a photographer's view to the world – a traveler's blog
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!
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!
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!
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. Continue reading “A hiking trip to Los Acuáticos”
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!
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.
and on the leafs around: butterflies!
Do you like the clowns in the air? Do you also wonder, how they are able to fly? It’s magic!
There are also butterflies, where I live. I love them since I was a child. Unfortunately, butterflies became less common over the years. Environmentalists say, that’s because of the many herbicides and biocides. While the brides kill the caterpillars and the larvae, the herbicides kill their food plants. I hope, it’s not too late for saving these colorful insects.
In Cuba I met some butterflies, I’ve never seen before. I also was lucky enough to find a place, where several butterflies left their cocoon for starting a brand new live. Maybe one of you is able to tell me the names of the butterflies in the photos.
Take care!
Today, I have another contribution to “The Daily Post”.
Today’s assignment for photographers is “Nature”. Thus I picked a photograph taken in Cuba at a place, where old trains and their waggons are rusting. You can see, just in that moment, when men stop taking care for a thing, mother nature comes back an takes the reins again.
When thinking about Cuba, what do you think first? Rum? Cigars? Tabaco? Music? Or old cars?
To shorten it: I found all of this.
Music is everywhere. In hotel lobbys, restaurants and in the streets are people playing music. Usually bands with more than 2 and up to 10 members. Here in Germany music in restaurants is usually played by CD and street musicians are playing alone. But in Cuba there were usually bands playing music.
Many of them also try to sell their own CDs. Some CD are homemade, using a CD burner, others are made professional. The price Continue reading “Let the music play”
or “the hairdresser” in English.
This project in Havana is meant to give the poor an opportuntiy to earn their own money by teaching them to become a hairdresser. On the other hand old and poor people can get a free haircut by being a volunteer for the trainees. So, both side can profiting.
You, as a tourist, can visit the school and the regular salon. It’s a complete (even small) street between Continue reading “el peluquero”
Havana is located at the coast, but it also has a big bay that is used for the harbor. This bay has a small passage to come in. The city with the old town is located on one side of this entrance and an old castle is located on the other side: Continue reading “The castle”
Every now and then you find some stuff in you cupboard, closet, cellar or attic that is unusable anymore, useless or simply needless. You can store it somewhere else to keep it or you can throw it away. But there is another option: you can give it a new meaning and recycle it. i.e. old clothing can be collected and donated to an aid organization to help people after a catastrophe, old furnitures can also be donated to aid organizations for helping poor people and old metals can be remelted for creating new products.
On Cuba I found a very creative idea for reusing old cannons and cannonballs. Continue reading “Reusing old stuff”
This is the second post on the old town of Havana. I don’t want to write much, but show photos. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoys being in Havana.
This time I show you photos taken at the former governors palace. You know, Cuba was founded by the Spanish conquistadores and Havana was the capital (as the successor of Santiago de Cuba, the originally capital).
Our local guide also told us about the place in front of the palace: the ground is covered by wooden tiles instead of stones. That’s because of noise. In that time, it was common to have a siesta, a rest time during the noon times, because the sun is too hot at that hours. Continue reading “Walking aroung in the old town of Havana II”
Havana is the capital of Cuba. The complete name is Villa San Cristóbal de La Habana.
The city was founded back in the early 16th century by the spanish conquerors. You can still find many old buildings in Havana, i.e. strongholds and churches from that time.
The Cuban government is currently doing many renovations. Houses, streets and places are undergoing a renovation process to get rid of broken facades and holes in the streets. Houses are also freshly repainted, i.e. the houses around Plaza Vieja are all bought by the government, renewed and repainted. Now Continue reading “Walking around in the old town of Havana”
During the last 3 week I was on a round trip on Cuba.
The trip was quite exhausting, but wonderful. While it is icy cold and snowy here in Europe, I was able to enjoy the hot sun on this big Caribbean island. As you might expect, I was there to learn about the culture and take lots of photographs. Some of them will pop up here during the next weeks.
As a summary I’d like to say, Cuba was a positive surprise to me. It was less dirty than expected from my own experience in Spain, Croatia or some other more southern countries. I saw less military or police stuff Continue reading “I’m back ….. from Cuba”
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