Cuba

My friend Judy planned this trip for family and friends.  Six of us from Atlanta joined twenty-four others on this mission, flying from Miami to Cuba on a chartered plane.  Each traveler brought an extra twenty to thirty pounds of humanitarian goods in the form of over the counter medications, vitamins etc. which were delivered to a mission on the second day of our one week stay.  At the time only humanitarian or artistic missions were the legal way to enter Cuba from the US. Afterwards we toured Havana, Trinidad de Cuba and Hacienda Manacas, a historic sugar mill plantation.  Judy located a private guide our Atlanta group engaged for an afternoon and evening.  We learned a great deal from this individual about the realities and demands of Cuban life both inside and outside Cuba, and the systems created to reward and punish.  We saw a great deal of poverty in Havana and at the same time the wonder and splendor of young dancers at the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.  Cuba is truly a mix, a country of change and no change. And it's all facinating.  I self published a book called Cuba Impressions - Images and Words, exploring Cuba and Castro's mission in 1958 compared with circumstances evident to us in 2011.  Many of the photographs shown on my Cuba page, are included in this book.  

Mexico