chloë gautreau photography

Is this not the sweet service dog in training you’ve ever seen? Pls view previous post for more info…

C. xoxo

Well all the mounds of snow here on the east coast of Canada have finally begun to melt. Despite the serious damages and floods happening yesterday, there was some serious beauty! Love the nature of the Maritimes, home. xoxo

Photo taken with iPhone 5C, sometimes you’ve got to make do with what you’ve got on you.

THE FOOD!!….. Ooooh, oooooh the oh so delicious coconut ice-cream. The coconut ice-cream, the cafe con leche’s, the amazing breakfast array of eggs, fruit, cheese, bread coffee and cookies I could have lived off of. They may not have a lot, but what a surprise that they make the best out of what they do have. Mmmmm

Do you cringe every time you have to use a public washroom?…I want to hear about it!

I used to think I had a phobia or ‘dislike’ of public washrooms. We seem to go by this popular saying in our culture ‘you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone’…

Canadian public washrooms are luxurious facilities I will never again accuse them of anything but. Beg to differ?

Are these what the School Buses look like in your hometown?…

Did you call a taxi? Hopefully the driver won’t have anger issues that he takes out on his much-too-skinny horse.

Ok, sometimes they ARE fortunate enough to run into an old Russian car from before the Special Period… but you know it’s going to need gas, or some kind of super Cuban mechanic expertise (I’ve come to the conclusion that they must have the best mechanics in the world… have you seen these cars, and what they have to work with? and oohhh baby do those engines purr!)

As seen in most of my posts from Cuba thus far, a huge part of their reality is making do with what they’ve got. Since the Revolution this country has been under the ‘charismatic’ reign of Field Castro for, what’s unimaginable to us, an astounding 55 years, but being Cubans of course they embrace him too and for the most part I don’t think they even want change. Once Cuba entered the “Special Period” in the 80’s/early 90’s and the assistance from Russian they had been largely reliant on was no longer available, their resources diminished and though they’ve improved, Cuba has yet to make a full sustainable recovery. Of course you can imagine what they all feel about it “es major que nada…” and they say it when a sincere smile, one rarely seen around the busy hustle and bustle of these city streets. Interesting who in human nature we seem to need to go without, in order to appreciate the most mundane things like a smile from a stranger? Hmm…

I’ve gone on a minor tangent, again, this post is about transportation in Cuba. Oooops….. but really, in Canada we’re all torn up and “having a bad day” if our car breaks down on runs out of guess, heck we feel put out if we have to stand on the damn luxurious bus that has FREE WIFI!!! Do you know how much WiFi costs per hour in Cuba?… AND what these locations are like… They certainly make the best of what they have; but is this why they have it? (I’d love to hear your thoughts on that…)

C. xoxo