Fusterlandia

It was Jackie who told me this was not to be missed when we were in Cuba--and she was right. The pictures tell the story of this community on the outskirts of Havana that has reinvented itself in homage to Gaudi. Everything in sight has been covered in mosaic tiles. Walls, houses, fences, bus stops, benches, tables.... everything that can be decorated has been tiled.

It looks like it's the work of many artists--and in fact it is. Many of the residents have entered into the spirit of the place and done their own tiling.  It was all started by artist José Fuster and his house is the centrepiece of the village. It's three full storeys of tiled sculptures, furnitures, ceilings and walls.

We had an amazing afternoon exploring this place, complete with a mosaic picnic area where we enjoyed piña coladas made by a handsome young Cuban guy.

Now that Cuba allows entrepreneurs, this place is a natural.  It's now on the tourist path--and for good reason. The whole place had an atmosphere of celebration and some residents have opened their homes to show and sell other artwork as well.  We even saw a couple of old-style American cars touring visitors around.

Our trip there was an experience in itself. We took the tourist hop-on-hop-off bus to the end of the line and then tried to get a taxi the rest of the way without success. We saw some people waiting at a bus stop so I asked one woman if we could get a bus there and she said yes.  She had us wait for a couple of buses to go by and then beckoned us onto a small, decrepit vehicle full of people. The cost for this was about 8 cents for the four of us. I can tell you that we stood out like sore thumbs on this bus but it got us there. 

We knew we were in the right place because of the mosaics at the bus stop.  I'll leave you with a couple more photos of this special little community.  If you ever make it to Cuba, make a point of visiting Fusterlandia. You won't be disappointed.