Students leaving a massive concert at Havana's university walk down the streets of Vedado, a residential neighborhood adjacent to the old town. Depictions of Che Guevara, Cuba's revolutionary hero, cover buildings, souvenirs, and billboards across the country. What would the comandante say about the warming of relations between the communist island and its old enemy? The people have spoken, and it's a loud yes. A trip to Cuba this month found a population eager for the influx of American visitors in a country where, as one resident put it, "Life here is perfect, but the economy is bad." For many, tourism is the only way to eke out a reasonable living.
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A street scene in Habana Vieja, the city's old town.
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The walls of Havana's unrestored old buildings sport street art and political cartoons. The city has been undergoing massive construction projects over the past few years, stretching its miniscule resources into ambitious and successful building restorations.
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Tourists sit at a cafe in Havana's Plaza Vieja.
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Tiny eco-cabs swerve around Cuba's famous vintage cars in Havana.
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An old imported car drives past a mural endorsing the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the local party offices that are omnipresent in every neighborhood, in the coastal town of Cienfuegos.
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Cycling on the road in central Cuba.
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A goat cart and a woman face-off in the central plaza of Santa Clara, a university town with an edgy reputation.
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The entire town comes out to play on Saturday nights in Santa Clara, where the walls are covered with jokes and political cartoons.
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Old men congregate on a quiet street in Santa Clara.
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They're here, there, and everywhere. A corner in Santa Clara is inexplicably dedicated to The Beatles.
A one-room post office sits off a plaza in colonial Trinidad, one of Cuba's most architecturally stunning towns.
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As dusk sets, people walk the cobbled streets of Trinidad.
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A cyclist glances at a mural of Che painted on a building in Trinidad. You don't have to look hard to see the guerilla fighter's famous face in Cuba.
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A view of colonial Trinidad from the city's old bell tower. The museum housed in the building below exhibits the history of U.S.-supported counter-revolutionaries who failed to overthrow Fidel Castro.
A cowboy on the roadside.
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Horse carts are still a common way of navigating the bumpy cobblestones of Trinidad, for tourists and locals alike.
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A yellow car sits in a bustling business district abutting Havana's old center. Many of the perfectly preserved old cars have been turned into taxis, and many of the taxi drivers have enjoyed a bustling business that brings in wages many times the government salary.
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Portraits of the capital's diverse population grace a back street in Habana Vieja.
Nina Strochlic/The Daily Beast
The old cars that make Havana famous require constant tuning and upkeep, though finding parts can be difficult in the isolated island.
