Cuba is full of contradictions - crushingly poor economic conditions, and very little opportunity for average citizens. Yet the tourism is booming, with large bus loads full of American travel groups crisscrossing the city. Amazing historic architecture all over Havana, with those same buildings that appear to be crumbling and almost beyond repair. Plenty of cheap Lada and Trabant eastern bloc communist era cars, side by side with the huge American Fords and Plymouths of the 1940s. No seat belts, no tail lights, and no emission systems - almost all spewing blue clouds of exhaust that chokes the throats of the tourists as they take pictures of these classic makes and models.
We're listening and learning and watching....
--Mark Vogelzang
