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AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST

We bring you some street life scenes from Cuba

For the first time in half a century, Cuba made travel news recently as it changed its migration policies allowing Cuban nationals to travel overseas without a sepcial exit visa. The communist-ruled island, best known for its cigars, has seen locals queuing outside Migrations Offices to request for new passports. So, as the country braces itself for a generation of Global Cubans, we bring you snapshots from inside this country.


A youth jumps into the ocean from a breakwater in Havana.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST

A young woman sits on the back of a convertible car while being driven along Havana's seafront boulevard "el Malecon" on the way to her 15th birthday "coming out" celebration.

The custom dates back to the Spanish colonial era and has survived in Communist Cuba, where debutantes dress up in muslin dresses that showcase their bodies and pose for cameras with uninhibited sensuality.

Parents save up for the event, which can cost $300-500, a small fortune in a country where monthly salaries average $20.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
A Cuban groom kisses his Canadian bride underneath the Cuban flag in Havana.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
A man walks past a graffitti that reads "Long live Fidel" in Santiago de Cuba. Cuba celebrated the 53rd anniversary of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power on January 1, 1959.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
Fork lightning lights up the sky during a storm above an illuminated bronze silhouette of revolution leader Che Guevara, the work of Cuban sculptor Rafael Avila, on the facade of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MININT) in Havana's Revolution Square.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
A street entertainer waits for tourists in Havana.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
A tourist poses for a picture at colonial-era fortress 'El Morro' with Havana in the background as storm clouds gather in the sky.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
Cubans use a makeshift awning beside their car for shade, as they spend a day at a beach on the outskirts of Havana. Cuba's beaches are an attraction for tourists the world over, whether they are foreigners paying thousands of dollars to reach them, or Cubans paying as little as five dollars for a three-day vacation in a seaside cabin.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
A worker fits Cohiba cigars in a box at the Partagas factory in Havana. According to Cuban cigar executives, Cuban cigar sales have been rising as smokers in China and the Middle East helped counter the effects of anti-smoking laws sweeping the globe, said.

AMAZING PICS: Postcards from Cuba

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 15:45 IST
Personal items used by late Nobel-prize winning author Ernest Hemingway are seen inside his house at Finca Vigia in Havana. Different universities and institutions from the US have helped renovate Finca Vigia, a Spanish style mansion of top of a hill over Havana.
Source: REUTERS
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