Few Cubans can afford a car
so most do daily battle with Havana's
public transportation system.
Buses come in a bewildering variety of Soviet and Chinese hand-me-downs.
with a scattering of cast-off French school buses thrown in.
On the upside they're heavily subsidized -
less than two cents a ride.
On the downside they're slow,
hot,
crowded,
and very unreliable.
These guys have been waiting for two hours.
Their bus, it turns out,
broke down just around the corner.
The replacement is coming any moment.
Almost no one has money for taxi
so an hour later
they're all still there.
Though at least one person has found a silver lining.
It's our singing peanut seller.
At last.
Though by now not everyone will fit inside.
This this was such a common problem
that in the early 90s
the government came up with a new way
to move people around in bulk -
the camel bus.
It's an 18-wheeler truck
with a converted flatbed.
It can carry up to 300 passengers
They're even cheaper than the regular bus
just one cent for ticket
though if you're a foreigner,
they'll charge you more.
Camels were destroying Havana's crumbling streets
so in 2010 there were banned from the cities.
This put even more pressure
on an already overburdened system
so Cubans found other ways to get around.
Like shared taxis.
They run set routes
and cost 10 pesos -
about 40 cents.
They're usually big old American cars
that can fit a lot of passengers
and you can get in and out anywhere along their route.
Horse carts are still common all over Cuba.
So are pedicabs for pleasure and business too.
a few Cubans have the ultimate luxury:
a motorcycle with a sidecar.
They can handle Cuba's country roads
and since a gallon of gas costs four day's wages
they're much cheaper to run than cars.
But despite everyone's best efforts
there still weren't enough ways to get around
so the government made hitchhiking
an official form of transportation.