Before and After

In Habana Vieja, the work never stops. Restoring the crumbling mansions that once stood in the great plazas of the city is a decades-long job. In Plaza Vieja, in particular, the work accomplished there since my first visit in 2003 (top photo) to the summer of 2012 (bottom) is astonishing. The acclaimed photographer from the National Geographic, David Alan Harvey, shot the same building from the same perspective in 1998, with the same woman on her balcony doing laundry.When I bought his book "Cuba" upon my return from there in 2003, I was surprised to see a number of the same people in his photographs as were in mine. Going back again in 2009 and 2012, I again saw some of the same characters both in Havana and Trinidad. Either it's a small world or these people aren't going anywhere for a while.