Throwback Thursday and Lens-Artists Photo Challenge 193: “birthday”

This week, John Steiner is looking forward to celebrating his birthday, so I’m happy to join the LAPC party. In some families and in some cultures, birthdays are a reason for huge celebrations. So, I picked up this post published first back in 2013.

There is a certain habit in Cuba of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday.

The girl gets special clothing, is dressed up, and gets perfect makeup. Then they go to a photographer to take beautiful photographs.

According to our guide, some girls are dressed like a bride for these sessions, others wear cocktail dresses and I also noticed photographs showing a girl dressed like a female version of an old-fashioned, Spanish caballero. The photographs are usually taken in a park or in the streets and not in a studio.

Two weeks later, the parents and the girl have a party with all of her friends, and an album, containing the photos, which is a real eyecatcher for that party. Also, the parents put framed photos from that session on their walls.

I like that idea. (OK, maybe, because I’m a photographer).

We met this young lady in the old town of Havana. Her mother was with her and took care of her hairstyle and her makeup, while the photographer directed his assistant to adjust the reflector.

So, we can congratulate her on her 15th birthday.

Are there any similar habits, where you live or coming from?

While waiting for my next post you can have a look at the previous posts and maybe drop me a note in the comments section below.

 

In the meantime, the girl is a young woman. As I said, I took these photos back in 2013. So, she’s already 24. How much must have changed for her in her life.

As I’m always interested in getting to know habits from other countries, regions, or cultures, drop me a note in the comments and tell me, how do you celebrate birthdays. I’m interested in your personal celebration as well as in general habits and traditions.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 27

This week I picked a photo taken last year on Cuba for Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness.

I found this vintage car right next to the beach, only about 30 or 40 m from the ocean.

I don’t know the brand. Maybe one of you is able to tell me.

Take care!

 

¡Adios! Cuba

Many years ago here was a song popular with this line in the chorus (I translate it for you into English, while the song is in German): “Everything has an end, but only the sausage has two of them”.

This post is the end of my series on Cuba. I hope, you liked it. But, don’t be afraid, next week I start the next series.

Here’s my résumé on Cuba: It’s a nice country, friendly and open-minded people. A country with some problems, but the people try to manage them by creating new ideas. Cuba is undergoing huge changes currently and I guess, during the next few years it will change more than during the last 50 years.

Instead of saying “Goodbye” I’d say  more likely the German “Auf Wiedersehen” (see you again) or the French “Au revoir!”.

In case, you have Cuba on your bucket list, I’d recommend to go as soon as possible and don’t wait too long. There is so much changing, you’d probably miss that original spirit of Cuba. I guess, I already wrote more on this in an earlier post.

Take care!

remains of Sandy

Do you remember Sandy, the heavy hurricane in the Caribbean from December 2012? Well, Cayo Levisa also was hit quite hard. Many mangroves were removed from the shore, trees were cut and several other damages. The hotel, consisting of about 80 log cabins and a central house of stone with the reception and the dining room, didn’t show any damages.

I guess, it will last many years, until the nature recovers from that storm.

Take care!

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cooling down on Cayo Levisa

As I wrote in my last post, it was quite cool on Cayo Levisa because of the wind after the storm over the sea. As you can see in the photos nearly no-one is on the beach and the wind brings high waves. Also, the palm branches are bent by the heavy wind.

Our stay here was planed for being a beach holiday with swimming, diving and snorkeling. Instead, I walked around wearing more clothes as during the last days and enjoyed the nature.

I attached a few more photos than usual in this posts gallery at the end of this post. I hope, you enjoy them.

Take care!

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transit to Cayo Levisa

Cayo Levisa is a small island at the north shore of Cuba, right opposite to Florida. The bus needed more than two hours for the distance of about 50 kilometers from Viñales to the small ferry harbor, because of the very bad roads. The first 30 kilometers were quite fine, like most of the Cuban streets we saw. But, the remaining 20 kilometers were very bad.

We arrived quite early at the ferry harbor. While waiting for the ferry, we got notice of a  coming up very slowly. It seemed, the car’d have a technical problem. When the car finally arrived at the parking ground next to the bar where we were waiting, we noticed, the car was a rental car and 4 young ladies came off. They checked the engine and some more parts. Some Cuban people also looked for the car. As far as I understood, the front axle or a wheel was damaged because the driver didn’t pay enough attention to the street or was too careless. I don’t know about the end of the story, because the ferry arrived and we got on board for our passage to Cayo Levisa. About an hour later we arrive on Cayo Levisa.

Unfortunately the same afternoon we were able to see a heavy tropical storm on the sea and the sky became cloudy and gray – no more tropical feelings 😦 This kept on until the next afternoon, when the sun came back. But, with a strong and cold wind. Being at the beach was quite difficult. Strong tropical sun forced us to put some clothes away, but the wind forced us to up them on again. I’ll tell a bit more in my next post.

Take care!

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Cueva del Indio

is a cave near by Vinales. For an entrance fee of 5 CUC you can visit the first dry part of the cave and get a boat transit to a flooded part of the inner cave as well as getting transported to  the exit by boat.

The ground of the cave is covered by plan concrete and equipped by a few steps. Some passages are very low and you have to pass them ducked.

Tha cave itself is washed out by water and thus quite interesting.

It’s only a short stop near the road for about an hour or so. I guess, you need more time for all the gift shops at the exit after leaving the boat, then for visiting the cave itself. Btw. you can even only visit the gift shops without visiting the cave. But, in that case, you have to find the exit on you own. Hint: look for the parking ground (located left to the entrance) and you will see a bunch of small log cabins at the caves exit. You can also find a bar for getting a refreshment right next to the cave’s exit.

Take care!

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A hiking trip to Los Acuáticos

Los Acuáticos de Viñales is a tiny village at the side of one of the hills above the Valley of Viñales. The path to that village looks more like a dry riverbed than a path. It’s narrow, steep and stony. You really need solid shoes for that trip. And you need a local guid to find you way. Neither street signs nor direction signs will help you find this village. According to our guide, there are only about 12 people are still living in Los Acuáticos. 

The name was given to the village, when an old, wise woman lived there like a hermit. She was a healer and was assumed to be able to heal with water. In the rush time, there were 60 people living there. But now, since the old woman passed away several decades ago, more and more people moved away to find another place, where living is a bit easier. The remaining families are still farmer and work in their steep fields as you can see in the photo gallery at the end of the post.

Visiting Viñales

In my last post I focused on the UNESCO world heritage, the valley of Viñales. Literally this valley ist named by the town nearby.

Viñales is a small town. A few tiny shops along the main street, the main square and a nice little church. From the visitors aspect, the town isn’t very interesting. But the valley itself is. So, Viñales is the perfect location for starting your exploration of this interesting valley.

In one of the smaller valleys you can also find an art project: mural de la prehistory. A photo is in the gallery below. One side of a hill is covered with a huge painting. It’s 120 meters high and 180 meters broad. The Mexican artist  Leovigildo González Morillo created it in 1961. Every few years this painting has to be refreshed, because the periodical heavy rains fades out the paint.

To watch this painting, you can go and pay an entrance fee. I didn’t. I my opinion it was enough, to see it from the street (path). But, have a look yourself.

Take care!

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Valley of Viñales

This valley is a UNESCO world heritage. Valle de Viñales (in spanish) is located in the Piñar del Río Province in the north-west of Cuba. Being a world heritage means, people aren’t allowed to change the landscape. They are forbidden to build telephone or electricity lines by using pillars to hold them up in the air. So, you won’t see any of them in the valley. But, most, if not all, farms do have sun collectors for making their own electricity near by the houses. The people own different electrical devices. Not only devices in the kitchen, but also devices like radios or TVs.

The soil in the valley is very red. You might have noticed this in my earlier posts on tobacco farming. But in my photo gallery at the end of this post you can see, that I didn’t change the color in my photos accidentally.

growing tobacco

Growing tobacco is hard work. It’s harder than growing i.e. corn, potatoes or grain. That’s because the farmer has to prepare his patch first with the plough and saw the seeds. But, he also has to go in his patch every day to cut the blossoms and pick unwanted leaves. It reminded me to the  wine growers work.

Everything is done by manual work. Ploughs and carriages are pulled by oxen. We didn’t see any machine in the fields.

Take care.

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making cigars

Last week I wrote about how I met two tobacco farmers and showed a few photos. I also told about the process how to prepare the tobacco leaves for making cigars. Today I continue on this.

In the photo above, you can see a tobacco patch to the left and a drying house in the back, where the leaves are hung up for drying. The process for creating a cigar from the dry leaves is quite simple as you can see from the gallery at the bottom of this post. Young and soft leaves are in the core, wrapped by older and bigger leaves. The cover leave is wrapped outside and glued with a fluid.

Each leave is cut along the finning (leaf vein). The vein is never used for cigars. The vein is the part of the leaf with the highest level of nicotine and other chemicals that make smoking so dangerous. On the other hand, for cigarettes the whole leaves are shredded, so that a cigarette is more dangerous for one’s health than smoking a cigar.

At last the ready cigars were put into the wooden form for a few weeks to make them resistant against self dissolving.  But, you could also start to smoke one at once, if you want to.

Take care.

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visiting a tobacco farmer

As I mentioned in my last post, we also visited tobacco farmers. One got the patches from his father 5 years ago, when his father was 80 years old and too old to do that work anymore. He told us much about producing cigars, while the other one showed us, how to assemble a cigar. The farmers get the seeds from the government. They grow the plants and when they get a certain hight, the start to harvest the first leaves, those at the bottom. They become the outer cover sheet. Later the plants start blooming and the blooms have to be cut and given back to the government. Also, the government get’s 80% of the dried leaves, while the farmers are allowed to keep the remaining 20% for their own use. This is the source for the cigar sellers in the cities I mentioned earlier.

The government operated fabrics assemble their cigars by using leaves from different growing places (full sun, part shadow or shadow), different tobacco species and different farms. The leave ware not only hung up for drying, they also voted by certain marinade for the fermentation process. Each farmer has his own secret receipt for this marinade. On the other hand, the leaves of farmers cigars are all from their own patches. That’s why cigars from different brands have different tastes.

On the table in the above photo you can see the tools needed for assembling a cigar, 3 ready cigars and a few roles / bundles of farmer’s cigars covered by a thin layer of wood as a very basic variant of humidor. In the background you can see many bunches of drying tobacco leaves, as we are in the drying house at the moment. Here in the drying house you have a very distinct smell of fall, autumn foliage and cigar boxes (as I remember from my grandfathers cigar boxes) or tobacco shops. The smell of cigars is already there, but it also smells like fall, when the trees lost their leaves, that are laying on the ground and start drying and fouling. Although, the tobacco leaves won’t start fouling, but drying.

Next week, I’ll focus on the patches and the work outside.

Take care!

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Visiting a humidor manufactury

Tobacco is very important in Cuba, especially in the north. Not only you find big tobacco patches and cigar manufactories, you can also find workshops, where they build those boxes for storing cigars in optimal conditions, with regard on humidity and temperature. All the cigar and humidor factories are operated by the government. All? No, a few manufactories are already private owned and operated by tobacco farmers (producing cigars) and carpenters (making humidors).

You can visit both, cigar and humidor factories and see people assembling cigars respectively cutting the wood for humidors. But, as in all government operated factories a visitor is forbidden to bring any kind of bag (even not a lady’s handbag) or a camera. On the other hand, when visiting a tobacco farmer or a craftsman, you can ask for permission, as I did.

In case, you think of a humidor of being a simple box made of cheap woods or card box to sell the cigars, so you are wrong. Storing cigars and keep them in good shape is really complicated and need a lot of specific knowledge.

Here you can see, some of the wonderful humidors. They are made of wood from cedar trees, which is best for keeping the right humidity inside the box. More luxurious boxes even have hygrometer for metering the humidity inside the box. In case the humidity is too high, the cigars would begin fouling. Is it too low, they’d drying out. Both conditions are bad, if you want to smoke them.

In the gallery you can not only see many more humidors, you can also have a look inside the workshop.

Have fun and take care!

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some cuban birds – part IV

This is the final post in this little series on cuban birds. In case, you missed one of the previous posts, you can find them here.

In this post I want to introduce you to the cuban national bird, the Cuban Trogon. You can see it in the photo above.

The other two birds on the photos in this posts gallery can be found in a wider area. The brown pelican is at home in the whole Caribbean area as well as in california. While the turkey vulture can be found in all parts of south, middle and south america.

Have fun.

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some cuban birds – part III

This week I have another continuation of the series on cuban birds. I assembled some photos of different kinds of egrets I found in different parts of Cuba. In the gallery below you can see photos of Little Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons, Snowy Egrets and Cattle Egrets on the fields following the plough or cows and horses, hoping for an easy catch.

Most of the time, I saw them standing on the fields or in / beside the water hunting and fishing. Surprisingly, they were less shy, then those here in Europe. It was quite easy to come near (20 – 30 meters) without disturbing them. Also, they only flew a few meters before landing again. So, I don’t have any photo of a flying egret or heron.

In the photo above you can search and find 3 different egret species. Try to find them. It’s not that easy. One more post on the birds in the queue. So, stay tuned.

In case, you missed one of the previous posts, don’t hesitate to have a look now.

Take care!

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some cuban birds – part II

This is a continuation of last weeks post. There were so many different birds, that I split the post for not to overstress you with all the photos. And, as I wrote in my last post, I don’t the names of the birds, expect the cuban emerald hummingbird. So, if you know one of the names, don’t hesitate to use the comment box below, to send me the name.

In a following post I’ll show some more of the astonishing birds.

Take care!

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some cuban birds – part I

Every now and then during the last couple of posts I mentioned the cuban birds. I really love these colorful animals. All of the photos shown in the gallery below are taken in the wild, but without any feeding or bushwhacking. All the photos were taken by chance during hikes or in the trees and bushes beside the streets.

Unfortunately I don’t know all of their names. Maybe, one of you is able to help me out.

The egrets, hummingbird, grackle, pygmy owl and the falcon are easy to find. But the others are quite harder to find. So, if you know one of the names, don’t hesitate to use the comment box below, to send me the name.

In a following post I’ll show some more of the astonishing birds.

Take care!

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at a cuban public bath

What do you think, do they have public baths in Cuba? And if so, how do you think they look like?

As I mentioned before, Cuba is a modern country with stadiums and swimming arenas in the big cities, but how about the rural areas?

After paying your entrance fee you can have a nice afternoon swimming in the clean, fresh and cool water of a river surrounded by shadowing trees, some picnics places and even toilets. So, everything is available for a nice pause from your daily routine.

Although we were here during the dry season, there was enough water in the river, to be able to swim in the ponts and to have a shower in (small) waterfalls.

Enjoy.

And, while having your rest and waiting for my next post, you might recheck the past posts on Cuba here in my blog. Take care!

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A hike at Las Terrazas

In my last post I introduced you to the community of Las Terrazas.

Today I want to take you on a hike through the forests on the hills around Las Terrazas.  You don’t need hiking shoes or a backpack full of water for out little trip, but I recommend both in case you go on that trip yourself.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s green here. Many plants are covering the ground. So, we found orchids, and many other plants, I didn’t knew before.

The most interesting tree is the tourist tree (Bursera simaruba). You can see it on the photo on the right. When in the sun, the bark becomes red first and than falls down, just like the skin of the tourists.  🙂

We also met many bird. I’ll put them up in another separate post.

Take care

and stay tune on, what else the forests hides.

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Las Terrazas

Las Terrazas is a cuban community. After a deforestation the people build flat terraces in the sides of the hills and planted trees again. Now, the have forests again around their village. They can pay their living by the products of the forests without cutting trees and by showing their community and their achievements to visitors.

More on the plants, flowers and animals we saw on out guided tour through the hills, I’ll put in another post.

Take care.

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It’s green here

First stop: Artemisa.

This region is very green, but we had a slight problem with fresh water. You know, I mentioned it a several times, we were there during the dry season. So, the government was rationing the fresh water. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. there was no water. Nevertheless, the area was still very green and the plants seemed in proper shape, although the dry period lasted nearly 5 months already.

In case, you plan hiking trips, this could be the region to do so. Hills, forests, many birds make the area interesting.

Stay tuned for the next posts on this area.

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Heading back north

We started in Havana and went south after a few days. We saw many different cities and regions. We visited cities, historical places, beaches, mountainous regions and rural areas. In Santiago we reached the most southern point of our journey. When you look on your map, you’ll see, that there is another region left, where we weren’t until now: the north-west, west of Havana. So, we took a plane for a domestic flight from Santiago de Cuba back to Havana, to visit the remaining provinces Pinar del Rio and Artemisa. This time we arrived at another airport. Originally we arrived at José Marti International Airport, but this time we arrived at Ciudad Libertad. It’s smaller and less crowded.

Here in the north-west the areas are widely used for agriculture. Although we saw much agriculture in all parts of the country, I felt agriculture is a bit more present here in the north-west. Here you can find fields with sugar canes, rice, beans, manioc, pineapples, bananas, coffee, flowers and of course tabacco. We also found plantations growing flowers. Here they grew flowers, than I knew as indoor plants (i.e. the Amaryllis) or from exotic flower bouquets.

You know, we were in Cuba during the dry period. Here in the north-west we had some problems with water rationalisation. From 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. there was no drinking water available for taking a shower, cleaning your hands or using the toilet.

Take care!

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La cathedrale

de Santiago de Cuba.

Finally we were lucky enough to see a cuban cathedral from inside. One evening, when we came back to our hotel, I saw light from inside shining through the wide open door to the square below. Going upstairs we had to pass the beggars again. They started again following us through the cathedral and didn’t left us alone watching the paintings, the decorated ceiling and the other interior. Our guide advised us, don’t give them anything.

Half of the cathedral was closed with a wooden wall, because of reconstruction works. The cathedral was hard damaged by the hurricane Sandy in December 2012 as several other parts of the old-town, too.

Take care.

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walking around in Santiago de Cuba

Once, Santiago de Cuba was the capital of Cuba. But, the capital moved north to the new built city Havana back in 1552.

As you can see, Santiago is quite old. But, you can find less old buildings then in i.e. Trinidad. OK, you won’t find much modern building in the old town, but the majority of the buildings were built during the 19th and the early 20th century.

As I mentioned in my post on the island Granma in the bay of Santiago, the southern part of Cuba was affected very hard by the hurricane Sandy. And, although Sandy happened more than 3 month ago, we were still able to see, how much the city was affected. Many buildings were destroyed. some of them were only tentative repaired to give the inhabitants a roof. Others were so much affected, that the people set up tents inside the houses. Or put signs at the door, saying that there is still someone living.

Although, many houses are damaged, you can still see, once Santiago was rich. Now, it is quite different. Santiago was the only city where we were hassled by beggars. They even followed us constantly begging for money. In other cities we also met poor people. But, those tried to offer a value for the money. They tried to sell something like cigars, water or soft-drinks. They made music or offered services like guidance or recommending restaurants. But here they were only begging. Fortunately they didn’t departed much from the place Parque Cespedes and thus left us alone after a few minutes.

During our visit we were also affected by the national mourning because of the death of Hugo Chaves, the president of Venezuela. For 1 week all dancing shows and even music plays were forbidden. So, we missed nearly all of our visiting plans here in Santiago.

I, personally, won’t visit Santiago for a second time. There are other places that are more interesting.

Take care!

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