A car is driven beside colonial-style houses on Havana's prime real estate area of the "The Malecon" seafront boulevard. In November 2011, the government decreed that Cubans could buy and sell homes for the first time since the early days of the revolution, paving the way for a real estate market that has become an exercise in bare-knuckled capitalism. Havana was once considered an architectural jewel with an eclectic mix of colonial homes and modern Art Deco construction, but much of the city outside the touristy Old Havana district is in a dilapidated state after decades of neglect and corrosion from humidity and salty sea air. Picture taken on March 18. Reuters/Desmond Boylan