Habana, Cuba. February, 2012

I was warned by our tour guide not to venture into the “dangerous” neighborhood of Havana’s central market, the Mercado de Cuatro Caminos. Too late! I’d already been there earlier in the day. And mucho happy that I had been. No other tourists around. Just Habaneros doing their daily shopping from whatever happened to be available that day. If the truck arrived with a certain kind of produce, it was up for sale. If not, not. Potatoes, I was told, only make a rare appearance here. Look at that great old scale!

Centro Habana, Cuba. February, 2012

Along the fabled Havana seafront, the Malecón, you run into these two items at almost every turn: classic American cars from the 1950s, some lovingly restored and maintained; and once-beautiful buildings that have crumbled into disrepair and have become victims of bureaucracy and poverty (and decades of salty sea spray) as efforts to restore them have become hopelessly snagged.

Centro Habana, Cuba. February, 2012

As soon as you wander away from the tourist-heavy streets of Old Havana and approach this neighborhood where most of the city’s residents live, the brightly restored colors are no longer in evidence. Things get a little funkier. And, for me, much more real and interesting. This is one of the streets I was warned not to walk down because it was likely that a piece of crumbling building might fall on me. I listened politely to the well-meant warnings...and then headed right down the street as soon as I took this picture. Much more interesting than the Disneyfied tourist sites filled with, well, tourists.

Habana Vieja, Cuba. February, 2012

The streets of Old Havana are filled with surprising visual delights. Here on Calle O’Reilly (honest), a former business (several actually, it seems) leaves a memory of its telephone number on pink tiles that make you wonder what this business must have been. Pink and white tiles, black door...I wonder if they sold Good & Plenty.

Jaimanitas, Habana, Cuba. February, 2012

Everywhere you look in Cuba, even in the heavily mosaic’d neighborhood of Jaimanitas, you find remnants of that moment in the country’s past when Americans were living high on the hog, filling Havana’s casinos, driving their snazzy cars down the avenidas. When the Revolution took place and Castro took over, the Americans fled. Their cars remained. Many have been beautifully refurbished and still grace the streets. Others, like this one, simply languish.

Istanbul. June, 2007

One thing you quickly learn when visiting the monumental buildings and grounds in Istanbul: the Islamic architects knew the power of water to calm both visually and audibly. In reflecting pools. In gardens with ponds or slow-paced waterfalls. In fountains...like this one here, added centuries after the construction of Aya Sofia seen in the background.

Tucson. April, 2013

Nice welcome.