Cuba...the first few days of our trip 

We hired a guide for half a day in Havana. here she and Juliet are walking down a typical street slightly off the main tourist area. Note the very narrow sidewalks, which have been mentioned by visitors to the city since at least the early 1800s (we bought a book with essays by travelers to Cuba through the years).

A building with a tree growing out of it is not a happy building. "Old Havana", which has buildings as old as the 1600s, is decaying faster than it is being restored. You'll see buildings that are falling apart (like this one) that still have occupied apartments.  

When a building does get restored, the results can be spectacular. This is the National Theater, where we saw a performance of "Cascanueces",  i.e. "the Cracker of Nuts." 

Alicia Alonso, the great Cuban ballerina who is now in 96 years old, came to the performance. The second act in particular was very colorful and the men were notably athletic. Phil said "it's not fair that the Nutcracker Prince is allowed to kill the Rat King with his sword, because the Rat King was kicking his ass in their dance-off."

Phil lost a chess game to this guy in the park. Phil says "I gave up a knight for two pawns and a strong attack, and everything was going great until I blundered a piece."

Phil also got a shave. The barber left him with long Cuban sideburns. Suave!

We also visited La Floridita, where Ernest Hemingway used to drink daiquiris. The place was stuffed with tourists like us, all taking photos of the jazz band crammed into one end of the room.

We had a few days in Havana and a few days scuba diving in a national park at the extreme east end of the country, then joined six other tourists and two guides for a birding tour of the central part of the country. Here everyone is looking at a pygmy owl.

This is the Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world. Juliet took the photo. If you're looking at this on a computer instead of a phone, this is larger than actual size: the bird is the size of a child's thumb, and weighs less than two M&Ms.