DMICE Goes to Cuba - Feb., 2007

Nice welcoming message to me from the conference chair.
Giving my talk on training the medical informatics workforce. There was a great interchange of ideas and hope for future collaboration. Here is a PDF of my slides, with references. The woman next to me was my translator, translating sentence after sentence of my talk to Spanish. My slides are seen projected behind me.
There was also an OHSU-led panel on the applicability of American medical informatics to Cuba. It featured Steven Bedrick and Nancy Carney at the far left and Holly Jimison and Misha Pavel on the right.
Exhibits at the conference. There were many commercial vendors and, perhaps not surprisingly, the most were from China and Venezuala.
Entertainment at the reception on the opening night of the conference.
There were also some more intimate social events with our Cuban friends. Twice we went to dinner at different family's homes. Here is one of the families we visited. Caridad is a physician and her husband behind her is a well-known Cuban musician. Because of their professional status, they live in relative luxury for Cubans, sharing an apartment (small by US standards) with Caridad's parents and her daughter. They served up quite a feast.
Another social event was getting to watch the ballet at the Gran Teatro de Habana.
Here is my hotel, the five-star Melia Habana. It is in the Miramar area about 10 km west of downtown Havana. It is near the Convention Center where the conferece is being held. The back of the hotel sits right on the Straits of Florida, 90 miles from Key West.
Here is the view outside from the balcony of my room. It looks toward downtown Havana, but you can't see much due to these other hotels that obscure the view. The closest hotel is the Neptune, which houses a great number of Venezualans who come to Cuba for their excellent specialty medical care.
A noticeable landmark in Miramar, the Russian Embassy, which is visible for miles around.
While there are some modern cars on the streets, there are many like these, American and other cars from what appears to be the 1950s. They are loud and belch fumes but get people where they want to go. There are also plenty of Russian Ladas as well.
Heading downtown you see the Maelcon, Havana's famous sea wall. This view is looking west, back toward my hotel. The first full day of my trip when I took this picture had "lousy" weather. It was about 75 degrees with overcast skies, clouds, and occasional showers. Not as bad as the frigid winter to the north, I suppose.
Another view of the sea wall from a famous military fort across from the city center.
The famous Museo de la Revolucion. It tells the Cuban government's version of the revolution (the winners get to write history). There is a tank to the right there and more military hardware in the back, including ...
... the famous "yacht" Granma, which brought Fidel and his ragtag army to Cuba for the final push on Havana.
The capitol building of Cuba, which sits right in the center of the city.
The Plaza de la Revolucion, where large political rallies are held. In the back to the right in this picture is the Ministry of the Interior building with the large picture of Che Guevera on the side.
Across from the Plaza de la Revolucion is the towering Memorial Jose Marti, in honor of another famous Cuban revolutionary from the 19th century. Behind this monument is the Central Committee of the Communist Party headquarters, where Fidel has his office.
Speaking of Fidel, here are wishes and a tribute. There are also plenty of other "Vivo Fidel" signs all over Havana. As of this writing, he is still is hospitalized under secret conditions.
It turns out the Cubans really love ice cream, and Coppelia is the most famous Cuban ice cream place of all. They wait in line for a long time (hours?) to get in. Foreigners are not allowed in these lines and instead are shunted to a smaller ice cream stand off to the side where it is sold in CUC (see below).
The Yara theater, across the street from Coppelia. Supposedly a good date is going to a movie and then for ice cream at Coppelia. As you can see, they show plenty of American titles.
Much to my surprise, a synagogue in Cuba, the Gran Synagoga Bet Shalom. There are actually quite a number of churches around Havana too. Religion is apparently not dead in Cuba.
This billboard sits across the street from the US Interest Section. I guess they don't think too highly of our president. :-)
There is a famous park where there sits a statue of John Lennon. There is even a government employee who sits there and puts his wire-rimmed glasses on when tourists come to visit.
The DMICE team in Havana after a wonderful dinner in a fancy Cuban restaurant. From left to right, Steven Bedrick (PhD student), Nancy Carney, Orlando Morante (our friend from Canada who bailed us out when we were running out of money and could not get any from ATMs or anything), Holly Jimison, Misha Pavel, and myself.
As my family knows, I always have to sample the local beer. Here are the two main national brands in Cuba.
Present for Becca, my oldest daughter (soon to be 18).
A Cuban oddity: a three peso bill. Cuba has two currencies, one for foreigners and another for citizens. The former is called a "convertible peso" (CUC) and exchanges at a little over a dollar. The national peso is worth much less, but you pay the same prices in stores (in pesos), meaning that foreigners pay a lot more for things than locals. On the other hand, some items are sold only in CUC, so locals cannot even buy them. One of the challenges of being an American is that our credit and debit cards don't work, and we pay an extra penalty when exchanging US dollars for CUC.
I flew to Cuba through Canada, mainly because you can't fly from the US, but also so I could stop in Victoria, BC for the ITCH 2007 Conference upon my return. The conference was at the Laurel Point Inn, which overlooks Victoria Harbor. Here is the view from the balcony of my hotel room, looking at the famous Empress Hotel.