4.12.2013

Book on Cuba now available


Paulette and I are pleased to announce that the fourth book in our Pixels and Bristles series is now available at https://www.createspace.com/4142214. It will show up in amazon in about a week.
Pixels and Bristles is our trademark for books that display Paulette's painting and my photographs from a trip. We've done books on Chianti, Canyon de Chelly and Wales, although the Wales book does not have any of Paulette's paintings because of time constraints.

This was our itinerary. We flew from Miami to Cienfuegos, visited  there and nearby Trinidad before moving on, via the Bay of Pigs, to Havana. Before going into more detail on Havana, let me tell you first about Trinidad, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. As in any Spanish town, the Plaza Mayor is the focal point and there we enjoyed the Iglesia de la Santisima Trinidad and the Museo de Arquitectura Colonial, which included some photographs of old Trinidad. We had lunch in a nearby restaurant, which was packed all the time we were there and had a long line waiting when we left. In the meantime, we were entertained by a quartet that later offered us a CD for sale.

CDs for sale were the norm just about every time we were entertained. Given that U.S. citizens may bring back music from Cuba, we understand why CDs are popular. They raise money and they’re legal. We came home with a total of eight, two being gifts for friends.
Later that day we were entertained in Cienfuegos by the Coro Cienfuegos, a multi-generational choir. Lovely voices. We bought the CD. The night before we were entertained by a troupe of flautists. We bought the CD.

Havana, as the capital, has much to see. It has many plazas, including the one in the old city which is another UNESCO World Heritage site. The architecture is diverse and many buildings are in need of repair or are being restored. When we weren’t visiting plazas and admiring old buildings, we were visiting a ballet school, an elementary school, a senior citizen retirement home, a Holocaust museum and Jewish center, the Plaza RevoluciÓn, the National Museum of Fine Arts, and an artists’ cooperative.

On our last day, we visited Las Terrazas, which is described in one guidebook as an eco-resort, complete with hotel and restaurant, but which is really more than that. It is also a socialist community that was begun in the 1980s. Our local tour guide explained how the community operated, how who did what when, and what happened if you didn’t fit it. (Rather than shunning you or throwing you out, the community finds a way for you to make a graceful exit.) Crops are grown organically. Our lunch, at which the photographer was feted for his 69th birthday, was vegetarian. (The photographer celebrated his 50th birthday in China and is wondering where he will be for his 98th.)

https://www.createspace.com/4142214

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