close your eyes and hope for the best

Cuban Taxi (click image to enlarge)

We finally arrived in the middle of a Cuban slum where we thought we were supposed to meet our models. Mangy half hairless dogs and an old guy name Luis kept us company while we waited for our models to show.

A working holiday, that’s what I told my wife and family. It was to be 7 days in the Caribbean sun. That didn’t mean that I was to have a camera permanently slung around my neck like some surveillance collar. There would be some downtime, but my primary purpose was to get some stock photos that I could potentially make some money off of.

The red eye flight left me sleepless and bleary-eyed . I knew something was amiss when I noticed the local airport workers were wearing pants and jackets. When we arrived in Santa Clara the island had been battling a week of tropical storms and the sunny skies and warm temps I had expected were no where to be seen. Still, for my brother and his family who just came from Winnipeg where it was -30° C it seemed positively balmy.

After a few days the skies cleared and presented some photographic opportunities. Unfortunately, the high winds whipped up sand near the beach, jeopardizing my camera equipment and making it difficult to get some sharp shots of the swaying foliage.

Things improved when we were treated to an unexpected pool-side Cuban fashion show complete with long-legged models in swim wear. I took many photos including a few token ones of the bare-chested male models just prove that I wasn’t sexist and for the benefit of my wife.

After the show, I approached some of the models and inquired if I could hire them for a beach shoot in the following days. A young male and female model agreed to the shoot but said that it would have to be done in the next town as employees like them weren’t allowed to go near the water on the all inclusive beach where we were staying. Further arrangements and directions followed in a phone conversation that night that put my bad Spanish and his slightly better English to the test.

After a one day trip to Havana (taxi shot), the day came for the beach shoot and I was shocked to find out there were no rental cars available to make the 100km round trip journey to the next town. In the end, my brother/photoassistant and I arranged a round trip ride in a crazy taxi that careened down the crowded streets narrowly missing carts and people at break-neck speed. This guy was in a hurry.

We finally arrived in the middle of a Cuban slum where we thought we were supposed to meet our models. Mangy half hairless dogs and an old guy name Luis kept us company while we waited for our models to show. After an hour it was evident either my translation skills or our hurried taxi driver had let us down. Our efforts to reach the right beach were thwarted by paths that dwindled to the ominous sight of two vultures (one for each of us) circling overhead of our intended destination.

“Let’s go back the other way”, we said to each other after it became apparent we were out of our element.

With no taxis in sight we started back towards the center of town and met up with some crab fishermen who kindly offered us some rum. We declined but gave them some beer to lighten our load. I didn’t feel safe hauling out my $5000 camera to take pictures, and really should have brought my canon G9 P&S along in this situation. Live and learn.

After a while we hitched a ride with a one-eyed bicycle taxi operator who peddled us to the town square where we met up with the same taxi driver who had previously dropped us at the wrong spot. He had another fare but promised to pick us up in an hour.

In the end we never did meet up with our model friends, my apologies to them if they are reading this. But we did enjoy a true taste of Cuba with our little adventure, something that we will remember much more than our all inclusive isolated compound, even if we don’t have any pictures to remind us.

© Bill Frymire

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Bill Frymire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.