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Havana Is Moving Again, but It Remains in the Dark

The arrival of fuel has revived traffic and brought more vehicles back onto the streets, while blackouts lasting more than 20 hours continue to shape life inside Havana homes.

HAVANA TIMES – I cross Tulipan Street and immediately notice something different. There is more traffic than there was a few weeks ago, when I had lost the habit of looking twice before crossing. A red Lada forces me to quicken my pace to reach the sidewalk before its wheels hit the enormous puddle of sewage surrounding the 19 de Abril polyclinic. The city seems to be moving again, even if it is moving through foul-smelling waters.

I walk up the hill. Beneath the two twenty-story apartment buildings, the open-air garage sale is beginning to fill up. On makeshift tables and clothing racks are objects that sum up the needs of the moment: a suitcase for someone thinking of leaving, a folding chair for someone who needs to wait for hours outside a bakery selling rationed goods.

26th Street has also regained some life. It must be the gasoline arriving in large quantities from the United States, breathing movement into the cavernous body of the Cuban economy. Small hardware businesses have appeared in private homes and living rooms; on one corner, a restaurant gleams with freshly........

© Havana Times