“Camellos” or camels, a form of urban transport that arose at the worst point of Cuba’s economic crisis in the 1990s, appear fated to disappear from the center of Havana, to the relief of residents and the benefit of the environment.
Huge, heavy and cumbersome, the hump-backed camellos are 18-wheeler trucks with flatbeds converted into bus-like carriages able to pack in up to 300 people.
Now, a few months after the government publicly acknowledged that urban transport in the capital was on the verge of collapse, the camellos are gradually disappearing from the city centre, and being replaced by imported articulated buses.
“They’re much more comfortable than the camellos, and they come by more frequently, every 10 or 15 minutes. The only problem is that they’re hotter inside,” said a 43-year-old Havana woman, who said she actually hitch-hiked (“viajar en botella”) more than she travelled by “guagua” (bus).
“Women are always in a bind. On the buses, if you don’t get a seat, you’re traveling in a press of people and scared that some man is going to feel you up. And when you hitch-hike, you have to be prepared to put up with indecent proposals or sexual innuendo from the driver. It doesn’t always happen, of course, but it’s a risk you face”.
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