Blood, Sweat and Tears. Spotting in Havana, Cuba

Recently I made business, leisure and spotting trip to Mexico and Central America visiting eight countries in three weeks. The spotting part of this tour turned out to be quite eventful and interesting. I photographed planes in 13 airports, all new to me. Maybe I’ll give a review of this tour later. For now, one of the most interesting airports on my route was the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba.

The logistics from Russia to Mexico or Central America are such that the most convenient entry and exit point is Cuba. Of course, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to photograph planes there. Havana was about the 160th airport I was spotted at, and Cuba was about the 110th country I visited, and about the 80th spotting destination. Pretty good stats, isn’t it?

What can you expect from spotting in Cuba? Of course, many rare Cubanа aircraft in storage and, if you are lucky, 1-2 operational. Plus flights from US, some countries of Central America and the Caribbean. Spotting in Cuba is not prohibited, but it is not something common either. In order to photograph planes in Havana, it is advisable to warn the airport authorities about it. There is a small community of spotters in Cuba, and I contacted them before the trip asking for help. A young local spotter Yoangel was very kind and helpful and organized a trip to a point on the perimeter of the airport – a favorite place of local spotters. I, Yoangel and his friend Hector went spotting early in the morning, in the hope of seeing one of the few operating Cubana planes – a Tu-204, which flies to Panama a couple of times a week without schedule.

We didn’t manage to see Tu, the plane flew away before we got to the point. But still, there was a lot of interesting things waiting for us.

But first things first. Before the hike, Yoangel was gentle but persistent, insistently recommending that we take plenty of water, put on trousers and boots – we had to walk for quite a long time in the heat and climb over a barbed wire fence in thick and prickly grass.

He turned out to be right. From the domestic terminal where we met, we walked more than two kilometers to the spot in the hot Cuban sun along the concrete fence of the airport, sweating profusely.

Domestic terminal | Our long, hot and lonely road

Then, slightly scratched, we climbed over the barbed wire to a small grassy elevation from which we could see the strip and the airfield. Thank God, there were bushes at the point that provided a little shade.

We are on spot

As soon as we arrived, Havana began to delight us with rare (for me) airlines and relatively frequent, despite the meager schedule, takeoffs and landings. By the way, both takeoffs and landings are clearly visible from the point, as well as the airliners in storage. What did we see?

Stored Cubana

Unexpected – small Cuban airline Aerogaviota

Meet us from US

Caribbean winds

Some refreshments after hot spotting hours. Grand Aston Havana.

In total we spent 4 hours at the spot. I drank almost all the water, but was happy with everything I saw and pictured, and according to Yoangel, I was the only foreign spotter who lasted so long.

Well, a little blood spilled on the barbed wire fence, liters of sweat and virtual tears of joy from what I saw and regret about missing Tu, is certainly a small price to pay for the opportunity to visit beautiful Havana and its airport full of rarities and surprises.

Yoangel, Hector, thank you very much. We did it and it was awesome cool.