The urge to share philosophical advice on social media seems endless.
Sometimes its interesting and thoughtful. A lot of the wisdom though are
more of the new age type and that´s when it starts to flip and get really amusing!
This is my contribution on this theme.. don´t worry be happy
Photo taken at Playa del este, Havana, Cuba.
Hector and Rodrigo. End of 1993.The brothers playing outside their house on calle Melones in Luyano. Havana, Cuba.
Hector now living in the USA. Rodrigo, despite that KO punch, is a renowned ballet dancer travelling around the world..
Parents must be proud!
Biology lessons is fine but you can’t beat real life observations..
Plaza Vieja, Habana vieja, Cuba
Somewhere between Viñales and Puerto Esperanza in Cuba 2008.
I asked the Charcoal burner if it wasn´t bad for his health to work in that smoke all day long?
No, he said. I have been doing this for 35 years and I´m perfectly okay!
The last period for this kind of charcoal production in Sweden was during world war two.
(click on photo for high res view)
When in Santiago de Cuba, there is no particular reason to run around everywhere searching for the attractions.
Just park yourself in a street corner like these guys. Surely something will appear!
Home for pregnant women in Baracoa, Cuba. Looking at the picture I took the day before.
Every time when christmas and new year is approaching in Cuba you hear pigs screaming everywhere.
It is forbidden to slaughter cattle, so pork is one of the few options that remains!
In the (“el período especial”) ninetys, after the sovjetunion collapse and following deep crisis in Cuba there was even a dictate issued from highest authority, that the Cubans should keep pigs in their homes as emergency food.
Even in small apartments you could see persons feeding and nursing a couple of gigantic hogs .
This pig (above) made fierce resistance and tried to escape several times when transported to the slaughterers block..
Went down to Playa Larga at the Cuban south coast to do some scuba diving in january 2008. In the evening I accidentally ran into a man in the street. He approached me and started to suggest an excursion out to the nearby Zapata swamps.
Suspecting he was another of these dealers that one has to get rid of, I made him a joke, – do you guarantee that we will spot the Tocororo..? (knowing that even for Cubans it´s a rare thing to see the national bird)
-not only will you see the Tocororo he said, you will also see the Zunzuncito!
(Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world)
If I don´t deliver you don’t pay me..
Well.. I had my friend, a Cuban journalist as a witness.
Next morning at five o´clock we headed by car towards La Ciénaga de Zapata.
I was thinking in the car looking at the mans equipment: tape recorders and stuff.. this guy at least looks like a serious ornithologist! Later on I realised I had been lucky to have met the acknowledged birdwatcher El Chino Orestes Martínez.
The swamps are located close to the Bay of pigs and it´s a well-known habitat for
a variety of animals.
The hunt for the Tocororo started of badly. We saw nothing the first hour or so. “El Chino” whistled and imitated the birds constantly but nothing, nada. We were almost about to give up..
Then suddenly the shy bird appeared. It’s a beautiful creature dressed in the colors of the Cuban flag. I managed to get some acceptable photos of it.
At the end of the excursion we had observed a dozen Tocororos a couple of
Zunzuncitos and some other birds as a bonus.
“El Chino” got his well deserved compensation with an extra tip..
Cuban dancer Kirenia Cantín at the Salsa Congress in Gothenburg 2010,
performing together with Maykel Fonts. The two are considered among the best
Cuban style dancers in the world.
The author Pedro Juan Gutiérrez looking out from his apartment over Centro Habana. The story in his book Dirty Havana trilogy, takes place around this very building and the surrounding quarters of the city.
Håkan Rönnblad 