interest, it seems to work well here. I believe the tree at the top is a Framboyan which produces large seed pods that can be used as a rattle when dried. In the museum of Religion in Havana, we saw an example that had been painted with colourful geometric patterns.

horseback dad — A dad bringing his daughter home on horseback, he is a farmer and kindly showed us around his small-holding.

The farmer’s 1950’s treadle sewing machine, still in use and kept outside, but there’s no rust despite the humidity, plenty of oil is the secret. And the chair made from rebar like many others in Cuba.

horseback rider — Craggy good looks and an amazing jawline, he could be the next big thing in men’s clothing modelling. he seemed unfazed by being asked to pose on his horse for us.

small-holding — Sugar cane crops seen against the distant mountains, he also kept livestock, rare breed pigs, chickens and sheep.

roadside food stalls — Out on the road again, a common sight are stalls and carts selling local produce, freshly picked vegetable of all kinds and home-butchered meat just lying spread out on a board. It seems so alien to us, all used to our supermarket pristine, wrapped meats or in an organic butcher’s shop.
Most produce in Cuba is sold in this way, even in the towns the shops are very basic, mostly without refrigeration. Of course that means that as only small quantities are available each day, everything is truly fresh.

2 thoughts on “Cuba – Cienfuegos and the road to Trinidad”

Sally, these photos are fascinating, and so well made. I especially love the… well, I was going to say the doorways, the farmer and his horse, the street scenes, and the vistas… so perhaps it would be more accurate to say I enjoyed them ALL!!! ; ) Thanks for sharing this adventure with us.
xo AM

Anita! that’s very kind of you. I was feeling a bit dejected when I got home, I have literally hundreds of images that are wrong for so many reasons but when I started to go through them more carefully, I found that although they aren’t particularly good technically, they provide good illustrations of my feelings about Cuba and the things I encountered. Its so easy to forget, once one becomes embroiled once more in ordinary life, I was determined to make permanent strong memories of the thrilling days I spent there. I have yet to complete a posting on Trinidad, a series of chairs and another of some fairly random scenes. Sally

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2 thoughts on “Cuba – Cienfuegos and the road to Trinidad”

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