For travelers, few places may be so complex, so contradictory, so captivating as Cuba.

After three trips to the island, Dr. David Boran, Brainerd physician and photographer, would like to go again. Cuba represents a different kind of frontier. It's not on the beaten path for travelers, particularly Americans, but that may be about to change.

Purposely plain buildings stand next to ornate colonial-era structures dripping with architectural character. Cubans are still living with food rationing on an island just 100 miles from Florida. Vintage cars reminiscent of 1950s America fill busy streets in Havana. Some five-decades after a trade embargo began, normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba is likely to open the doors to a destination only more adventurous travelers have chosen thus far.

"It's fascinating," Boran said of Cuba. "It's going to change and maybe that is it - to see it before it changes."

Cuba has been described as possessing Cold War charm. Travel agencies specializing in Cuba expect astounding growth in the next few years as Americans choose to see the previously forbidden Caribbean island.

Boran first went to Cuba in 2013. He returned two more times. The last visit was in December of 2014, just days before the announcement of an even greater thawing of the frosty relationship between Cuba and the U.S.

"It's really an interesting place to go," Boran said. "I think there is so much to learn."

Boran is old enough to vividly remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and a hot Cold War when nuclear destruction seemed all too possible.

Cuba was always a place so interesting to know more about, Boran said. It was so close physically and so distant in nearly every other respect. For Boran, Cuba turned out to be so interesting, he said it was easy to be hooked.

The trip is a short 45-minute flight from Miami. On board Boran's most recent flight, Cuban Americans took 50-inch TVs and bicycles in bubble-wrap back as gifts to family or friends. It's common to see Cubans wearing American brands like Nike or Adidas on the city street. Boran even spotted a Minnesota Twins T-shirt.

"They can't buy that stuff, but people bring it in," Boran said.

Boran traveled as part of the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop group traveling to four cities in Cuba during a 10-day trip. In Havana, he rose before dawn and walked through the streets. He was armed with a camera and in search of a photographer's asset of morning light.

"I never felt uncomfortable walking in the streets," Boran said regarding safety.

The photography group was accompanied by Cuban guides but had great freedom to roam the streets. They talked to residents and were often invited into homes and apartments, including grand old mansions nationalized and now divided into multiple living quarters. Balconies are often covered with clothing lines and drying laundry. Inside, there was often little furniture and few appliances or utensils.

"In spite of all of that, people were warm and liked to talk," Boran said. They spontaneously spoke of liking America. When he accidentally bumped into a man on the street and said "sorry," the man surmised he must be an American. Europeans, the man said, don't typically apologize.

Some knew of Minnesota, others had no knowledge of the state nor of their own exports - like Tony Oliva or other famed baseball players of Cuban heritage.

Buildings were often in disrepair with crumbling infrastructure. But since Boran's first visit two years ago, more tour buses were visible along with scaffolding supporting building renovation efforts.

"They've got a long way to go," Boran said, noting trees growing out of rooftops and collapsed buildings. And yet even amid deteriorating dwellings, some standout with fresh paint on doors and windows.

A phrase often heard on the trip was the "triumph of the revolution." Yet when asked why there is still food rationing all these decades later, another common sentiment is characterized in the reply of "it's complicated." Side deals and black markets flourish. People on the street often approach tourists or visitors with the offer of something to sell. Asked about home food supplies, a waitress said she spent much of her day thinking where she could trade or sell even a small item like a ballpoint pen in order to get meat for her family's supper.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's chief supporter and economic subsidizer, the island's economy faltered. The Economist reported Cuba's economy contracted by 35 percent between 1989 and 1993. In Cuba, Fidel Castro dubbed it as the "special period in time of peace." Shortages were widespread, including basics in food and power. The special period lasted almost two decades.

Boran said both the school system and health care appeared to be good. But there are few jobs for graduates. Boran said an emergency room physician could make $38 a month. It's common to see people hanging out on the street, in doorways throughout the day. But Boran's early morning walks also found people traveling to work or walking to school. Barefoot farm field workers tended tobacco and sugar cane. Women sorted tobacco leaves in a factory. The homes outside the cities were often quite rustic with screenless windows, no indoor plumbing and bare necessities.

As regulations relaxed inside Cuba, people are now allowed to have small businesses like vegetable stands, shoe-shine or shoe-repair shops. And people have begun to own their own real estate. Rules have been relaxed that forbade Cubans from entering buildings - like hotels - unless they worked there.

Part of Boran's goal was to see how the average Cuban lived. He met educated and well-read people. He saw serious domino games and chess or checkers played in parks. He saw animated conversations as men gathered to discuss baseball. He listened to a man on a porch playing classical music on a violin. He found Internet access to be expensive and unreliable.

People traveled on bicycles, in horse-drawn carts and loaded on the backs of trucks. In Havana, cars were everywhere. Boran said it's almost impossible not to take photos of old cars and laundry-laden balconies. But his photos captured a lot more - the faces of everyday people, vibrant professional dancers, uniformed school children, corner open-air meat markets. The only thing the group was told not to photograph were soldiers and police officers. One of Boran's favorite photos inadvertently caught a police officer in the street. In one photo she was giving him a glaring look. In the next, she turned her head.

"That's one of my favorite pictures, when she is looking away," Boran said.

Music and dance are strong segments of Cuban culture. Street musicians were common sights. Modern dance and ballet companies rehearse and perform in street-level studios and abandoned theaters.

One form of Cuban currency, known as a cuc, is valued at 75 or 80 cents of an American dollar. Traveling there through licensed groups may cost about $3,000 or more. Cuba Cultural Travel in California is one of the groups authorized by the U.S. Treasury Department to operate tours. The recent relaxation of the travel ban provides an opportunity to "discover Cuba during this incredible time of change," the agency stated on its website. The Treasury Department lists travel licensing for 12 categories, including family visits, journalists, professional research and meetings, educational and religious activities, support for the Cuban people, and humanitarian projects. Travel to Cuba for tourist activities is not permitted.

Boran heard all kinds of languages spoken in the lobby in the hotel in Havana, a sign of its growing attraction.

"If people have an opportunity to go they should," Boran said. "It's a unique experience. It's a place that we don't know as much about as we could and you can learn a lot there and it's a safe place to go.

"The infrastructure is in disrepair, the economy is a struggle but normal everyday people have the same concerns that we have - they just work on the basics. ... I think I'd like to go again."

RENEE RICHARDSON, associate editor, may be reached at 855-5852 or renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Dispatchbizbuzz.

A United States timeline with Cuba

1898 - Teddy Roosevelt, future American president, organizes the Rough Riders volunteer cavalry to fight against Spain over colonial practices in Cuba. After the Rough Riders' charge up San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, the Spanish fleet left Cuba. Weeks later the U.S. was victorious and the war ended. Apart from guaranteeing the independence of Cuba, the treaty also forced Spain to cede Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. Spain also agreed to sell the Philippines to the United States for the sum of $20 million. The U.S. occupied Cuba until 1902, when the Republic of Cuba was installed. The U.S. Guantanamo base was established in 1903.

1959 - Fidel Castro and guerilla fighters overthrow President Batista and establish a revolutionary Socialist state.

1960 - Fidel Castro nationalizes all foreign assets in Cuba, hikes taxes on American imports and establishes trade with the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower freezes Cuban assets in America, cuts off diplomatic ties.

1961 - Bay of Pigs. Cuban forces defeat an invasion of a CIA-sponsored brigade of Cuban exiles in their attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

1962 - Cuba secretly allows the Soviet Union to build a missile base on the island. President John. F. Kennedy orders a naval blockade of Cuba and a 13-day standoff follows with the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Through back-channel negotiations, the missiles are withdrawn.

1980 - Cubans seek asylum as its economy suffers. The Mariel boatlift and mass emigration allows as many as 125,000 Cubans to leave Cuba for Florida.

2009 - President Barack Obama eases restrictions on travel and allows Cuban-Americans to send unlimited funds to family and non-family members in Cuba. Travel is allowed for religious and educational purposes.

2014 - President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announce restoration of full diplomatic ties following secret talks Pope Francis helped broker.

Sources: Council on Foreign Affairs and Library of Congress.