Photo Gallery – Bacca Cuba

A man in a red shirt talking to a group of 12 people standing in a brick plaza. The sign for the public library is visible in the background

The group taking a guided city tour of Havana from Rosbel Alpi

A woman in a green shirt bending over to pour water in a dish for 5 dogs

Woman offering water to street dogs in Plaza de las Armas

A gray and teal shoe standing on a street of wooden bricks

A street beside Plaza de las Armas is paved in wooden bricks

Two lines of people looking over metal railings onto a moss-covered stone aqueduct

Aqueduct built in 1592

A 5-person band plays music for an audience at a restaurant

Live music at our first lunch in Cuba

A pile of white rice and shredded beef on a white plate

Ropa Vieja (a traditional Cuban dish of shredded beef)

A cannonball and an upside-down cannon that have been cemented into the brick street

The streets of downtown Havana are decorated with cannons and cannonballs as a sign of peace

A woman in a sun hat and a striped dress standing in a street with small tables and red umbrellas

Susan Roberts standing in a Havana street

6 children play soccer in a large plaza surrounded by buildings of lime green, blue, and yellow

Kids play fútbol in Plaza Vieja

A man painted head to toe to look like a statue. A stray dog stands in front of him.

Living statue

A table of people with drinks and empty place settings

1st night in Havana – dinner at Casa Lilliam, a paladar (private, family-run restaurant)

Two women in colorful yellow clothing looking at a cell phone beneath an entryway reading "Callejón de Hamel"

Entrance to Callejón de Hamel, home to Havana’s Santería community

An alleyway flanked with mural-covered buildings

Callejón de Hamel

A man walking in a busy alleyway in front of a mural and a painted Cuban flag

Gerardo Marti walking in Callejón de Hamel

Street of brightly colored buildings - teal, blue, and red, with a bicycle and pedicab parked in front

Cuban street in Havana near Callejón de Hamel

Bust of José Martí beside a flag and in front of a marble wall containing bullet holes

Bust of José Martí in the Museo de la Revolución, with bullet holes in the wall behind

Two-story tall Cuban flag hanging on the side of a building

Cuban Flag at Museo de la Revolución

Life-size figures of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in a diorama with rocks, trees, and greenery

Diorama of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in Museo de la Revolución

A view of a Cuban street scene with a large Cuban flag and a line of parked classic cars

View from Museo de la Revolución

The 15 trip participants and two guides standing in front of the museum

The whole Davidson group (and two guides) at Museo de la Revolución

A woman stands next to the bronze statue of another woman

Angie Willis standing next to a statue of Cecilia Valdés in Plaza del Ángel in Havana. Cecilia is a character in a novel published by Cuban author Cirilo Villaverde in 1839, and her statue stands in a location spotlighted in the novel.

Sharon Green and Annie Merrill in front of Hotel Nacional

Outside seating of small, circular, tables with people looking out onto the water

View from Hotel Nacional

Two feet in blue sandals stand on a marble floor containing a blue image of Cuba

Image of Cuba on the terrace of Hotel Nacional

17 people stand in front of a wall that says "Coppelia"

Many of the group members and guides in front of Coppelia, a state-run ice cream parlor

7 people look up from the bottom of a large stone staircase. A Cuban flag is painted on the wall behind them.

Group members in La Mansión Camagüey, which now houses La Guardia paladar (family-run restaurant)

A stage with 10 people singing and playing music and a video screen behind them

Buena Vista Social Club performance

A man wearing glasses gestures with his arms as the circle of those seated in chairs around him listen

The group talks with three University of Havana professors: Camilo García López-Trigo, Marta Núñez, and Alberto Faya

Three women in a pink classic convertible car

Lola Santamaría , Helen Cho, and Angie Willis ready for their classic car tour of Havana

A woman wearing a scarf in the back seat of a lime green car

Susan Roberts in a 1950s classic car

Two women looking out of a purple classic car convertible

Maggie McCarthy and Amanda Ewington on a classic car tour of Havana

Wide road with people standing in the foreground. A tall streetlight with two lamps and two spirals at the top stands in the middle of the road.

El Malecón

An arch with the words "El Triunfo." The arch is covered in tile mosaic.

Entrance to Fusterlandia, a neighborhood in Havana filled with artist José Fuster’s mosaics

Eight cylindrical mosaics perched on top of a building. Each one contains a different letter so together they read "VIVA CUBA"

Fusterlandia – Viva Cuba

A woman in sunglasses sitting on an illustrated bench with a wall of tile mosaic behind her

Lola Santamaría sitting on a bench in Fusterlandia

A wall covered in tile mosaic and illustrations

Wall in Fusterlandia

Cara Evanson and artist José Fuster with the book he signed and illustrated for Davidson College

A walkway with a wall on the right and structures on the left. The wall and structures are covered with tile mosaics.

Fusterlandia – from inside looking towards the exit

Building with a metal outline image of Che Guevara on it and the words "Hasta la victoria siempre." A green and white classic car drives by in the foreground

Ministry of the Interior building beside Plaza de la Revolución with image of Che Guevara

Building with a metal outline image of Camilo Cienfuegos on it and the words "Vas bien Fidel."

Ministry of Informatics and Communications building beside Plaza de la Revolución with image of Camilo Cienfuegos

Bust of Ho Chi Minh on a rectangular pedestal with his birth and death dates written on it, beneath 4 red bars that intersect about it

Ho Chi Minh Monument in Havana neighborhood

A bowl filled with sand and dried beans with 4 black feathers sticking out laying on the concrete

An offering left on the curb in the Vedado neighborhood in Havana, likely by a practitioner of Santería

A group of people seated in a circle on white metal chairs talk in front of green foliage with red flowers

Group debrief at Odette’s house in Nuevo Vedado neighborhood of Havana

A woman talks to a group of people seated on chairs in a circular formation

Profesor Joanna from Universidad Tecnológica de de la Habana

Blue and white ferry with Cuban flag above. People are departing from it down the dock.

Ferry to Regla neighborhood. Our guide told us it has been seized several times by Cubans attempting to flee to Miami.

A woman talks to a group of people in front of a body of water

Group takes a guided tour of Regla neighborhood in Havana

White and yellow church with a rounded cupola

Church in Havana neighborhood of Regla

Two women and one man dressed head to toe in white in front of a red wall and foliage

Cubans dressed in white in Regla neighborhood of Havana. Practitioners of Santería wear white as part of their commitment to a year of purification practices

A woman reaches above her to touch the base of a figure of Santa Bárbara

Figure of Santa Bárbara inside a church in the Havana neighborhood of Regla

Two women - one standing and one kneeling - in front of an altar filled with flowers, candles, and figurines

Home altar in Havana neighborhood of Regla

A group of people eat beneath several small tables with blue patio umbrellas

A rainy lunch at Café del Angel in the neighborhood of Havana Vieja

A crowd of people browse the vendor stalls piled with fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables in a Havana market

Packets of herbs in small plastic bags laid in rows and labeled with names and prices

Medicinal herbs for sale at Havana market

A man stands behind a counter covered in cuts of raw meat. A cat is curled up beneath the counter.

A meat vendor in a Havana market

A blackboard with lists of products and prices

List of products available to buy with ration cards

A dog stands in a narrow doorway. Behind the dog are piles of books stacked high

A used bookstore in Havana

Men in white historic soldier garb stand in formation on a castle wall

Cannon ceremony at Havana’s Morro Castle

Four men and a woman stand in front of a door and display case

Presbyterian minister Daniel Izquierdo Hernández (center) with Dan Layman, Gerardo Marti, Matt Samson, and Annie Merrill

A man and three women stand in front of several stacks of books. Two shelves of books are behind them.

Cara Evanson and Angie Willis with Casa de las Américas librarians Angel González Abreu and Addys Molina, dropping off book donations from Davidson professors

Two men stand beneath a sign that says "Flor De Tabacos of Partagas Habana"

Entrance to government-run Partagas Cigar Factory

A view of a street with several multi-story buildings in teal, pink, while, and yellow colors.

Havana Street

Amanda Ewington with Cuban writer Anna Lidia Vega Serova, winner of the Premio David in 1997 and 1998

Amanda Ewington and Angie Willis with Cuban writer Anna Lidia Vega Serova

Raindrops slide down a van window through which blurry figures are seen standing under the awning outside a gas station

Stopped at a gas station on a rainy morning drive to the Cuba province of Pinar del Río

An outlook over a railing - limestone hills and green vegetation

Mogotes (limestone hills) in the Pinar del Río province of Cuba, west of Havana

Three people stand beside pathway leading uphill to a restaurant. Two green trees and lots of green foliage is behind them

Finca Agroecológica el Paraiso in the Viñales Valley

Rows of green vegetables in a garden in front of limestone hills

Garden at Finca Agroecológica el Paraiso

A man in a baseball cap holds binoculars and looks out over a green valley

Kevin Smith bird watching at Finca Agroecológica el Paraiso

Small cups of coffee in wooden, handle-less cups rest on a white place decorated with red flowers

Coffee at the family-run restaurant at Finca Agroecológica el Paraiso

Two steers in a field of green tobacco plants

Tobacco field in Viñales

Brown tobacco leaves hanging in bunches on a wooden frame

Tobacco leaves drying

A man in a broad-rimmed straw hat sits behind a wooden table covered in several cigars and a box of matches

Tobacco farmer in Viñales

Four men sit in a doorway on wooden chairs watching a TV

Men watching a fútbol match on TV in a neighborhood in Viñales

A woman stands in front of a pink house with a pink yellow-flowered Hibiscus tree in the background

Angie Willis with Hibiscus tree in Viñales neighborhood

Cuban Emerald Hummingbird (Chlorostilbon ricordii) in Viñales

A brown horse pulls a man on a cart. Teal and pink buildings are in the background.

Horse cart Viñales

A yellow circular sign on a tree reading, "Los Cederistas mas unidos y mas combativos defendiendo el socialismo hacia - Congreso de Los CDR

Sign in Viñales from the CDR – Committee for the Defense of the Revolution – neighborhood organizations to promote the revolution and report on anti-revolutionary activity

Looking out over a green valley with a river running through it and white rectangular dwellings with red roofs interspersed

Las Terrazas – an ecocommunity of 1,000 people founded in 1971 which is now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Pink Cone Ginger (Alpinia purpurata) at Las Terrazas

7 women stand on a porch with stone columns

Moraima (3rd from left), stands on the porch her home in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana with the members of the group who stayed there

Gray and white clouds hang over turquoise water. Green grass is in the foreground.

The Cuba coastline east of Havana

The view out a van window of an oil rig on a coastline

An oil rig on the coast east of Havana

A woman shaking maracas. Behind her stand 4 other band members playing acoustic instruments

Susan Roberts joins the band during a rest stop near the Cuba province of Matanzas

A hand points to a large, black, millipede crawling near a curb

A Puerto Rican Giant Millipede (Rhinocricus parcus) near Matanzas

A women crouches on the grass near an iguana, with a stone wall in the background

Annie Merrill photographing an iguana

A frog peering out from the center of a leafy plant

Frog sitting on a leaf near Matanzas

Kevin Smith holding a Cuban treefrog (Osteopilus septentrionalis)

A bridge over a valley covered in green foliage. The bridge has two busses and a horse-drawn carriage crossing over it.

Bridge to Cuba province of Matanzas

Six men stand in front of a low red wall with a green valley behind them

Our drivers and guides, Yasniel, David, Ramón, Ernesto, Daniel, and Fredy

Farmer Héctor Correa holds three mangoes and is wearing a shirt that says "foodfirst.org end hunger"

Héctor Correa, a farmer in the town of Jovellanos

A large painted portrait of Albert Einstein's face on the side of a barn

Homage to Einstein on a barn at Héctor Correa’s farm

A big orange bloom grows out the side of a thin tree

Rose of Venezuela (Brownea grandiceps) on Héctor Correa’s farm

Statute in the middle of a pond of an old, emaciated man riding a fish and wearing a lily pad for a hat

Statue in homage to Hemingway’s Old Man and the sea Héctor Correa’s farm

A woman in a sunhat and sunglasses sits on a stone stool among a collection of stone stools

Anne Wills sits in an outdoor classroom on Héctor Correa’s farm

Plates and bowls fulled with soup, pork, potatoes, beans, and salad

Food for lunch grown and prepared on Héctor Correa’s farm

A plate full of rice, beans, pork, and salad

Plate of food at Héctor Correa’s farm

A largue rectangular table full of food and people seated around it under a thatched roof

The group eating lunch on Héctor Correa’s farm

A yellow box of honey comb and stingless bees

Stingless bees on Héctor Correa’s farm

A woman wearing a red backpack reaches out her finger to a yellow box full of honey bee comb

Amanda Ewington samples the honey from a (stingless) bee box on Héctor Correa’s farm

A peacock stands in front of large pottery jars

A peacock on Héctor Correa’s farm

A man standing outdoors holds 4 mangoes in his hands

Matt Samson on Héctor Correa’s farm

Two men sit in the front seat of a van. Fields line the roadsides.

Our driver and guide, and David, driving through the Cuban countryside east of Havana

A sign reading, "Cienfuegos es la ciudad que más me gusta a mí" on a strip of land surrounded by water

Entering the city of Cienfuegos

A billboard with an image of a Cuban flag saying, "Somos y debemos ser socialistas. Fidel."

Propaganda near Cienfuegos

A Cuban flag and a quote from Fidel Castro are painted on the side of a blue wall

Propaganda across the street from our Cienfuegos hotel, Casa Maikel

5 people sit in red armchairs looking at their cell phones. A TV plays in the backgound

Sub-tropical storm Alberto hits, stranding us in our hotel Casa Maikel

8 people sit around a small, square table containing rows of dominoes

Our guides and drivers play a game of dominoes in Casa Maikel

A man and a woman demonstrate salsa steps

Our guides bring in salsa instructors

4 men play musical instruments - a guitar, saxophone, bass, and drums

After salsa lessons, our guides surprise us with a live band

People eat breakfast around two rectangular tables with white tablecloths

Eating breakfast at Casa Maikel in Cienfuegos

A white plate holding slices of pineapple, mango, and mamey sits next to a saucer holding a cup of coffee

Part of our Cuban breakfast at Casa Maikel – pineapple, mango, mamey, and coffee

5 people sit around a table with a white tablecloth playing cards

Playing cards to pass the time during sub-tropical storm Alberto

Our driver Ramón with Dan Aldridge

Three dogs run beside a flooded road through which cars are passing

Flooded roads in Cienfuegos near our hotel

A view out the front van windshield of a water-covered highway

Driving on flooded roads on our way out of Cienfuegos

Flooded highway

View from a van window of a sign that reads, "Por Siempre Fidel"

Propaganda on our way out of Cienfuegos

Trees stand in a field flooded with water

Flooded field on our way out of Cienfuegos during sub-tropical storm Alberto

A sign reads, "Girón primera gran derrota del imperialismo yanqui en América Latina

Entrance to Girón (Bay of Pigs)

A plane with gray propellers stands in front of a sign reading: "Museo Girón"

Entrance to Museo Girón (Bay of Pigs Museum)

Sign with images of Fidel Castro and soldiers, along with patriotic slogans

Lobby of Museo Girón

Black and white photos of men line the walls of a room. A sign on a post in the center of the room reads, "Heroes de Girón"

Exhibit in Museo Girón honoring those who died in the Bay of Pigs invasion

Museum display of a uniform, flag, lantern, plaque, and book

Museo Girón Literacy Campaign Exhibit

Gerardo Marti with a bust of José Martí in Playa Girón

A man and a woman, both wearing sunglasses, sit on a street corner. An awning of a door is in the background, as well as two cannons upside-down in the street

Helen Cho and Matt Samson on a corner in Old Havana

A man and woman stand behind a large red painting covered with small figures of people

Angie Willis with Cuban artist Arbelio Fontes Rodriguez

A man looks at shelves of books. A bird in a birdcage hangs in the foreground.

Gerardo Marti browses in a used bookstore in Havana

A building covered in murals, built around an old water tank

El Tanque – the home of Muraleando, a community arts project in the Lawton municipality of Havana

A man in a blue shirt that says, "Cuba" stands in front of a mural and two metal sculpures, talking to a group

Manuel Diaz Baldrich, director of Muraleando, talks to the group about the community art project in the Lawton neighborhood of Havana

Mosaic of the faces of Abraham Lincoln and Che Guevara, with the word, "Muraleando" above

Mosaic in Muraleando of Abraham Lincoln and Che Guevara

A wall of mosaics featuring 6 large birds

Bird mosaic in Muraleando

Benches with tile mosaics and the words, "alegres," "solidarios," amorosos," and "optimistas"

Benches in Muraleando

A woman in an orange dress dances with a young girl in front of a 5-person live band and a wall covered in mural

Sharon Green dances to a live band in Muraleando

Three men sit in a blue convertible classic car.

Kevin Smith, Gerardo Mari, and Dan Layman, soon after our guides surprised us with a classic car ride to the airport.

A bridge with a sign reading, "Este es tiempo virtuoso y hay que fundirse en él." The windshield and rearview mirror of a classic car is in the foreground

Bridge on the route to the airport during our classic car ride

A sign with an image of Fidel Castro reading "Fidel entre nosotros"

Propaganda on our ride to the airport

Several classic cars in the road leading to the airport entrance

Arriving in style at the José Martí airport

The Cuban coastline from the air, with the tip of a plane wing on the upper right

Adiós, Cuba