A bus to the G and 25 stop, then walk along 23 to Yara and there wait for the Playa route. That was my daily run. When the 5-peso air-conditioned coaches started to appear from Coppelia to the Playa Paradero, I couldn’t believe it. I thought like most: “It will surely not last long” or “That’s because there is a Summit” or “Until people destroy them.” But the truth is that those routers lasted for years making our mornings more pleasant. They are no longer like before and from Playa to Vedado they are almost extinct.
But there are still some doing tours. Most no longer have air conditioning, but they still represent the hope of not having to board a crowded bus. Now the most economical way of transporting, which is also comfortable and expeditious, is to get on a gazelle.
The GAZelle brand taxis can carry thirteen seated passengers and cover more than twenty routes that connect almost the entire capital. People call them gazelles, or “ruteritos”, to differentiate them from those first ruteros and from the “ruterones” or large ruteros that are the red Yutong buses.
Drivers organized in cooperatives respond to a code of ethics that includes strict discipline; the cordial greeting, the use of uniform, honesty and driver’s education. They have a set schedule that allows them to pay taxes, earn a living, and keep the vehicle in good repair.
There is an application called MWRutero in which the twenty-four gazelles appear with their numbers, their complete routes, the divisions by sections and the price. The application was developed in 2020 by the GeoMIX agency of the GEOCUBA Business Group in conjunction with the Taxis Cuba Company, the Fleet Control Directorate and the Ministry of Transportation. It has the added value of information in real time (it is updated every 30 seconds) according to the position of the vehicles.
Knowing where the gazelle that serves you is going is the best thing that has been invented. It represents a great advance from the point of view of passenger safety and tranquility. So you can decide on your time and know if you wait or go looking for another means of transport. But since the component of luck and truth always has to be present to make life more entertaining, what cannot be known is if it comes full or if it brings empty seats.
The first stops of the gazelles are almost always very crowded. But the queues are organized and, knowing that they will come empty, people can be counted to know when it will be their turn to ride. The stop at the corner of Parque Villalón is one of the scariest. Hundreds of people gather there waiting to get on Route 15, which goes to Alamar, Route 1, which goes to Arrollo Naranjo, and Route 8, which goes to El Cotorro.
They sell the same things there like little roses or little crabs or granita. There is also a cafeteria and a garage sale. One time we had to wait for seven gazelles on Route 15 to pass before we could leave. We waited an hour and 10 minutes; although they are fast like their counterparts in the animal kingdom. In that waiting time we spent more money on snacks than if we had gone to Alamar in an almendrón.
Although route 15 is our favorite gazelle, we have also used route 10 regularly (from Flores to Regla); the 14 (from Punta Brava to Vedado); 4 (from Santiago de las Vegas to 27 and O); the 3 (from San Agustín to Egido); and 22, which is called “the little worm” because of the way the route takes on the map, which goes from 27 and F to the Bahía neighborhood.
Some are shorter trips and others are longer, because the distances are greater or because the gazelles get into nooks and circling a lot. Anyway, it is a means of transport in which one feels more grateful and more dignified. As the number of passengers is capped, the vehicle deteriorates less, people are calmer and we are kinder to each other.
At the most critical moment of the pandemic, gazelles transported patients to hospitals free of charge in coordination with polyclinics. During my pregnancy in 2020, I made one trip a month with other pregnant women from my office to do exams at the González Coro. Those little outings were the only ones we pot-bellies made. We took the opportunity to breathe fresh air (nasobuco through) and to chat about our ailments, our fears and our incomplete layettes. Amid so much anguish over COVID-19, those gazelle rides were a breath of joy.
The gazelles, in our cracked streets, are a symbol of progress, respect for passengers and quality of life. Everything went up in price, from the farm plantains, the resale of disposable culeros, the basic basket and even the peanut cone that, since I can remember, cost a peso. But the gazelles, in an extraordinary way, remained at 5 pesos per section.
Gazelle means “elegant and fast” two terms that should proliferate on our streets amid so many potholes, delays and vulgarity.
Hopefully more GAZelle will arrive to Cubanize them and move happily through the capital. I hope they spread massively to other provinces and that they never rise in price, because that is also where their distinction lies.
