Havana\u2019s transportation system by all accounts was great in the 1950s.\u00a0 All of the best American cars were being sold in Cuba and the island was a showroom for some of the most beautiful cars of the time.\u00a0 The scary thing is that many of these cars are still on the streets today blast dark diesel into the air.\u00a0 Most of these old cars serve as machinas or black market taxicabs.<\/p>\n A few blocks from our apartment in Mirmar is a stand where you go to pick up a machina.\u00a0 Machinas have fixed rates for different places.\u00a0 For instance, to stay in Mirmar, it was 10 national pesos, while to leave Mirmar and go through the tunnel to Vedado or La Habana Vieja was 20 national pesos.\u00a0 Most Cubans can\u2019t really afford to take machinas very often.\u00a0 For Cubans, that is a lot of money, while for a tourist like me, it was a great bargain, especially after understanding that these existed instead of Cubataxis, the government\u2019s company which usually were significantly more expensive.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very difficult to have a car in Cuba, since there are massive shortages of everything needed for cars.\u00a0 More simply said, cars are expensive, so not many people have them.\u00a0 It seemed to be a requirement to have been a mechanic in a past life if you wanted to own a car.\u00a0 Beyond the half-century-old American classics that grace the streets are an occasional Peugeot and a TON of old Soviet cars.\u00a0 Humberto, the director of our program, drives a white Fiat Polski.\u00a0 When driving a Fiat Polski, you have to open the hatch in the back where the engine is, because it air cools.\u00a0 Why a Polish made Fiat still exists in Cuba should tell you how much of a luxury have a car at all is and how tough things have been since the fall of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n I should say that there were some luxury cars.\u00a0 Foreign diplomats drive BMWs and Audis typically.\u00a0 I did see a couple Volkswagen Passats like the one I used to drive and a couple of new-looking Hyundai sedans.\u00a0 The funniest to me of all foreign diplomats were the Americans that seemed to follow us from Havana to the Bay of Pigs.\u00a0 They were driving around a bright blue Jeep, which stuck out like a sore thumb.<\/p>\n For those Cubans who aren\u2019t taking machinas, driving their own cars, or riding their own bikes, there is a bus system.\u00a0 The bus system is incredibly cheap.\u00a0 For less than 1 national peso (a national peso is about 4 cents American), you could ride the bus.\u00a0 The problem is that buses are often overcrowded.\u00a0There is also no bus schedule to speak of.\u00a0 Cubans assume the bus will come every half an hour or so, but at times it is incredibly late.\u00a0 In some areas, they aren\u2019t marked and just known by locals.<\/p>\n There are some trains in Cuba, but I learned from Xavy that there is a two-week waiting period typically to take one.\u00a0 There are several airports, but planes are two expensive for most Cubans.\u00a0 Jose Marti Airport in Havana was especially odd, because the different terminals of the airport are on opposite sides of the city.<\/p>\n I found it amazing on the trip to find that some people still use horses in some rural areas for transportation.\u00a0 While traveling outside of Havana on the central highway, it wasn\u2019t that surprising to see a horse and carriage, someone on a bike, or even people walking down the side of the road.\u00a0 It looked more like a scene from a post- apocalyptic United States.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I really hope you enjoyed my post yesterday about Cuban food.\u00a0 If you ever have a chance and there is a Cuban restaurant near you, you should really check it out. One of the most interesting things to me, especially as someone who thinks about public policy and planning a lot is transportation in Cuba. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosskressel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ash4\/421799_2316622311258_807003246_n.jpg\" "\\"Mercedes")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-prn1\/546681_2433793480464_1210738594_n.jpg\" "\\"Machina\\"")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net\/hphotos-ak-snc7\/579741_2495495182968_1218994684_n.jpg\" "\\"Humberto's")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fbcdn-photos-a.akamaihd.net\/hphotos-ak-ash3\/538839_2366767964868_778514624_a.jpg\" "\\"The")