More than a place with passengers, the Villanueva station, in Havana, looks like a refugee camp. People sitting on the floor, towels that at dawn cover the bodies that lie in the corners and the crying of babies who do not understand why they have been there for so many days. The fuel crisis has turned the country’s main waiting list into a makeshift shelter.
After ten in the morning this Saturday, people milled around the ticket office. The bus bound for the city of Sancti Spíritus was about to arrive and it was hoped that it would come with enough empty seats to alleviate the ship full of people, in which heavy and humid air is breathed. “Only ten passengers will be able to go,” an employee said aloud.
“I’ve been here for three days,” says a woman waiting for a ticket to get to Holguin, a complicated journey due to the distance and the high demand for trips to the eastern part of the country. “Here the most complicated thing, in addition to waiting, is the bathroom situation and getting something to eat. Even taking a mouthful of water is complicated: I can’t leave here because my turn is over.”
Those who arrive as a family take turns going out to buy food, fan the children or inquire at the ticket office about the possibilities of boarding the next bus. On the outskirts, private trucks try to fish in the troubled river of despair and at the door of one of them, with more than 70 years of exploitation, the driver loudly calls out that it is 2,000 pesos per person to Sancti Spíritus, although the section does not exceed 360 kilometers.
Although Christmas is not approaching and Easter days are over, Villanueva lives moments reminiscent of the hustle and bustle of the festive days, when the desire to celebrate with the family mobilizes thousands of Cubans to travel to one side of the Island and the other. “If this is the case now, as Mother’s Day approaches, we will even have to come with a fan,” predicts another traveler. Three weeks from now, on Sunday May 14, every inch of floor at the waiting list station could be occupied.
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