Local rhythms and tourist sites in Old Havana

In some destinations, tourist areas are located far from the rhythms of everyday life. But visitors who wander through Old Havana - Habana Vieja, as locals call it - can't help but get a sense of how ordinary Cubans live.

You'll see uniformed school children, street vendors selling colorful fruits and peppers from carts, clotheslines hung from patios, and small dogs sunning themselves on sidewalks. There are lines at government-run offices for phone service and banking, and bicycle taxis ferrying passengers through the narrow streets. You might hear a rooster crow, a caged songbird, salsa music or the engine of an old car roaring as it trundles past. Watch out for pipes jutting from windows: Water may pour out from housework being done inside.

Nearly every street seems to have a sign attesting to something of cultural or historic significance. O'Reilly Street, for example, named for an Irishman who became a leader in the Spanish colonies and married into a prominent Cuban family, bears a plaque with a rather poetic allusion to the histories of Ireland and Cuba: "Two island peoples in the same sea of struggle and hope."