There are many ways of portraying a city, regarding it as a metaphor for a country, its state of mind and its destiny. Fascinating and paradoxical, the city once known as the “Paris of the Western Hemisphere” takes center stage.

Streets lined with mansions that have fallen prey to the poison ivy of time. Silently, they oppress their long-spanning incertitude, being a witness of the years and the history. Straddling between socialism and capitalism, decay and glamour, riotous colours and melancholy interiors, the city races in many opposite directions due to its arrested development toward an uncertain future.