Photographing Magical Cuba

Join National Geographic author and photographer, and renowned Cuba expert Christopher P. Baker on this highly intimate and enriching 10-day photo tour and cultural adventure, inspired by Chris’ personal long-lasting love-affair with this unique island nation. Hailed by National Geographic as “One of the world’s leading authorities on Cuba travel and culture,” Chris has led more than 150 group tours to Cuba and written and photographed eight books to the island, including National Geographic Traveler Cuba and Cars of Cuba: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles.

Chris will introduce many of his Cuban friends and families into your photographic experience for a true behind-the-tourist-veil experience as we photograph the most photogenic locations and document the most fascinating aspects of this rich tropical paradise and its lovable, quixotic culture.

In Havana, our focus will be on street photography as we explore tumbledown tenement buildings (solares), shoot Eisenhower-era classic cars rumbling down the seafront Malecón boulevard, and capture timeless images of ballerinas in mansions steeped in faded grandeur. Plus, you’ll thrill to an evening at one of the world’s most iconic nightspots—the legendary Tropicana cabaret.

Next, we visit Viñales, a time-warp bucolic haven where tobacco farms are still tilled in age-old fashion by ox-drawn ploughs against a backdrop of dramatic limestone formations. Completing our ideal triptych is Trinidad, an astonishingly well-preserved colonial city and UNESCO World Heritage Site whose cobbled streets still echo to the clip-clop of hooves. A highlight here will be a period-piece shoot in a restored sugar-plantation hacienda that was once the largest producer of “white gold” in the world.

Throughout you get to elevate your skills and learn the “art of seeing,” visual storytelling, and anticipating the decisive moment in the company of a National Geographic photographer with an unparalleled ability to also educate you about this enigmatic and endearing nation.

Your experience will be enhanced by stays at authentic Cuban-owned casas particulares (private B&Bs and boutique hotels), and meals in the very best private restaurants offering world-class cuisine and delicious and healthy country fare.

Our program is U.S.-legal and adheres to all the regulations under the §515.574 Support for the Cuban People license. Our itinerary is designed to maximize our economic and social support for the Cuban people.  

ITINERARY (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Day 1 – HAVANA
You’ll begin your tour this evening with a welcome reception with Chris and your Cuban photo guide before heading to dinner in convertible classic cars—a chance to revel in the 1950s nostalgia that pervades your Havana experience. For your welcome dinner, we’ve chosen Cuba’s most famous restaurant—justifiably so for its remarkable faded architecture, memorable setting, and gourmet cuisine. (D)

Day 2 – HAVANA
After breakfast, we’ll explore Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the vibrant, earthy epicenter for remarkable street photography. Although we’ll include two of its beautifully restored colonial plazas, our focus is on the grittier streets, with their tumbledown tenements and thriving community spirit. Chris will take you inside some of his favorite venues to experience and photograph a hidden slice of Havana, including its Afro-Cuban culture, epitomized by the fascinating Santería religion. In the afternoon, following a siesta, we’ll learn more about Santería as we marvel at a private dance session with Afro-Cuban dancers representing the orishas (deities). Dinner this evening will be in another of Chris’ favorite restaurants, close to our B&B. (BD)

Day 3 – HAVANA
We begin our day by hopping aboard bicitaxis (three-wheel pedicabs) as we head to an open-air boxing gym in southern Habana Vieja. Here, we’ll enjoy a private photo session with Cuban boxers, male and female, as they pose for portraits and train with no-holds-barred live-action sparring. We’ll follow this with more street photography in one of this untouristed part of Havana before lunch. Later, we’ll spend the afternoon visiting a classic car restoration garage, including photographing several cherry 1950s Chevrolets in Havana’s premium iconic locales. (BD)

Day 4 – HAVANA
After breakfast, our morning session is a highlight of our tour as we thrill to a private photography session with ballerinas of Cuba’s acclaimed Ballet Nacional. Our venues are the astounding Centro Havana tenement housing the La Guarida restaurant, plus a private mansion that is a masterpiece of preserved yesteryear décor. After our de rigueur siesta, we’ll set out on foot to explore the Prado Boulevard and Centro Habana. Although down-at-heels, this district offers some of the most sublime street photography imaginable, including along the seafront Malecón boulevard—a great spot for time-lapse and panning shots of old cars passing by, and for portraits of the many Cuban lovers, musicians, and fishers drawn to the Atlantic shoreline. (BD)

Day 5 – VIÑALES
We wave goodbye to Havana and head west for Viñales Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where dramatic limestone formations provide the most photogenic physical landscapes in Cuba. Following lunch overlooking the valley, we head to our first tobacco farm for our first portrait session with cigar-chewing guajiros (peasant farmers). After settling into our private B&Bs, you’ll have the balance of the afternoon free to explore this charming and peaceful little farm-town, with its many cowboys and ox-drawn carts and a simple lifestyle. We’ll head to a nearby hilltop organic farm for sunset shots with our farmhand model, followed by a hearty and healthy dinner at the farm-restaurant. ((BLD)

Day 6 – VIÑALES
You’ll be richly rewarded today for setting out before sunrise to begin our photo session in the dark. We’ll spent two hours with our cowboy-farmer model as the sun rises over the valley. All the better if by chance the atmospheric conditions smother the valley in dawn mists, which we’ll shoot from above, pierced by mogotes (limestone monoliths). After breakfast at the tobacco farm, we head to another farm where we can expect sensational photos in the tobacco barns, ox-drawn ploughs working the rust-colored fields, plus portraits of our uber-photogenic host farmer and family. We’ll enjoy another siesta before taking a short walk to two humble homesteads where Chris is regarded like family. Our photography and experience here provide memories to cherish forever. (BD)

Day 7 – VIÑALES – TRINIDAD
Although our journey east to Trinidad is a whole-day affair, we’ll make two memorable stops to photograph and to enjoy lunch. The first is at a private organic farm-restaurant nestled above the banks of a beautiful lake. Here, we’ll marvel at being shown the hives of stingless bees which the owner raises to produce commercial honey; you’ll even get to sip the honey straight from the bee’s nest! We’ll enjoy a gourmet buffet lunch here. Our second stop, at a traditional rural bodega (ration store), is a jaw-dropper for its remarkable revolutionary murals. We’ll spend about one hour photographing here before continuing to Trinidad, arriving in time for sunset. Our lovely colonial-era private B&B is a mere two-minute walk from the cobbled 18^th-century plaza, in the heart of the old city, with its pastel-colored homes, cobblestoned streets, and faded glory. (BLD)

Day 8 – TRINIDAD
We’ll rise early today for a sunrise photo walk through Trinidad’s most humble and untouristed barrio, where most inhabitants are poor yet rich in spirit and generosity. We’ll witness the city come to life, and get to meet and photograph many of its most Instagram-worthy personalities well-known to Chris. Afterward breakfast at our casa particular, your morning is free to explore Trinidad at leisure. We’ll reunite in mid-afternoon to head into the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugarmills). Here, we’ll shoot a cowboy and cowgirl at a river fording and in one of the valley’s still lived in yet forlorn former sugar plantation haciendas. (B)

Day 9 – TRINIDAD
Another highlight awaits this morning as we head back into the Valle de los Ingenios for a real sense of the sugar-mill lifestyle that peaked in the mid-19^th-century. Our setting is a rural hamlet and a restored hacienda that was at its peak the wealthiest sugar-producer in the world. Here we’ll photograph a model in period costume, casting us metaphorically back two centuries. We’ll then dine at the adjoining rural farmstead before heading back to Trinidad for our siesta. As the golden hour approaches, we’ll head to a the former train station to photograph rusting centenary steam trains… then to the nearby fishers’ wharfs of Casilda (looking like a set for the movie Popeye)… and finally, sunset, by the shore at La Boca. (BLD)

Day 10 – TRINIDAD – SANTA CLARA – DEPART
After breakfast, we depart for the city of Santa Clara. Here, we’ll make a short visit to the Plaza de la Revolución and its monument and mausoleum of Che Guevara, before delivering you to the airport for your departure home.