Thoughts

A little bit of rambling about some of my pictures…

Traveling Time in Cuba

Traveling Time in Cuba

Exiting the plane and onto the jet bridge in Havana will start the Cuban Experience. Everything at this point seems to be older and has less up keep than many of the other places one my travel. 

Going through customs was surprisingly not a long process. I showed my Covid QR code that I had to get prior to boarding and then, waited as the immigration agent helped the single person in front of me. I handed my passport and visa form once I got the agent and was asked, “Why are you traveling to Cuba?” my answer was the one option I had to fill out multiple times on multiple forms and websites, “Support for the Cuban People”.  A supervisor was called over and given my passport, and I was told to stand over there till someone gets me. Another supervisor or manager shows up with my passport again same question and response. Finally a 3rd supervisor shows up and the dialog is repeated. I’m handed off to a different agent, stamped in and I’m on my way, not too bad about 15 minutes all in all. 

Once outside the airport, I notice there are a lot of old cars, even the Yellow taxis seem to be pretty old. Bridges are not painted and everything just seems to have this very old, look like a movie from the 70s, I have told many people that it was like traveling in Greece in the 80s. 

First stop was Fusterlandia, this amazing neighborhood outside of Havana started as small art project by artist José Fuster. He started out doing these tile projects on his house and then his neighbors started asking him to do their house too. Eventually the whole neighborhood became an art project of these amazing mosaics. I also went into the art studio and was able to see some of his paintings and other works. 

After check in to the casa particular, it’s off to explore the city and meet some people. Wandering through the Old Havana neighborhood was a stunning contrast of images. There were many very run down and building ready to topple over, next to nice well kept little houses with flowers on the balconies and cute decorations. Everything had bars on the windows and doors. Walking in the neighborhoods, I was approached by multiple people always asking where are you from and what are you looking for, I found everyone quite polite and friendly. 

I went to the main Cathedral square and though the church was closed, was able to check out the square and walk around the neighborhood. Next I happened to wander on to the “La Bodeguita del Medio” where they claim to have invented the mojito. This was one of Ernest Hemingway’s hang outs while he was in Cuba. The atmosphere was fun and they had a live group of musicians that played great music. I really thought the flute player was a stand out in the group. The mojitos, well, let’s say they may be the first to make them but I found them very disappointing. I would be hard pressed to remember a worse mojito. 

Wandering up to the capitol, I was able to see an amazing sunset in between the buildings around the capital and Shopping districts. I knew the Capitol was modeled after the US capitol but I was surprised when one of the people asking if I wanted a tour, told me it was also made to be exactly 5 meters taller than the US. This is also where classic cars are lined up to go around giving tourists city tours. I walked down to the street eventually heading back towards the Malacon where I saw this cool bust of a women’s face. I waited around the Malecon for classic cars to drive by so I could get shots of the old cars with New Havana and the Malecon in the background. 

My first full day in Havana started at 6:30am I was surprised at how many people were out and about.  I went to the main Cathedral and wanted to get shots of the square and front of the church and still had to wait for people to get out of the way that early. Walked around the fortress and through many of the neighborhoods again and then up again to the Capitol building along the pedestrian walkway.  I got this last shot here and thought this was a very interesting contrast of Havana. The front of the Capitol is all nice an well kept looks amazing, but as I waslked around it, the back of the Capitol had a street just filled with garbage. 

After breakfast, I continued down to China town and got a couple shots there and decided to head to the Plaza de Revolution. I treated myself to a Classic car ride in a convertible 57 Ford and had a great conversation with my driver Marti. He was super knowledgeable and spoke English really well. From there I took one of the little 3 wheel taxies to the Hotel National. I wanted to look around and see why the gardens are always mentioned in the what to do. Unfortunately there was construction and the gardens were being redone. 

I walked back through to the city to Old Havana again, went to the hotel as I wanted to go up to the castle “El Moro” for sunset pictures. I was able to get a some good shots around the castle then just a short walk to the Fort of San Carlos to watch the Canon Ceremony.

Every night at 9pm they fire the canon at the fort. This tradition started in the 17th Century and is very ritualized and stylized It’s quite a draw and there were quite a few people there for how remote it was. It was very dark and even at a very high ISO the picture were hard to get. 

My third day was the trip out to Vinales, to see some of the country side and also a tobacco farm. I had a driver stop along the road a few times to get some country side shots, and then he took me up to a viewpoint to see the mountains surrounding the valley. We then went into the town of Vinales and again stopped in a few places to get some shots of the town and the mountains. 

Next was an obligatory stop at a tobacco farm, where they showed how to roll cigars and showed us the rum they made from apricots. I walked around the farm a bit and then off to see the caves. 

The first was the San Miguel Cave. It was a little bit of a smaller one that had a restaurant built into it and was kind of a cool 20 minute walk. 

The Cueva del Indio (Indian Cave) was much bigger and the very end had a boat ride through it. No said anything to me and I set up the tripod and shot a few long exposure HDR photos, which I thought was pretty cool. This cave was originally used by indigenous people in the area and during the boat ride the guide would call out several rock formations. 

Had lunch with the guide at the great little mom and pop restaurant and then off to our last stop, Murales de la Prehistoria. This huge mural was made as a tourist attraction, but still was a cool little stop. While at lunch, I got this great little portrait of a tobacco farmer taking a break from his work. I bought the guy a beer and thanked him for letting me get the shot.


If I was to do this again I would recommend an overnight in Vinales and getting to do some of the horseback riding and other attractions in the area. I would have really loved to do some Sunrise and Sunset photos here. 

We got back to Havana around 8pm and I walked around the city one last time. Got these last couple shots, walking around. The gate with the food in the background is how you order things from many of the bodegas throughout Cuba. You are not allowed in, the clerk passes you what you order through the gates. Many houses were like this one, with people watching their TV’s and gates looking out into the open street.

Heading off to the airport, where once again I was there “for support of the Cuban people”. I could not resist to get this shot of the airplane.

A couple of thoughts:

  1. I would have stayed a little more central in Havana. Walking around Old Havana was great, but I would have liked to maybe have seen more of central Havana as well.
  • Vinales while possible as a day trip, I think would have made a great overnight trip. It would have given me more time to talk to locals and see more of the town.
  • Lastly plan to not have internet or phone. I was only able to use the internet at the hostel I stayed at and even then it was very intermittent. I’m very grateful I download Google maps to work off line while I was there. 

Morocco Day 4

The next day we woke up and started to drive down to Chefchaouen in the Atlas mountains. I wanted to take bit more of a rural drive and head through the countryside. It was great to see the rocky terrain and pass through some of the small villages. 

Out in some of the very rural areas it was pretty eye opening. Some of the houses and people were showing the poverty in the country. Some of the very rural areas the people had to fill up blue water barrels to their houses. It really made my mom and I think about how lucky we were to be able to have somethings as simple as running water. 

The landscape was so different than the area near Fes. We also passed kids that were walking to/from school. It seemed like some of them had to walk really long distances to get to the schools. It was sad but at the same time a little inspiring to seem the kids walking so far to get to their classes. 

 

After about 5 hours of driving and a great little lunch at this tiny cafe, we go to a big blue gate that leads to nothing off on the side of the road, but just around the next bend was Chefchaouen. 

What an amazing city. Walking around it was such a great experience, there were cool little alleyways all painted and some had colors built into them to give it a different vibe.  All the little fountains and roofs all were painted.

We had dinner on this great rooftop restaurant that you had to walk up 3 flights of stairs, but we got to see this incredible sunset over the city. This also looked out over the main square of the city where there were local musicians playing and sitting outside listening to the Moroccan music and having this great dinner, just was a great way to spend the final night to a incredible trip.

The next morning I got up and walked one of the long trails around the city. I was able to get these great shots of the sunrise over the city.  It was a great little walk up on the north side of the city. The trail was paved and it was totally a great a little hike.

After the sun was up, I walked through the other loop around the city and again was able to see all these really cool doorways. I wish I could have stayed another 2 days in Chefchaouen. 

We left Chefchaouen a hour later and drove back to Casablanca for our flight. It was an amazing trip and I will never forget. I can’t wait to go back again and this time go to Marakech. I’m sure there will be amazing things to do an explore there as well. 

 

 

Morocco Day 3

After spending the day touring the city with our guide, we wanted to wonder around by ourselves. We started the day again with the amazing breakfast at Riad Baraka. 

We started walking through the souks to get a few souvenirs and see what else was around. Almost all the souks were buys and had a ton of people wandering through them, but there were always some alleyway that seemed empty with someone bored and just hanging out with there merchandise. 

           

We were able to find a couple key chains and other things for gifts back home. I was a find a really nice light that was a really nice moorish style with and when the lights shine through it looks just great. I got this for my desk at home and it’s just awesome. When the lights are off the colors on it just look amazing.  I stopped in a couple different shops looking for this and each light like this was a little bit different. I could not find 2 that were exactly alike and the prices varied from about $25-$40.  I figured this was all a bargaining tactic so when I found this one, the guy was asking for $30. I told him of course I couldn’t afford more than $15 and in the end we settle at $22 bucks for this one. Maybe its a couple bucks more that I should have paid for it but, I liked the colors on this one the most.

You walk around and just everywhere there are cool things to see. The doorways, the building, the light, the shadows hitting things around the city are just amazing. I felt like I could stop every minute and take a picture of something amazing or just something a little bit odd.  Since the souks street are so narrow there are still a lot of goods being transported by donkey in the souks. You need to make space for them, since some of the alleyway are so narrow. After the donkeys are done… they just get to hang out with a view in amazing doorways. 

We walked down this incredibly narrow alleyway that had these really cool lights hanging and that led to to the Madrassa Archaratine. This was not on my list of things to see but as we had some time and it was only 20 Dinar (about $2 bucks) to get in, we had to go see it.  What really made this Madrassa great was that you could go up to the second  and third floors where the student would actually sleep.   

The rooms are absolutely tiny and they only had this tiny window that would look out into the courtyard of the Madrassa. It was a smaller Madrassa compared to what we had seen but definitely worth going in and checking it out. 

Right next door to the Madrassa was a shop where they were selling all kinds of wooden items. The owner showed us the roof of the house where we could get a view of the whole city. And you could see the tops of the the Bou Inania Madrassa.

After shopping and the Madrassa we decided to go ahead get a little of relaxing time at our Riad. We headed back and took a nice swim in the little courtyard pool and relaxed for a bit. Dinner was at “The Hidden Garden” Restaurant. The food was good but what really stood out about this place was the Iced Mint Tea. I had to say that was amazing and one of the things I will absolutely try to recreate back home.  ay

Last night in Fez was amazing. Definitely a city to revisit, but time to go on to Chefchaouen.

 

 

 

Morocco Day 2 Part 3

After walking out of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque we walked around the city towards the street of copper. I wanted to see this as I heard they will still hand hammering copper in all the shops. 

As we walked there were just so many great images to shoot, I love all the doorways and the architecture in the city.

           

As we were walking we were able to look into another on of the entrances to the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque complex. We walked all the way around to try to get to the street of copper. It really is unfortunate that we were unable to go inside, there just were so much to shoot in there.  The lamps hanging in the narrow streets I thought was another interesting feature of the city and in the narrow streets was something else to love about Fez. 

     

The street of copper was very noisy, everyone one hammering their works.  You can see them heating up the copper with burners and then hand hammering everything, then afterwards they polish it all by hand. The copper looks amazing too, really shinny and all of it is formed very nicely. 

        

And walking through this all is a guy carrying a bunch of birds for sale. I couldn’t help but ask him for a picture. He of course allowed me to and then as soon as I was done gave me the food motion so I gave him a couple dirham for the photo. 

Then off wandering through the streets again and into the Al-Attarine Madrasa. This was was built again in the 1300’s and the name actually means “Madrassa of the Perfumers” since it is right next to the spice and perfume souks in Fes. This was a tiny madrassa compared to the Bou Inania Madrassa. 

What was also really cool about this madrassa was that you could go up to the cells on the second floor and see the rooms where the students would live and study in. You had to walk up this narrow stairwell and then go through this tiny hallway where you could get into each of the cells. They only had a single window in each cell to look out over the courtyard. 

After this our tour was done and it was back to the Riad to relax a bit before our dinner. I had booked Dar Hatim for dinner. I had read alot of reviews about the restaurant and heard so many good things about it.  They driver came and picked us up right from our Riad, which was absolutely necessary. When we got out of the car, with a couple he led us through all these winding streets and we would have never been able to find it by ourselves. 

When we got there it was an amazing little restaurant. They showed us to this little corner area which was had these super soft cushions. The owner Kareema was so nice. She remembered me from my emails to her and was absolutely delightful to chat with.  They brought us out a huge variety of appetizers, including lentils, olives, zucchini, eggplant and more. This was all served with warm Moroccan bread. They were delicious.

 

Our host then recommended the Lamb Tanjin and the Chicken pastilla, which she said were her moms and her specialty dishes. She was right they were absolutely delicious. So much so, I started eating before I could remember to take pics of the food. 

Afterwards it was the daily dessert and fresh mint tea. After were done and paid the rather modest bill, the driver took us back to the hotel, even though the other couple was still hanging out and chatting. On the ride back we found out that he was Kareema’s husband. We thanked him very much for everything and told them it was an amazing time at dinner. 

 

 

Morocco Day 2 Part 2

After dropping off our car we started to walk through the old Medina. As I mentioned earlier having the guide was a huge help. He was able to get us through all the windy streets and get us to each place quickly. 

The first stop was the Dar al-Magana, which is “house of the clock”. This was built in the in the 1300’s and finished in 1357. This is clock would use water to weight down pulleys and open the doors to show the time.  

    

Right behind the clock house was the Madrasa Bou Inania which is an old Islamic School. It was the last Madrassa to be built by the Marinids dynasty. The architecture is absolutely amazing. The plaster, wood and tile works is so detailed and creative it really makes you think about how long it took the artisans to do all this work. This is also one of the few Islamic building that allow non-Muslims to enter. Finished in 1356 it was restored in the 1800’s.

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There were so many cool things to see as we are walking to our next destination, every corner had all this great tile work and even old doors we beautifully decorated.

      

Next stop was the Sid Moussa Tannery. Not the  biggest tannery in Fez, but a interesting visit. Of course our guide knew someone at the tannery and he turned us over to him for the tour.  To start off, everything you read about the smell is true. It was awful! They give you a mint spring as you walk in so you can hold it up to your nose for the tour, while you are outside. Even as you start to get near the tannery you can start to smell the hides. The process for making these leather products has not changed in hundreds of years.

First  they soak the hides in cow urine, water and salt.  This loosens up the hair, fat so they can be scraped off (pic 2). Then after that the hides are put into a mixture of pigeon poo and water to soften the leather. These are the is the big white pits you see at the bottom of the first picture. 

    

After all this they go into the dye pits and are soaked while someone has to stomp up and down the hides to make sure they are completely coated and soaked into the leather.  It was very impressive to see this all. You have to feel for the guys doing all this work. This is really hard labor. We were told the guys work 3 days and then take 3 days off after that, but still a just exhausting job this must be. 

             

After viewing how they make the leather, we of course were shown all the goods for sale. I’m sorry I didn’t grab pictures of the 4 floors of leather, jackets purses, wallets, ottomans etc..etc… I bought a little purse for my daughter. Interesting, he was showing us the difference between some of the leathers camel vs. Goat. The camel leather is much more durable he said, but the goat purse I bought was just so very soft. 

Next we were off to the Nejjarine Museum or wood working museum, no pictures of the displays were allowed but the museum itself was very impressive.  The details again was impressive, and all the exhibits showers old woodcarving techniques. There were wooden chairs, chests, doors, tools, musical instruments, etc. I wish pictures were allowed there. 

      

Next was the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque. Unfortunately we were not allowed in for this, but the tile work and detail again was just amazing to see from the outside. Was able to grabs some amazing shots just all around the outside of the building.

           

Day 2 Part 3 is coming soon… Another amazing Madrassa and the street of copper. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morocco Day 2 part 1

Woke up in our beautiful Riad Fes Baraka and went to breakfast. We walked right outside our room sat down and within minutes our coffee and breakfast was there. Every morning was the same, delicious Moroccon flat bread (msemen), honey, fresh butter, strawberry and apricot jam, an egg and a little regular bread. All of this was served on a gorgeous tile table in a little corner of the courtyard.

Our guide for the day came a picked us up at the Riad and we were off to explore the city. I don’t usually hire guides when I go to new cities, I usually have a plan as to what to see and do, but everything I had read about Fez said how confusing the streets were (correctly), I thought it would be a time saver as we had a limited amount of days. This was a huge time saver, our guide was born and raised in Fez and was able to cut through all of the little alleyways to get us around. He was a little light on the informational side of things but for $40 a day it was worth it for the time savings alone.

We jumped in the car and he started giving direction to head to first stop. The Dar al-Makhzen or Royal Palace of Fes. We parked the car and walked around the Palace gates, its not open to the public but just seeing these massive gates was very impressive. The doors are actually bronze that is polished to look like gold. 

   

The details on all of the mosaic work is just incredible, the doors are huge and just thinking about the amount of time that goes into making this is mind blowing. 

After getting some pics we walked around the corner and started to go through the old Jewish Quarter. The buildings were different here than the rest of Fes as you could see most of the old buildings had second story balconies.  

 

   

 

The Jewish Quarter also had these really narrow alleyways even for Fes which was just all these narrow passages. The guide told us that there are not alot of Jewish people left in Fes, most emigrated to Israel after it’s creation. There were only about a thousand left that still lived in the old quarter. 

         

I could not resist taking this quick shot of some of the new residents in the Jewish quarter. They just set up and built wherever they felt like it. 

From here, we jumped back in the car and drove put to the Borj Nord that overlooks the whole city. We didn’t go into war museum at the top, just took a few snaps of us overlooking the whole city.

   

The next part of the tour was a little bit of a sales call situation. The guide said we were going to see a factory in Fes where pottery was made by hand.  When he said that I had a suspicion of what was about to come. It was very interesting to see all the pottery being made, but there was definitely a hard sell at the end of the whole tour.  The guide started talking about how they use only black clay to create the best pottery in Fez, and then showed us how the worker was using his leg to spin the pottery wheel to shape all the pots. It was impressive to see how this guy was doing everything by eye and not measuring anything. He created that Tanjin pot right in front of us in just a couple minutes, both pot and lid fit perfectly and was completely by sight.

The next guy was just flattening out the clay and then cutting them to size, that way the can glaze them and then break them into smaller pieces for all the mosaics they do. 

     

The silver smiths next were very interesting, the would take the silver wire lay it out so it would be flat or braid it together to make stands. Then they would heat these iron bars and use them to heat the silver into the pot as a design with silver. It was cool to see how fast these guys were able to attach the silver to the vases.

      

The final workers we saw were some of the people that did the hand painting of the vases. All designs were done by hand and they would work at this unbelievably fast pace. The guy in the picture was able to paint that little plate in less than 5 minutes.  It was then off to show us the molds where they build the mosaics into, upside down so it all is put together. They have to build them upside down so they can lay binders and clay on the back side of the mosaic pieces. A wide shot of the whole operation and some of the finished product. 

    

Of course, the hard sell was next… The guy started out at $200 for the vase because it had all the silver on it, but in the end I got it for $80. We laughed and chatted the whole time about it, I was trying to keep the bargaining light and fun. After being called “Part Berber” a couple times, he let me get the vase for just $80. When I went to pay the guy behind the register, he said something to my sales guy then asked me if there was anyway I could give $10 more for the vase. I had read about this tactic before and told both of them I couldn’t. I offered to buy something smaller instead and they took the $80 for the vase.

When we first got here I was annoyed that my guide dragged us to this type tourist trap/ sales trap, but looking back on it now, it was cool to see them making the ceramics and I do have some good memories about these workers building these beautiful vases.

 

Day 2 Part 2 will be coming soon.

Morocco Day 1

What an amazing trip to Morocco it was. Spent 4 and a half days exploring Fez and Chefchaouen.  I’ll add a few notes and travel tips here about going to Morocco and the places we stayed at. 

Day 1

Landed in Casablanca late at night and had to run around the airport looking for the Hertz rental car. There was a small kiosk that was at terminal 2 before you exit into the outside terminal (non secure area) that was closed. When we asked where the people were nobody knew. I told Hertz what time we would be landing and wanted to make sure someone was there. I asked at information about Hertz and they sent us to terminal 1 but there was no hertz office there. Then as we getting ready to leave and come back tomorrow to go to get the car some worker for Hertz over heard us talking and said their was an office at the far end of Terminal 2. Walked over their and finally got the car. Be aware they far end of each terminal is where the rental car offices are. There are no signs so you will have to just walk it.

Spent the night at Eurostars Sidi Maarouf about 25 minutes from the airport. Nice enough hotel for the night, a little bit on the pricey side, but just outside of the city so we could get on the road early to get to Fez. 

On the road to Fez we went just a little bit our of our way (25 minutes) to go to the Roman ruins at Volubilis. I had almost skipped this side trip, thinking it’s Roman ruins and it’s Morocco we should be looking at Moorish Architecture instead but this was a great side trip. Spent about 2 hours walking around the ruins, and what is amazing is you can walk right up to the ruins.

                      

For as many tourists that were there, the space was large enough you did not feel crowded. There was lots of areas to walk around and see all the sites, There were also some great mosaics that you could see as well. This was well worth the stop and the $5 you had to pay as an entrance fee. 

After this we went straight to our hotel in Fez, Riad Fes Baraka. I can’t say enough good things about this place. As soon as we got there, we were brought mint tea and our host Samir came and sat with us to talk a little bit about the Riad and the city.  He walked back with me to where I parked the car to make sure it was safe and told the guys that watch the cars to make sure it was fine and he was at the Riad. He then helped me with the luggage and took me back to the Riad. 

The Riad was decorated in typical Moroccan style and had a small pool that in the middle courtyard to help keep the courtyard cool. It was a truly great pick for the city, and very economical. The Room was beautiful and each morning we would have breakfast at the little table outside our room in the courtyard. 

               

Samir gave us a map of the city too and told us how to get to the blue gate, the nearest attraction since it was already about  5pm. After that we took a quick cab up to the Tomb of the Merenids that overlooks the whole city. We were there for sunset and it was great to see the whole city below from this hilltop.

           

Lastly this day was a light night Moroccan diner at a restaurant overlooking the Blue Arch. It was a great way to end the day and get ready for a full day of seeing Fez the next day.

 

A Little Wanderlust

Feeling a little wanderlust today. I’m thinking back on my trip to Southern Illinois Garden of the Gods.  As I was driving down, I saw this Church in the middle of an open field and just had to stop and take some shots. I was able to walk out into the middle of the “highway” and snap this shot too, which just made me think about driving and hiking somewhere soon.

Stouts Photoshoot

Did a small shoot of some stouts for and dark beer event. These are some of the rare stouts that you can’t usually find anywhere. I wanted the black backdrop to make the artwork on all these beers really pop out and the reflections on the granite I thought gave it some nice leading lines to draw you eye into the beers.

I wish I would have been able to drink these.