Cuban Transport
The fact that the Spanish Empire's first railroad system was built in Cuba should not mislead us into thinking the country is any way "ahead" when it comes to transportation. Though recent investments have brought improvements to different services (at both the urban and inter-provincial levels), infrastructure in the sector still leaves much to be desired and visitors with little patience or no sense of adventure should probably avail themselves of options designed for tourists. Those wanting a closer look at everyday life in Cuba, however, might wish to go along for a ride.or two.
At the close of the 1980s, around 4.2 million people used public transportation in Cuba's capital on a daily basis. Following the collapse of its Eastern European allies, Cuba lost a sure supply of much-needed fuel and spare parts and, by 2004, this figure had dropped to 426,000. The roads, too, felt the impact, which is a shame, for the city has a fairly extensive network of thoroughfares which includes large avenues and important urban access points (such as the Autopista Nacional, Carretera Central and Vía Blanca), a network which has been expanding since colonial times.
Owing to these economic hardships, until very recently, urban transportation in Havana was afforded exclusively by a rather heterogeneous fleet of buses, most of them imported or obtained as donations, second hand, from countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Spain (1,500 decommissioned Dutch buses were donated to the country in the mid 1990s, and yellow Canadian school buses are not a rare sight in the capital). If a particular vehicle embodied Cuba's crisis, however, it was doubtless the camello (Spanish for camel, in reference to the vehicle's two-"humped" structure), a bus that hauls as many as two hundred passengers, usually packed in like sardines, in a rickety trailer.
Today, the camello is no longer the common (and discouraging) sight it was months ago, at least in Havana. In 2005, Cuban authorities launched a 5-year program to prop up the country's transportation sector and, to date, 258 million dollars have been invested to purchase buses and an additional 9 million to obtain catamarans and motorboats. The purchase of 2,578 new and 258 second-hand vehicles has gone hand-in-hand with a restructuring of city and other transportation services and, today, two state companies are responsible for urban buses: Omnibus Metropolitanos, with a fleet of standard buses which cover shorter routes with less traffic, and Metrobús, which covers 17 main routes with Chinese (Yutong), Russian (LIAZ) or second-hand Mercedes-Benz articulated buses. These are labeled with the letter "P", have stops every 800 or 1000 meters, arrive every 10 minutes or so during peak hours and are quite cheap (40 Cuban peso cents, around 2 US cents).
Still, these improved services only cover 23 % of Havana's transportation needs, and crowded buses and long queues at stops are not uncommon sights.
Taxis, no doubt, continue to be a far more practical option for tourists (and many Cubans as well), and visitors should be conscious of the various options out there. The least complicated and hassle-free is afforded by the state-operated cab agencies which provide services in CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos). Usually modern vehicles clearly advertising their particular agency (Panataxi, Cubataxi and Transgaviota are some examples), they charge by the meter and operate like taxis anywhere else in the world (though, in some cases, a set fare may be negotiated with the driver for a given trip. Some drivers, in fact, tend to leave the meter off for trips to the airport, charging a standard fare, so, if you see the meter off, always ask or negotiate the fare prior to the journey). These taxis should not be confused with state-owned Ladas, painted yellow and black, which are destined exclusively to Cubans (at least in theory). Though potentially an option, tourists who are more familiar with the city, on a tight budget or wanting a taste of a more local transportation alternative, will probably find the boteros more practical and attractive. Either old American cars or Russian Ladas, sometimes advertised as a taxi with a makeshift sign (sometimes not) and recognized by a state-issued oval sticker affixed to the windshield (which can be missing or worn to the point of illegibility), these vehicles have set routes connecting major neighborhoods in the city (Old Havana - Vedado - Playa, for instance), carry as many as 6 people and generally charge 10 Cuban pesos for a journey spanning two neighborhoods and 20 pesos for one spanning three. They are not authorized to transport foreigners, and drivers assume the risk in different ways (from treating tourists as a "regular customer" to expecting a little extra money to asking for considerably more - perhaps as much as the fare in CUC). Boteros can be an inexpensive and extremely useful option, though visitors should be conscious of the risks (drivers may be fined for offering services to foreigners) and ready for a potentially "tight" ride (sharing a two-person backseat area with three or four other people).
