Yosemite in Winter
It has already been a year since California had a great winter, with record snow. I have been waiting for the right conditions to get to Yosemite before a massive winter storm. I realized recently that I have never posted the images from that trip. For me the right conditions are a fast moving storm coming (called an atmospheric river) bringing a lot of moisture. Ideally the storm should hit Yosemite in late afternoon and last all night. The temperature in Yosemite should be low enough to produce snow and I want at least 12 to 16 inches. The fast moving storm is important because I want sunny skies the next day. The storm happened in the middle of the week last year, we drove ahead of the storm and stayed in the park, while the storm dumped around 18 inches of...
Havana, Trinidad and Santiago de Cuba
For the 3rd time in 5 years, I went to Cuba. This time our itinerary included Havana for two days, then Trinidad and we drove to Santiago to meet with our Cuban Salsa group: the All Stars. I knew that Cubans love music, or most exactly music is life for the Cubans. This trip did reinforce the notion to a new level. We witnessed a music video being filmed on the Malecon, people dancing in the streets and we could hear music all the time on the streets, coming from cars, apartments, phones. Havana is changing fast, we were able to get cash from an ATM using an European credit card (an impossible thing before), a new 5 stars hotel has opened (after 5 years of construction), luxury brands like MontBlanc, Leica, Nikon are opening shops in Havana. The old Havana was...