The Taximan “ El Taxista”

The Taximan

“ El Taxista”

The Taximan in all parts of the world is a character par excellence. The taximan, universally, is well versed in the art of rapid conversations and is an expert when it comes to political discussions. The Taximan of Havana is no exception to this . The Havana Taximen are highly qualified . Don’t be surprised if you are in the Taxi of an Electrical engineer who studied in Ukraine and whose wife hails from Britain or a taximan who was a medical doctor or has studies law . Another most important sample group among the taxi drivers is the military soldier who has fought the battle in Angola. Out of 10 you will hit a bull’s eye for 6.All the above examples are indicative and not exhaustive as the point I want to make is that the Taximan job is one of the hottest job in Cuba .The job gives access / provides opportunity to earn pesos rapidly and easily.

Like all Cubans the taximan is very jolly good, happy and loves music. Without salsa (called casino in cuba) music in his taxi he will die. Cuba is a land of equality in letter and spirit as you won’t be struggling to find a lady taxi driver.

Now let us see the general behavioral pattern of an average taxi driver. You enter the taxi and suppose you want to go from Siboney to Vedado , a distance of 12 Kilometers. As per prevailing taxi rates you will have to shed 6.5 CUC . But now the taxi driver will not put on the meter. He will say the meter is out of order and will have a bargain price of 5 or 6 depending on your experience and negotiating skills.The fun commences when he will put on the meter for a while and switch it off for major part of the journey. Experience will teach you to keep exact change or else you will keep on loosing money as our highly educated taximan will never have change if you are in a hurry!!

In cuba , all taxis are government owned and they come under the purview of Ministry of Transport. Each Taxi has two drivers who work in day and night shifts. They have to give the government 70 CUC each day. If they earn more as per the method given above then its his profit(excuse me for this world in this socialist country) .If any repair has to be done to the car both the drivers go to workshop and get things ‘resolved’.

Traveling in Taxi in Cuba has helped me a lot to understand the Cuban society and a taxi is a school of life in motion.