Photo Feature by Ernesto Gonzalez Díaz
HAVANA TIMES – They are jeeps, mostly Willys and Toyota brands, which are between 50 and 75 years old and have been adapted for taxis. Many have modern under the hood mechanics from Hyundai, KIA or Mitsubishi. There are even some that even have air conditioning.
These taxis have a fixed route through the main avenues of the city moving people from the periphery to the most central places. They have the capacity to transport between eight and ten passengers and every day they are more visible in the streets of Havana. In reality, they are not very comfortable, and the price of the ticket is not affordable for the vast majority, but in some way they constitute for some a palliative to the difficulties of transportation. It is fair to say that the price of the ride is conditioned by factors such as the high cost of parts and aggregates, the crisis in fuel distribution that has not yet been overcome, among others.
Like the rest of the so-called classic cars, they are a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of Cubans who have spent more than 60 years fighting against hardships and shortages of all kinds and with leaders who have in the US embargo a scapegoat to justify all kinds of negligence, ineptitude and inefficiency.
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