While on holidays we went out with friends on a catarmaran that left from Marbella and headed around the Med for a good 4 hours. A free bar for an hour and a Banana Boat ride. It was great craic. Following video taken with Nikon D800, GoPro Hero2HD for shots in and under the water, and put together on the new iPad with iMovie app. Very easy and great fun.
Into the Deep Blue from Shay Farrelly on Vimeo.
The last few days have been about relaxing and getting home. Sunday in Vung Tau (admittedly forgettable), back to HCM city Monday to walk around city and night market and finally 24 hours getting home via Bangkok and Amsterdam. What are my impressions? Well much of the time was spent at meetings though we did get to sample some of the country. But based on my limited experience Hanoi and the north appears more traditional Vietnamese whereas HCM City in the south is more cosmopolitan and western as evidenced by the newer, bigger city and shops like Gucci, Armani, Burberry, Channel etc, etc. Though we did see a Gucci store in Hanoi as well but not on the same scale. Though I am sure that not many locals purchased here, the wealthy international visitor I expect makes up the majority of the customers. As I understand it even well-educated professionals may earn only $200 a month and we saw plenty of people living on much else, and inflation is rampant now.
I love Hanoi and some of the local areas we saw and were taken to, it whetted my appetite for more. It would be nice to visit and travel widely with other photographers to get some great images of the very varied landscape and seascapes as well as the beautiful people. The people themselves are, friendly, welcoming, quiet and sometimes shy. There are many different ethnicities with varying traditions which would be great to explore and to get to know more about. In the time available we really didn't even scratch the surface.
The food is great, a preponderance of fish and seafood, but it all seems so fresh, plainly cooked and embellished with lovely sauces, and the use of vegetables is great. Though we also sampled some of the very unusually: uterus, pigs intestine, testicle, liver and a desert which contained frogs stomach, fortunately we avoided snake! Also unfortunately they did not inherit good desserts from their French invaders but they have an abundance of fantastic fruit to make up for this.
For those of a more cultural bent, than myself, there are also plenty of museums and places that commemorate the struggle against their previous invaders, the USA and the French.
What, though, of their Haemophilia care? Well there are some very good points. Firstly there are a number of Haemophilia centres around the country, this is excellent as I have no doubt that without these centres there would be many more injuries and indeed deaths. General hospitals just don't treat as well, they don't have the expertise or the treatment and the delay or denial of treatment, or inappropriate treatment can lead to permanent injury or death. Even in Ireland, where we have good comprehensive care in centres there is a concern about being treated in none centres without this expertise, steps are being taken to try improve on this. The problem here in Vietnam though is that many patients live a long way from the centres and most do not have a decent mode of transport except perhaps on the back of a motorbike which isn't exactly the best mode of transport with a bleed or injury! This delay causes further problems.
At these centres there are very good and dedicated staff who look after their patients as well as they can, but the problem is two-fold. The lack of access to sufficient and appropriate factor replacement treatment. As a poor country it is difficult to access the most modern factor replacement concentrates so less efficient plasma derived products are used. And although these are made locally to high standards with proper screening for viruses and contaminants, sufficient treatment cannot be made to allow patients treat themselves at home when they get injured, which, would revolutionise the standard of care. Secondly, people with haemophilia here must pay a contribution towards their treatment, 20%, which for the vast majority here is a great burden and has led to great hardship. In circumstances of poverty this contribution is reduced to 5% and in these cases the treatment manufacturers will pay the final 5%, but this really only encourages poverty.
The outcome is that patients lose out on their education, can't get jobs and find it difficult to support themselves. Seeing this is very humbling and makes me appreciate the very good level of care we get. But also it reminds me of how it used to be in Ireland many decades ago. It has been a long road, a very hard-fought road, to get us where we are and this road has been paved with many instances of hardship, through lack of treatment which lead to: deformity and disablement, poor education, lack of job prospects, families ashamed of their haemophilia, poor quality of life, and indeed lives cut tragically short through injury. In the last 3 decades poor safety measures in the manufacturing of the treatment has had its own tragedy through contamination with HIV, AIDS and Hep. C, where the lives of many friends and families have been devastated. So my visit here reminds me we should not be complacent about what we have achieved, irrespective of our economy. We need to retain and continue to improve our level of care so that we should not fall back into the abyss of inadequate treatment, and we must insist on the highest level of care, in this way people with haemophilia and bleeding disorders can have full and fulfilling lives, and can contribute to society rather than be a burden on it.
So finally a country I would live to return to and explore more fully.
A lie on at last, up at 8.30, breakfast, store our main luggage at the hotel, let's hope it's still there on Monday when we return and off the catch the hydrofoil to Vung Tau. Our boat leaves at 11.30 and will take 1.5 hours. Vung Tau is a beach resort outside HCM that the Vietnamese visit at weekends, apparently it's famous as the place that Gary Glitter frequented!!!!!! Anyway we check in, it's not Ritz but will do fine and relaxing and taking in the sun is the order of the day.
The morning started with a very formal inauguration of the HCM City club, which essentially is a branch of the Vietnamese Haemophilia Society. There are over 50 people attending, with high-powered doctors there and we are invited to the top table as guests. There is a TV camera for local news reporting. The opening ceremony lasts two hours the most touching contribution being from a fairly disabled man with haemophilia who is obviously overcome with emotion at the set up of this club, and what he hopes may improve overall treatment. After it finishes it gives us an opportunity to mix and talk to the haemophiliacs and parents attending. They are extremely friendly and talk freely and ask us about our services and the level of treatment we receive. In fact it's a little humbling as I soon realise that in perhaps two or three treatments I would have used up an entire years treatment for one of these young men. They can only live in hope, and repeatedly I am told our position is a dream for them.
After another fine lunch with the doctors we have a couple of workshops to discuss the way to organise a society and how to get and train volunteers.
That finishes our work for the day so we have 3 days left to enjoy ourselves.
We set off at 6.45am for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. Vietnam is a long country it being some 1900 km between these two cities and it takes 2 hours by plane. The first impressions of HCM is a slightly more modern city to Hanoi with wider streets though the traffic is still fairly hectic.
In the afternoon we are to visit the blood bank and three hospitals that treat haemophilia. It's when you visit hospitals like these that you realise how lucky we are, there are many problems with our health service, but here things are much worse. The doctors and nurses are excellent but they cannot work miracles with the resources they have. We see crowded hospitals with no privacy and in many cases patients are sharing beds. The worse part of this is that haemophilia is readily treatable, and patients can treat themselves at home with modern treatment. When this is done there are less strains on the medical system, with patients being more healthy and requiring less hospitalisation. Instead here there is limited and poorer quality treatment which means these young men are severely disabled, which means they cannot get full education and hence appropriate jobs. Also here the patients must pay a contribution towards their treatment (20%) except if they are destitute. Salaries are poor here so that one treatment can cost as much as a months salary. So it is not unknown to sell their possessions and homes to pay for treatment. Because these children and men are not getting sufficient treatment most are disabled with deformed joins and in many cases they have lost limbs. It is a very humbling experience.
Tomorrow we are to return for the formal set up of a branch of the Vietnamese Haemophilia Society in HCM city and for workshops.
Again we are treated to a very nice seafood meal in a fine restaurant by the health care professionals in HCM city, our hosts are extremely hospitable and friendly and it is a very enjoyable evening.
We were picked up this morning at 6am, we were being brought out for a days sight-seeing and to see a family with a Haemophilic boy. The province of Hoa Binh is a good 2 hour journey though we have to stop off at the hospital first to pick up all those going on the trip. We have Dr Mai and some of her team including another doctor, a few nurses, one of the nurses daughters who acts as a volunteer, a young man with haemophilia and Ms Hang who is an administrator at the hospital in the centre. On the road in a bus for a couple of hours, and it's interesting to see the country side and the small villages along the way. Where we are going isn't in fact too far away, less than a hundred kilometres, but the roads are not great, we come across slow moving vehicles, and the odd small herd of cattle. It appears that it takes forever to drive any sort of distance.
About 9 am we make it to the hydroelectric power station that produces about 20% of the country's electricity. It was built with the expertise of Russian engineers and some 37000 Vietnamese workers. It took 15 years and some 167 lost their lives in its construction. It was built in a mountain side to prevent its distraction during a war. It was completed in 1982.
We were then taken for a long boat ride on the lake, perhaps to make up for the fact we didn't get to Holong Bay. We are taken to a small temple on a tiny island in the lake. Here Dr Mai buys some freshly barbecued fish which we eat on the boat. These are lovely people and even with a bit of a language barrier we had a great laugh and they are so hospitable.
Sorry Michael but I have to say we had another great lunch. We were taken to an excellent restaurant. The food is so fresh and great vegetables and dipping sauces.
Next we are brought to a very entertaining and ethnic dance show. We shared some local wine from a large pot using long bamboo straws.
We are then welcomed into the house of a local boy with haemophilia, our whole crew of 12 of us, are invited in to sit at two long tables they have prepared with food. As well as his parents there is his grandmother, aunts, local doctor, 3 of his school teachers and he also had a friend there with haemophilia. We were made most welcome with, food, drink, flowers, speeches and a gift each. They are truly wonderful people and hopeful that our twinning programme can produce dividends through improved overall health care for their boys and all boys with haemophilia.
It's just gone 5pm and time to set off. We've been invited to an after wedding party of one of the nurses in the Haemophilia Centre. As can be expected weddings are slightly different here, the ceremony is actually tomorrow and tonight we were invited to the brides party in her house (sort of hens party) meanwhile hubby to be is having a party in his home. The wedding album is already produced they took the photos in all the wedding garb about 2 months ago. The family treat us like royalty we are taken into the house and given the bet chairs and introduced to all the important members of the family. Then of course there's even more food. Overall a fantastic day and they have looked after us very well. Here are some photos from my iPhone today on the lake.
Michael asked me if I travelled all this way just for the food, so just for today I won't mention how good the food is, oops too late I've done it again! The hospital is a fine modern building but still sometimes there are more patients than beds and at times there may be two to a bed. I also forgot to mention yesterday that the hospital deals with both adults and children. And it was just brilliant to see how happy the kids were when they received the simple toys and gifts we brought for them, one little lad jumped and ran around the corridor for joy. I have a feeling Fiona would happily steal one away, they are such wonderful little boys.
Seeing and listening to these young men and the parents brought me back to the 60-70s in Ireland before there was effective treatment. Here they are stuck into a vicious circle. There is not sufficient treatment so the boys miss a lot of school, they are becoming disabled with impaired limbs, their education suffers greatly, so they cannot get proper jobs due to their poor education and their disability, so they have a poor quality of life that is very frustrating for them. The funny thing is that they have a lovely modern hospital, all be it with too few beds at times, great doctors, and just as important good nurses, but they don't have enough treatment to allow these young men live a full, healthy, and good quality life. They are looking to the I.H.S. to help them organise an efficient and effective Society that will help them over time to deliver the comprehensive treatment they deserve.
Tomorrow we visit one of the regions about 100km from Hanoi where we will meet some families and see some of the sights. We have also been invited to part of a traditional Vietnamese wedding, so early to bed tonight!
Last night we ate out in a lovely little restaurant. Upstairs in a small room with no more than 8 tables, but lovely Vietnamese food. I had spring rolls and we all had their speciality, chicken 5 spices, I think it was called, with steamed rice. Anyway the whole thing was gorgeous and all for only 5.50€!!! Then off to the last night of the late market. Up early today, quick breakfast and we are taken to the hospital. This involves a 40 min drive from our hotel and it was a real experience driving through rush hour traffic I've never seen anything like it. We arrived at the combined blood bank and hospital, it is an impressive building, with very good laboratories, impatient facilities, dedicated staff but unfortunately they lack enough treatment to completely treat everybody. We are introduced to a large number of inpatients and outpatients and it is really heart breaking to see such young men who are severely crippled due to haemophilia. We are very fortunate in Ireland that no one suffers like this any more and it is a great pity to see such suffering when the knowledge and treatment is available in the world. We have a busy day with meetings and I cannot say much about these except it was great to see so many people, some who had travelled a great deal, to meet us. They were very enthusiastic and energetic which hopefully means that conditions will improve in the future.
Afterwards we were taken to another fantastic restaurant and I have to say Vietnamese food is gorgeous, well worth trying if you ever get the chance.
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Did I mention it was drizzling here, so much for the long range forecast which made me go out and buy sun cream, more likely to get rust than a sun burn! And now see what the forecast says!!
Silly boy I am last night I stayed awake until 2 am listening to the commentary of the Ireland rugby match on my iPhone. It wasn't even worth listening to! So this morning I slept on a little and the rest were half way through their breakfasts. It was a Sunday and our last free day before the work starts on the workshops. To be honest we didn't do too much just wandered around looking at the sights. Thankfully most of the museums closed early or Brian would have dragged us around a load more. Getting used to the streets and being able to walk between the cars and motorbikes. Also it didn't drizzle all day, it didn't get sunny, but we didn't get wet at least.
Tonight we will have another look at the night market and then go for a meal. We are being collected at 8am in the morning to go to the hospital which I think is about 45 minutes away from our hotel. Looks like it will be a busy days.
As we sat having a cup of coffee we watch these balloon sellers who sold their balloons in the middle of the traffic with cars and motorbikes whizzing around them. The funny thing is that people on motorbikes would stop to buy balloons and head off holding their purchases as they drove along!
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The hotel is a lovely boutique hotel right in the middle of the old town. The rooms are well appointed with a laptop in each room with Internet as well as WiFi. Mind you you're not allowed access Facebook. After a few hours rest we head out in the afternoon for a stroll. The drizzle persists, and we start to get used to the manic traffic. Motorbikes and cars weave all over the street with horns constantly hooting and the pedestrians are also weaving in the traffic. It's next to impossible to walk on the pavements as there are either people sitting on them or else there are motorbikes parked on the sidewalk.
The streets in the Old Town are narrow and the smell of cooking abounds, it must be the ubiquitous Poh, a noodle soup. As well as standard cafes, there are people selling food from bikes or baskets. Every so often there are people cooking on the pavement and people sitting on little plastic seats eating and drinking. There are shops selling all types of nicknacks and small supermarkets.
We return at 6 pm to meet Dr Mai and her Assistant Ms Hang. We discuss the workshops for the following week before heading off to dinner. The schedule looks very good with visits to people's homes to see how they cope with their haemophilia. We are also invited to a nurses after wedding celebrations on Wednesday. Dr Mai and Ms Hang are very friendly and bring us to a specialist fish restaurant where we have a fantastic meal. Everything is cooked at the table, the sauces, vegetables and fish are lovely and I manage the chopsticks surprisingly well. Afterwards we head to the market that runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The streets are thronged with people. To finish the night off, after we leave the girls back to the hotel, Brian and I go look for the Irish bar to get a drink for Paddy's day.
Tomorrow the plan was to go to Holung Bay, but today due to the bad mist the boats were not allowed out so we've decided not risk the 3.5 hour drive there and just do our own thing. In the mean time I listen to the Ireland England rugby match on my iPhone app, amazing what you can do!!
Up early at 4am for the flight to Paris, a 4 hour stop over in Charles De Gaul airport, and then on to Hanoi with Vietnam Airlines. The flight is 10.5 hours so in fact the first day is gone on traveling as we arrive on Paddy's day, Saturday 17th at 5.40am. Not much to say about long flights except I think the plane we flew on had many, many, many hours clocked up on it!!! Anyway we arrive, and the sun isn't up yet. Next we have a two hour wait to get our visas, that eventually sorted the bags are waiting for us and so is our taxi driver from the hotel, this is great as you hear all sorts of problems with scams between taxi drivers and hotels.
So the first impressions? Typical Paddy's day it is raining and misty. The drive from the airport to the city brings us through some country side and we get our first sight of Paddy fields. As we get closer to the city we see a very industrial city with a mixture of typical communist type buildings with a mix of factories: Panasonic and Yamaha to name a couple, and more historic buildings that look Vietnamese with their beautifully ornate roofs. Although its 8 am the traffic is building up and the ubiquitous motor and push bikes become even more prominent. Some stacked high with wares for the market and others with two or three passengers. The traffic runs in all directions with no apparent control, and then the pedestrians trying to cross the road, what havoc!! I'm not looking forward to trying to cross the road.
Our hotel is nestled in the middle of the old town and it is very nice and well appointed. So we decide to get a bite of breakfast and go to bed for a few hours before exploring.
I am very excited and privileged to be going to Vietnam next week (March 16, 2012). It is a country I have wanted to visit to take in the atmosphere and hopefully to get some good photos. Some colleagues from the Irish Haemophilia Society (I.H.S.) are visiting the Vietnamese Haemophilia Society in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and thankfully they have agreed I can join them and take some photographs for them as well. One of the strategic goals of the I.H.S. is to assist the World Federation of Haemophilia in their goal of improving Haemophilia care worldwide. To this end, the I.H.S. has embarked on a twining programme with the Vietnam Society.
The great news for Haemophilia is that in the last 40-50 years there has been huge strides in the treatment of the disorder. Prior to the 1960’s there was no treatment and people with Haemophilia had a very low life expectancy and what life they had was largely blighted with pain, deformity and of very low quality. But since then treatment has improved greatly with today’s young boys being treated prophylactically (2-3 times a week), meaning they can live virtually normal lives. Unfortunately, it is a hard fact of life, that of the estimated 400,000 people living with Haemophilia only 25% receive adequate treatment. Vietnam is a country that is trying to cope with a very low level of treatment and difficult hospital conditions. Although the doctors are very committed and do their very best without the proper treatment it is a great shame to see young people suffer so greatly. It is very reminiscent of the conditions and quality of life suffered by people with haemophilia in Ireland some 40-50 years ago.
The objective of the twining programme is to build the capabilities and skills of the local society. This is done mostly through workshops on organisation, governance and community building so that they can help each other, but also to build their advocacy skills to show the value of treatment to those in authority. Also through some direct advocacy to the health authorities and treatment providers and companies it is hoped that overall treatment can be improved over time, the sooner the better!
Marbella is definitely my favourite town along the Costa del Sol, I won't repeat details about Marbella that you can find elsewhere for example on the excellent website "The Blue Colour of the Sky". But there's nothing nicer than to get up early (well relatively early) while the kids are still in bed and head into the Old Town. The narrow streets are clean, colourful, and lined with flowerpots or wall growing bouganvilla, with twists and turns that take you to new delights around each corner: A chapel, fortress walls, a small art gallery or museum, the indoor market where they sell fish, meat fruit and flowers, the cathedral, little shrines where they keep the statues they march in the Easter parades, shops and boutiques, some for the rich others for the locals. It's great when you find another little tapas bar where you've never eaten before. The trick is not to go to places that have seats and umbrellas outside specifically to attract the tourists but to look for the hidden local haunts which at first look dingy but where locals enjoy cheap and fabulous treats.
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This week Sharon, here sister and I headed in and stopped at a local cafe where we had a light breakfast. We headed around the town in the lovely sunshine, and very bearable heat. Sauntering up and down the narrow streets and popping into the odd shop or two. Sharon delighting in getting a few dresses in a boutique with a great sale. "Just perfect for that wedding coming up!" at home.
Then off to the indoor market, though by now we are a bit late and many places are closed, you need to be early for the market. But we get some fruit and vegetables and some very sharp knives for the apartment from Jesus. All in all a lovely morning.
That evening we head back in with the two families and this time head down along the promenade to our usual Indian Restaurant. At night and along the promenade the contrast is stark, it's busy, bustling with people of all ages, families, couples, and groups. Street traders, mainly from North Africa ply their trade, weary of the local police, as they pester you with their counterfeit bags, sunglasses, DVDs, watches, bracelets, scarves and other bric-a-brac. The restaurants of many nations try to entice you in, the bars are full, the streets are teeming with people ambling along taking in the atmosphere, music is playing, neons light up the street, and everything is just a little boisterous and the police keep a watchful eye. It seldom boils over like in Benalmadena or Fuengirola, well maybe it does later at night but I've never seen it. None-the-less it's lively and enjoyable. We stop at a trendy cocktail bar for Mojitos, Daiqaris, beer and soft drinks and soak up the lovely balmy night and watch the world go bye. Another perfect but contrasting day in Marbella!
Our second week starts with us having to check out early from the Sheraton, but we hang around for a few hours by the pool as we can't check in until 4pm in the Westgate Lakeside Resort. So the car is packed, somehow, and we enjoy the afternoon by the lovely pool and get a lunch. I think our second week will be more leisurely, enjoying the pool and the parks and less shopping. We check in and this time skip the invitation to a free breakfast I never saw anyone withdraw his offers of cheap lunches and other stuff so quick when he heard us refuse. Anyway we check out our new pad, it's bright, airy and large with a nice patio out to the pool which is just outside the door only question is it going to be very noisy.
It's Eimear's today and she decides we will head to the movies but I've covered all this.
A latish morning for the girls and I'm proved wrong straight away as they decide to go shopping again after a big brunch in Perkins. Will it ever stop, I'll just have to put up with it. We're tired of eating out so dinner in tonight!
I don't know if it's the time of year, the schools being off, the weather or the recession but the parks are not as busy as we expected. For our next visit to Universal we decide to head over late, about 2.30pm we arrive. The perceived wisdom for the parks is to arrive early to get on the good rides. But we head straight to Hogsmeade and Harry Potter ride or whatever it's called and it's only a 45 minute wait. But it is well worth it, it has to be the best ride in the park, highly recommended and a must. We do a load of the good rides in Islands of Adventure and the wait times are great, including only 10 minutes for the Hulk.
To be honest at this stage all the days get confusing and I can't remember what we did on what days and even in what weeks. In the Studios one of my favourite rides is the "Disasters", a new ride since we were here 5 years ago. There is some good stage acting by our guide, some nifty special effects with Christopher Walkin who acts as a director of this supposed new disaster movie. It's very well done and good craic. The Simpsons ride has taken over the old "Back to the Future" slot, and Men in Black is still good fun.
We have had some spectacular thunder storms in the evening and nights. It's a long time since I've seen such amazing lightning, huge bursts across the sky and then when the rain comes it is torrential and very hard to drive in.
We have another day in Seaworld to catch the Shamu show the girls have their last go on Kracken and we head to SeaWorlds new water park Aquatica where the girls passed away a good few hours on the water rides. At this stage well parked out I think 10 days in Orlando is enough and then to head to the coast for a relaxing time on the lovely beaches, reading, sunning, walking and good food and drink. In the past we've done the Gulf Coast and its great along there.
All in all a great holiday but looking forward to getting home and heading to Spain for the month of July!
It's been nearly two months since we got back from Cuba, and I've been up to my eyes with renovations in the house which meant that I couldn't get near my PC and we've been away in Spain and Portugal for a few days as well, plus we had a confirmation in the house. So now I've finally had a chance to look at my photos, and I'm pleased that I got a few good shots, you can see them here.
Follow these links, shots from Havana and shots from Trinidad to Cuba.
Hi last night the camera club had our first major award of the year the AV photographer of the year and I was very pleased to have won it with my Audio Visual slideshow of some of my images from Cuba, I hope you enjoy it as well.
Cuba - Slideshow of images from recent trip from Shay Farrelly on Vimeo.
Today we are due to fly home but we have a late flight home and are due to be picked up at 4pm so we still have time for a few more photos. Keith, brendan and myself head off around the streets around our hotel. We out there early in and around the small estates that live nearby. We get some more good shots but the funniest thing is that we come across a group of elderly ladies duringt heir morning exercise. There are a group in a small square of about 20 of them in a circle singing and doing gentle exercises. They see us and invite us in amongst their group to take their phots while they sing Guantanamera. They were great fun and even though they didn't speak a word of english they were very nice to us and told us their ages which all appeared to be in their 80's and 90's. It was a great laugh not sure I got any good photos but a good laugh.
That was the end of the photos for this trip, or so we thought. We headed off to the airport about 4.30pm for our flight at 8pm. We were all on board for about two hours, but I knew something was wrong because after an hour of loading passengers I noticed the buses had come back again. Right enough after two hours sitting on the plane we were unloaded. We later found out that the plane had been damaged when they rolled the stairs up to it. The pilot said it would be the following day as they needed to get an engineer from Paris to sort the problem out. Once off the plane and back in the terminal the fun started as we had to get our visas back, pick up our cases and we were taken to a hotel for the night. As it happened we had to stay over for two nights. But it did mean we were able to get back into Havana for an extra day of taking photos.
The trip was fantastic a brilliant place to go. I'm not sure I would bother going there as a sun holiday to spend all the time at the beaches. It's much better as a cultural holiday. What really made it though was the company, we had such great craic, there was always a good laugh and there was no absolutely rancor. Ramses was a great and a new friend to us all. He looked after us so well and joined in just like one of the gang. Any regrets, well a couple, I'm sorry I didn't get more great photos, but a holiday like this is a balance between times with friends and time taking your hobby too serious. I'm really sorry we didn't get to hear more music and go to a few clubs to hear Jazz and Cuban music. But it's always great to leave wanting more and a good excuse to come back.
Our last full day and it's a Sunday, and it's a very easy going day. Lynn and myself take a walk along the Malecon to see if we can get any more photos. We are all really preparing ourselves for the long trip home, but Ramses has a real treat for us and in many ways turns out to be the highlight if the trip. He rings me to say that he has managed to get us a meeting with Liborio Noval in his house. We are to meet him on the corner of his street at 6pm.
Liborio is a very fit, lean and tall, and witty 77 year old who like all Cubans loves a cigar and strong coffee. He speaks little or now English and Ramses acts as our interpreter. Liboriao is also a famous photographer in Cuba in particular and worked for an advertising agency in the 50's, and during the 60's for the journal Revolucion the review INRA and the journal Granma. In the 60's he had taken photographs of Che Guevara and spoke and work with him for from 1961. From 1990 to 2001 he was the accompanying photographer of Fidel Castro during his trips. Liborio was a true gentleman and told us many fascinating stories from his life and career. He should us portfolios of some of his work, and his house was covered with many of his brilliant images. He was very gracious to sign copies of his book that some of us took and also to allow us to take his photograph in his house with the group. I was very sorry I hadn't brought my camera. We spent over two hours which just flew by but we were just so excited it was truly amazing, and something I will never forget.
Well we are on our way and it's going to be a long day, but we are all very excited and really looking forward to see Cuba. We fly to Havana with Air France via Paris so we are up at six for our Cityjet flight from Dublin to Paris. We arrive in Paris at 12.15 and we have about half an hour to get through the maze that is CDG airport. After a few bus rides and plenty of queuing in CDG we get on board our flight and finally about 14.30 we take off and we have a 10 hour flight to look forward to. We will arrive 19.00 local time in Havana. So day 1 is spent travelling but we can't wait. Well we've arrived and we get our first experience of what we will come to believe is a Cuban pasttime, queuing. The queues for immigration are huge even though there are over 20 stalls. But it takes forever. Then it's the bagsk, another delay, and then we spend an hour on the bus waiting for all the passengers. We tired, hungry and getting ratty. I say we will all sleep tonight!! But tomorrow we will get to see Havana!
In August 2009 a number of friends from the local camera club headed off to South Africa, Kruger National Park and Capetown. We had a fantastic time there and you can see my blogs about the trip on this site, here. While there we decided our next trip would be to Cuba. All but 1 of that gang, plus an extra two who have joined us, are now heading off in the next couple of days.
We will be spending most of our time in Havana but a couple of days in Trinidad de Cuba. While planning this we met with some members of Drogheda Camera Club who had done the trip previously and they gave us some very valuable advice and contact names in Havana.
I belive it is a great time of year, hot but not too hot hopefully sunny and not much rain. Plus we avoid the rainy season. I'm hoping to get some great phots and video and to see this great country which is locked in a time warp but which I expect will change over the coming years. The people, although not wealthy, are supposed to be very friendly. We fly with Air France via Paris on Friday and I can' wait!