The Eyes Have It

Spend a strange day looking out at blue skies and brilliant sunshine from inside a freezing, air-conditioned Viazul bus. I finally alight at Santa Clara, a university town about the same size as Aberdeen and the final resting place of Che Guevara. His bones, finally traced to a secret mass grave in Bolivia in 1998, are now interred here beneath a huge monument.

It seems much more laid back than Havana, an easy conclusion to reach while trotting along the road in the back of a horse-drawn taxi. I arrive at the bullet-scarred Santa Clara Libre Hotel, check into a very basic room and hit the streets for a couple of hours.

I get some great pics, making it very hard to choose today's Blip. People, buildings, horses, sunsets: they're all there, but as I return to the hotel through the twilight, a salsa band kicks off an impromptu gig outside the casa de cultura.

It's a fabulous moment as passers-by dump their shopping and begin dancing on the pavement - there's a short video at the facebook link below.

I've got many technically better pictures from the day, but when this guy rolls up in his wheelchair and joins the good-natured crowd, it's just typical of how culture is for everyone in Cuba. And I just love the sparkle in his eye.


http://www.facebook.com/peter.thomson1?v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=10150116672407247


image and words: pete thomson