In the meantime, one of our favorite things about Haiti is tap-tap decoration. (For those of you who need a refresher, tap-taps are trucks that provide public transportation throughout Haiti. They're often heavily loaded with people and goods--once we saw a woman riding with her refrigerator!--and have fixed routes and generally fixed prices.) For the most part, the tap-taps in the Artibonite Valley look like pickup trucks with extra seating in the back, but many of the ones in Port-au-Prince are one-truck parades.
On our most recent trip to the city, we spotted these beauts:
I'm still trying to figure out what that animal is on the side.
Che seems to be a popular figure: he makes not-infrequent appearances throughout the city.
More popular than Che.
Do those dollar signs count as second mudflaps?
Just amazing.How can you not love these?
5 comments:
Those are incredible! Do they just decorate them for fun or are they trying to increase ridership?
I'm not sure. It would seem that the more distinctive your vehicle is, the more likely it is that people would remember it (and perhaps seek it out the next time), but people just seem to hop on whichever tap-tap is available at the moment. I have heard that decoration is down because paint is expensive...but I hope they stick around for a long time.
The one animal on the side looks like a jaguar or tiger asleep on a tree branch. Anyway, the tap-taps remind me of the filipino jeepneys that ply the streets of the Philippines. All very colorful & inexpensive mode of public transportation.
Chito
Are riding too?
We haven't yet been lucky enough to flag down one decked out at this level, but it's definitely a goal for our time here.
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