Before I head off to new places, I love to read a variety of fiction that is either set in my destination or was written by someone from the country. And when no time for reading, I listen to some local music. All of this sets the scene for me, gives me a feeling for the location and the people, prepares me for the local ambience and often sets some geographical or historical facts in my head.
Comparing what I read with what I see can be interesting. Our Man in Havana, a great character created by Graham Greene, escaped from the capital city and sat in Cienfuegos writing a fairly lengthy letter to his sister: “I am sitting by the bay in Cienfuegos … This must be one of the quietest ports in the world. Just the pink and yellow street and a few cantinas and the big chimney of a sugar refinery and at the end of a weed-grown path the Juan Belmonte.”
I first read this as dissatisfaction, but he moves on in his musings, talking about the light that is “wonderful just before the sun goes down: a long trickle of gold and the seabirds are dark patches on the pewter swell.”
Cienfuegos, Cuba, December 2016
The shot above is early morning, not evening, but the golden light on those old sea faring vessels won me over. This place had real character.
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 13 January 2017
Part of Ambience and Weekend Reflections
Travel with Intent 
Rust and water is a beautiful combination. Great photo Debbie!
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Awesome reflection
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I love the way you worked the theme into your post, Debbie.
janet
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Glad you appreciated that.
Have a great weekend!
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Definitely a touch of ambience going on. Happy weekend, Debs 🙂
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Thanks Jo. And I hope you have a good one too!
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Just imagine Hundertwasser sitting there, thinking of quenching the 100 fires!
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Ha ha. Good one!
I believe it was named after a person not actual fires!
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That’s fine – that makes it a person-to-person fight.
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Calm and serenity in a picture.
Funny how we almost all take the same pictures of the same places when we travel… We were in Cienfuegos at the end of November and were on that pier on one evening… Sunset over the boats was quite a sight too.
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It was quite a small place and i think the water calls to many of us! Happy to hear you were there too
On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 9:51 PM, Travel with Intent wrote:
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What beautiful blues all over the place!
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This was my favourite part of town and my favourite time of day 🙂
On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 9:20 PM, Travel with Intent wrote:
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I loved Cienfuegos when I stayed briefly over a decade ago…but didn’t really look at the harbour….
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It didn’t win me over at first. The guide books raved about it but the renovated beauty was just the one square. But after a good wander on my own I got a feeling of a real place, a city that seems to be managing well economically. the bit around the (ex) Yacht Club was too touristy but the rest I liked
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Well, there was nothing renovated when I was there! Did you see the Tomas Terry theatre?
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Yes, that square was the renovated area. There were no performance in the theatre due to the mourning period, but I had a wander around the inside. Too dark for decent photos though
On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 9:56 PM, Travel with Intent wrote:
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Oh, OK…we went to that theatre for a tour, and I have two ropy images from the interior!
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