I also have two great postcards of this same view: the Malecón in Havana, Cuba. What I didn’t mention in my last post on the Malecón is that four of us went for a night-time stroll along the seafront here and saw a completely other side of it. During the daytime it’s virtually empty as there aren’t many local businesses nearby, just children jumping off the wave breakers in the sea. By night however, you’ll meet rappers trying to flog their homemade CDs, pimps advertising their prostitutes to you (yes they even approached us – a group of 2 girls & 2 guys) and guys offering all variety of drugs. It didn’t feel at all dangerous at the time, and we had a great time chatting to the locals, and even befriending a nearby policeman who had no qualms about the illegal activity going on under his nose.

          This night so epitomised Cuba for me that when I stumbled upon this painting in a market on our last day in Cuba, after a month of backpacking, I instantly knew I wanted it. Getting paintings home in my luggage has always been a bit of a logistical nightmare – trying not to break it, trying not to get it dirty… But this painting brings back such memories, which is why I like to keep works of art as souvenirs of places I visit – they have to have some meaning for me or evoke some particular memory.