Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Crowding onto the "camello", the large truck pulled trailers that provide mass transit in Havana can be difficult, but sometimes it is just fun to be in the press of people. A friend told me that if you ride the camello long enough you will steal your own stuff back, the pick pockets being so prevalent. Another referred to a camello ride on Saturday night as "drugs, sex, and rock and roll!" Transportation is a problem throughout the country. In the country one sees people riding in the backs of farm trucks or on trailers pulled by old clap-trap tractors. In Cienfuegoes there are many horsedrawn wagons that provide public transportation. In Sancti Spiritus people ride standing in the backs of trucks. In Havana, there are taxis, buses, and the camellos. There are also bicitaxis, a sort of rickshaw bicycle arrangement, but those are mainly reeserved for the Cubans. The last two times I rode a bicitaxi, I was stopped and the driver was chastised for picking me up. Many of the older, classic cars have been nationalized to provide a sort of novel taxi service for the tourists. My favorite ride in Havana is the Cocotaxi, a seat in a yellow half shell pulled by a motor bike. This is great fun unless it rains!

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