Cienfuegos in southern Cuba is a beautiful city. It was founded in the early 1800s by the French and is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its architecture. The photos posted here are of the Palacia de Valle (Valle's Palace), a fabulous building of which I'll post more photos.

A view over the bay from the roof of the palace.

This was taken from across the street looking at the palace.

How do you get around in Havana? Well, one way is to cram the family into a pre 1959 American car, rust free, with 17th generation higher riding shocks that are almost worn out, bald tires, and a black smoke belching under-perfroming diesel engine.

Behind the demonstration area, stand, stage and huge array of Cuban flags is the U.S. Embassy. The apparent theme here, from both sides, is basically "up yours!"

We went to the Bay of Pigs 2 weeks after the 50th anniversary of the invasion, so the signs in this post are either new or freshly painted.

This is the gate area of the huge Zapata swamp where the invaders got bogged down.

More propaganda signs.

I'm not sure of the name of this tree, but there are a lot of these trees everywhere in Cuba, and they are also yellow and other light pastel colours.

Havana mangos, not yet ripe, but when they are, oh so yummy!

Marsha and Liuba walking on the shores of the Bay of Pigs at Playa Larga, the same beaches the "Cuban" fighters landed at in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, exactly 50 years and 2 weeks before this picture was taken.

A 1934 Ford waits on the beach while its occupants enjoy a beach day.

This is a one man machine gun bunker, now sealed, that was constructed on the beach after the Bay of Pigs invasion. There were no such defenses prior to the invasion.

This is another sealed up machine gun bunker similar to the one above. There were also cement tank "stoppers" along the beach and near the road to prevent invading tanks from moving around, also constructed after the invasion.

Crabs.. Every morning they invade the shore areas of Cuba's Bay of Pigs.

Yellow crabs the size of baseballs.

Red crabs similar in size to the yellow ones.

These crabs were all over the roofed walkway leading into the restaurant at the resort we stayed overnight in at Playa Larga.

Crab Massacre on the Bay of Pigs

Holy crunch Batman. Every morning the crabs try to cross the road to get to the other side, obviously, but for what reason? No se. This occurs over a 20-30 km stretch of road along the east side of the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba. By mid afternoon, all that is left of the carnage is a roadway of crushed and mauled carcasses (for those crab eating lovers I didn't take any photos of the after results). The locals and touristos can't avoid these guys, so in their travels they drive right over them. We must have "terminated" hundreds if not thousands. The local turkey vultures are extremely healthy, and in one instance they were bold and aggressive as a group of 5 or 6 chowing down in the middle of the road refused to move. We slowed down to a crawl and got to within 2 meters of them before they begrudgingly flew off. If we had continued driving at the speed we were at, we not only would we have continued to crush crabs, we would have been able to stencil a few buzzards on the front of the car.

Looking eastward along the beaches of Cayo Coco, Cuba.

... mmmmm ... Cuba ....

Ah, Havana, Cuba, warm beaches, sun ...

This bird bath isn't quite ready to receive "guests." It still needs a little time to shake of winter's "rust."

Still looking good, Big Red.

After a day with 10 inches of snow, yesterday was a beauty day! Here is a large open ice gap in front of our place; however, today it is closed as the ice is moving around some.

While at the Distillery a couple of weeks ago to sample some Mill Street offerings, we noticed this old Rolls with an equally old and worn/shabby chauffeur. There was a wedding photo op in process, and the car looked to be the getaway vehicle.

On my way to the Ottawa Valley region on Saturday, I stopped at Deux Rivieres, one of my fave stops to view the Ottawa River. I was quite taken aback at the low water level of the river.

The northward migrating ducks weren't taken aback. They seemed to relish splashing around in the muck.

There are two of these bridges connecting 2 small islands in the river.

However, for some unknown reason the access across the bridge is now a "no go." It was open last fall.

Even though the Ottawa River water level is low, the streams flowing into the river are dumping the normal spring volume of water.

Yikes!! Look at what we woke up to this morning! And we're expecting more snow before midnight when "normalcy" returns. Tomorrow should be +8C and sunny, so most of this "illusion" should disappear.

The moon was pretty spectacular last night as it rose over the lake as seen through the trees.

They may not be blooming in your gardens yet, but these spring flowers are everywhere on the streets of Toronto.

Hope "spring"s eternal at this time of year. There is still 2 feet of ice on the lake, so the Fortuitous isn't going too far yet, just hoping ...

Our Saturday afternoon "stroll" around downtown Toronto offered many photo ops. Here the gang mug it up in the alley, site of many Rick Mercer Rants, south of Queen Street.

This is the "back end" of the Flatiron building on Front Street in Toronto: a bit different than the triangular point of its other side.

You tell me - did it work?

Continuing with the theme of Toronto reflections, here is the clock tower of the old city hall reflecting off an adjoining glass building.

After a trip to Toronto it's time to distill the photographs taken. As usual there are a number of reflections to look at. Anyone recognize the buildings here?

Just got back from a "boys" weekend in Toronto. Here's an important shot from the cellar bar at the Flatiron Building.

So that's how they see at night. Looks like a way better idea than headlights. These guys were posing at the side of the road as we were chauffeured home by the Ice Marshal after a great night with the Sadies.

Duchesney Creek isn't quite spilling out its spring amount of water, but it's nice to see the water spewing forth among the melting ice.

A nice spring day view down the lake, but I can honestly say I prefer this view sans ice - only about 3 weeks to wait. Last year on April 3 it was +28C, the snow was gone, the lake was completely ice free and we put in the first 2 sections of the dock - sigh ...

How can you tell it's spring in the north? Everyone tosses snow on to dry dark surfaces to hasten the melting process. Even Sunny gets into the act as she tears up the large pieces.

Here's a scene you don't often see behind a Tim Hortons - a "Beware of Bears" sign. Only in Northern Ontario I s'pose.

The ice is expanding due to the heat of the sun, so it starts to fold along the shoreline. Soon there will be open water along the shore, then it won't be long before it all melts away.

Soon there be smelts.

Last year at this time there was no snow left and the ice was virtually gone from all the lakes. Not so this year, as the ice is just starting to recede from the little creeks and streams, with the lakes a long way (3 weeks at least) from being ice free. This is Four Mile Creek as seen from the last bridge before it empties into Four Mile Bay of Trout Lake.