Transport

Rural transport - outside of the major cities these "cattle wagons", run by private enterprise, are always packed with people

For the tourist, transport is probably the most obvious sign that Cuba is a poor country.

It is rare to see a train.  In fact the tour stops and we are heavily encouraged to take a photo as we are "very lucky tourists" !

 

Cars are fascinating. Everywhere in Cuba, not just in Havana, you will see wonderful 1950's museum pieces - usually working and in pristine condition. We were lucky enough to hire one for an hour in Havana with 3 friends, for just £4.50 each. It was fabulous. Sunshine, roof off, Doris Day moment - so surreal We can't quite believe we did it! This was one of those iconic moments of the holiday, and one of the reasons we had wanted to come to Cuba.

 

 

The rather ugly Russian Lada circa 1960 is common. A reminder that before the Cuban missile crisis and before the Berlin Wall came down and rocked all of the Eastern European communist countries that had offered financial support to Cuba, lots of ugly cars were imported from the eastern block.

 In the farming communities we saw lots of horse drawn carts, even oxen pulling carts! In contrast in the cities we saw a few Chinese and Japanese basic modern cars beginning to dribble into Cuba - but these are still rare.

 There is also a major shortage of public buses. It is so bad, that people wave money at cars and tourist buses desperate to pay for a lift. The government just has not got enough money for buses. As a short term solution workers in yellow uniforms flag down vehicles with free seats and force drivers to take passengers that are queuing for a lift. Commuters are often late for work and their hours have to be flexible to allow for delays. Tourist buses with tourists in are exempt as insurance does not cover locals, but we all felt very guilty passing desperate travellers waving money at our bus driver hopefully. The only consolation was the knowledge that on the return journey from Havana to Santiago de Cuba (after the tour had ended) the bus would be full of Cubans paying a small fee.

A common sight