1.04.2015

Classic Cars in Havana

All over Cuba, you'll see old American cars ("Yank Tanks") in the streets.  Some are private taxis.  Some are shared taxis called almendrones (big almonds) that ply major thoroughfares across Havana that you can jump in for a ride across the city for 10 Cuban pesos (like forty cents).  Some of these cars seem to be barely hanging together.  Instead of an ignition, they may just put two wires together and sometimes I would have to ask how to open the doors from the inside as the door handles had usually broken off.  But some of them had been reupholstered or had black lights and all had thumping loud music.  I enjoyed the thrill of being crammed in the bucket seats of the bumpy, lumbering American classic cars with several Cuban strangers, the driver changing gears with a gear shift in the drive shaft taking corners without power steering around crumbling mansions and seaside views.


Graffiti along the Prado


A Russian Lada along the Malecón.  (The old American classic cars were not the only cars on the streets.  Besides lots of Ladas, there are some modern, mostly European vehicles as well.)

Prado







In front of the Infanta Cinema, one of the locations of the International Festival of Latin American Cinema


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