Wanderings Backward

I was so happy to get back to Mexico from Cuba.  From the time I arrived at the airport in Havana, everything went smoothly.  I got to talking to a young man while waiting in line at the airport, a 20 something student from Australia, and we wound up sitting next to each other on the plane making the 3hr flight to Mexico City go by quickly.  I even had a jovial immigration official in the Mexico City airport, a first.  

I no longer remember what I did when in Mexico City so this post will be random happenings, some from before Cuba, some after.

A regularly occurring event in CDMX, the protest march

 The happy transit police monitoring the protest

 Protesters come from near and far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLCgLOuXWvI

People all over Mexico were really in a snit about the increase in gas prices and protested relentlessly for weeks.....to no avail.  The authorities are very accommodating to protests but not so accommodating to making any changes as a result.

 Another car-free Sunday

 One of the exhibits at car-free Sunday, sensitivity training around disability issues.  A nice effort but getting around CDMX with a mobility issue would be next to impossible given the disastrous state of the sidewalks and the lack of accommodations for people with disabilities.  

 Experiencing life without vision

Jose Clemente Orozco murals at San Ildefonso museum

So, that finishes up my first visit to CDMX this year.  On to Guanajuato. 

Cuba - Final Havana

Returning to Havana prior to my flight back to Mexico, I had a day to kill and spent much of it wandering the neighbourhood around my casa. 

Central Havana is a gritty, high-density area, people crammed into crumbling, old buildings 

 

                       No peeing here

and streets that look like a war zone, 

But everybody's lookin' good.

Barber shops and beauty salons abound.   







I'm sure there is much more to Havana, and Cuba in general, than I saw in my brief time there.  And, in fact, there were many gems amidst the rubble: well restored buildings and public spaces, sights I'm grateful to have seen. 

         

Bike powered knife   sharpener guy

That's the end of my Cuba experience.  I left there at the end of January so I've had a lot of time to reflect on my visit.  For the most part, I did not enjoy Cuba.  The poverty, the poor conditions and the scammers put me off.  It was interesting as a study of a very differently organized society and there were many beautiful sights and lots of photo ops.  But I wouldn't go back and was happy to get aboard that flight to Mexico City.