Havana - September 2, 2010

ICAP; Scale Model; Foto Habana; Cathedral Plaza; etc.

Today we were up early for breakfast, then headed out on an Amistur bus (with guide Jesus) to attend several scheduled meetings.

The first stop was the ICAP friendship house -- a very grand house, in the Vedado area of Havana -- where we saw one of the first statues of Jose Marti, an early revolutionary hero who battled Spain, and who lived in the U.S. for a time.

One of the most interesting stops was at a large scale model of the City of Havana (Maqueta de Habana) and the Bay the city was built around. The model reminded me of the (San Francisco) Bay Model in Sausalito, California. The Havana model was built on a scale of 1:1000, and was color coded based on when in history various areas of the City had been developed.

While there we met with and listened to a presentation by architect and urban planner who discussed historical development patterns and growth factors, transportation, and many other interesting subjects that provided some helpful background on what we were seeing and photographing.

Later, after a meeting at Foto Habana (a lab and photography shop), and a tour of other parts of the City, we ate dinner at Restaurante El Patio, on the old Cathedral Square, where there was a belly dancing performance going on in the square.