Artimus Keiffer recently visited Cuba for his 11th visit with the humanitarian group St. Augustine/Baracoa Friendship Association. The group has assisted its sister city, the first colonial settlement in the Americas, for about five years. It also completed oral histories and donated wheel chairs, crutches and PET (personal energy transport) vehicles to amputees in the city. Keiffer visited Baracoa for the first time, the place where Columbus made contact with the Taino in 1492. He also went to Santiago, where he has several friends in the medical school. He passed Gitmo (U.S. Naval Base) on the way and was intrigued with the security lighting around the perimeter. "It lit up the whole night sky...it was annoying," he said.

He has also worked with a local archeologist who recently discovered the lost city of the Taino. "Cuba is an authentic living museum. I have never seen so many people do so much with so little," he commented.

Keiffer has published significant research on the country regarding tourism, economics, historic preservation, land use and architecture. Given the current government policy regarding Cuba he said, "I may not make it back for another four years!"

Row 1: Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion (1512); Baracoa, Catedral de la Asuncion, interior; Catedral de la Asuncion (1670), Santiago de Cuba
Row 2: statue commemmorating Christopher Columbus landing in 1492; Santaria altar, blending of Colonial Catholicism with the African Spiritualism. Keiffer made a donation and rang the bell to wake the spirit Orishna; Che mural in Santiago
Row 3: mass transportation in Baracoa; mass transportation in Santiago; and a bicycle taxi in Baracoa
Row 4: doorway in Baracoa; street and doorway in Santiago
Row 5: mural painter in Baracoa - he began the painting the day Keiffer arrived, and reached this point in six days; a street vendor in Santiago selling ham sandwiches - a leg of pig is on the cart; a typical street scene in Santiago - very clean, and the tracks were probably used to haul the sugar cane down to the harbor in the past
Row 6: barbershop where tourists get $1 haircuts - Keiffer gets a haircut in each country he visits; the town hall across the park from Keiffer's hotel - the blue balcony is where Castro made his first speech after the revolution on Jan. 1, 1959, and the dove landed on his shoulder twice, which convinced the Santaria practitioners he was meant to lead them; the same park between the hotel and town hall at night - on his last visit the view was completely blocked by trees, which were destroyed by Hurricane Ivan

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