Cuba’s National Treasures
When you tell your coworkers you’re going to be off because you’re going to Cuba everybody focuses on cigars. They forget about the real treasures. The classic American cars are EVERYWHERE. Many are in use as taxis. Our tour guide explained that they usually run a specific route. That means when he leaves for work he has to transfer between three classic cars to make the trip, much like riding a subway.
Our tour stopped at a parking lot full of beauties and our guide said that, for a tip, the owners would let us get photos from the driver seat.
They’re not confined to the downtown Havana are, either. Our bus took us to the fort overlooking the mouth of the port called Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro. On the road in front we saw Ladas (classic Russian cars) as well the more traditional Chevrolet.
Inside Morro Castle were some vendors selling beautiful paintings of street scenes with classic cars.
One of the excursions available from Royal Caribbean was a tour in classic cars. We opted for the longer bus tour due to the cost but we spoke to others on our ship who spoke very highly of that tour. They were able to visit the National Hotel and, best of all, were finished in half the time of our tour. That would have given us more time to wander around alone instead of trapped in a guided tour. Lessons learned…
I would have preferred visiting the sites in a classic Chevy like that instead of the giant bus.
The classics aren’t only the taxis. When we waited outside of a cigar shop I saw classic trucks like this one, as well as Russian Kamaz trucks from the 1970s. This Ford was the only one I was able to get in focus.
I love the auto industry but I’m not one who frequents car shows. I didn’t even know Fast & Furious filmed in Havana until our tour guide described how much the film crew paid to have the cars around on the days they were shooting. Seeing all those classic cars was probably the highlight of the trip. How can they keep them running like that? They look fantastic. I wish we still made cars with that kind of character.
~ Freddy
