CUBA – HAVANA

​​CUBA WEEK 2:Tuesday  December 13 – Thursday  December 15, 2016

I’ve had a fascination with Havana ever since in my 20’s I read Graham Greens novel “Our man in Havana”. It is only due to Cuban Communist  politics  that I’ve  been turned off from travelling there. So the more recent loosening in Cubas political  puritanism was a perfect opportunity to visit. I’ve  long forgotten the plot to ‘Our Man in Havana’ but I am sure that if GG was still alive he would have some difficulty in recognizing the place.  

The old city is absolutely astonishing. The architecture left  by the colonial Europeans is splendid. Were it not for over 50 years of neglect it would now rival Paris in the cityscape but with a tropical climate. The restoration  works driven  by a vision of one man have revived some important buildings. And earnings from tourism and some recent foreign investment are being put back into further restorations. Havana is a city in the process of being reborn after more then half a century of neglect.