My friend Sara works in the photolab Ivey Imaging in Seattle, but her parents still live in Havana and run a delightful "casa particular" - a bed and breakfast - in the capital. Her father Pepe recommended that I should, while downtown, visit the Canary Island Association of Cuba for an affordable meal. Unknown to most any tourists, it's a stately building on a side street not marked as a restaurant from the outside. Not only was the rice and lobster plate exceptional, and five dollars, but the ambiance was sublime. Music wafted in from down the hall where there was a tiled room of promenading and very young ladies learning traditional flamenco. After I lingered in the hallway peering through the glass for long enough, the teacher acquiesced to let me come inside and spectate (amid a certain amount of giggling).

Havana
La República de Cuba

© dominic arizona bonuccelli