Cuba

侯昌玮

While in Cuba， we had to take a rideon a homegrownpeculiar vehicle knownas a Coco taxi. Coco taxi are named this asthey look like half a coconut. These littlethreewheelersare quite popular in touristtowns. Their colors are similar， and theirbody shells are fiberglass （玻璃纤维） witha drive train （传动系统）. They are varieda bit with either two or three seats behindthe driver as well as details like wheelsand mirrors， but the body shells appearedto be all the same from what we saw.

Travelers are generally not recommendedto travel in these Coco taxis due totheir poor safety record. The hard seats arenot very comfortable and the ride is bumpy（顛簸的）. The engine is a rather noisy unit which seems to indicate 50 km/h is themaximum speed.

These Coco taxis apparently originatedin Havana when the tourist tradewas relaunchedin the 1990s. Yellow wasto indicate that it was for use by tourists，while black or blue was for locals only. Weonly saw the yellow ones as I suspect thereis no local only designation anymore withrecent governmental reforms.

Despite it being rather loud， weenjoyed our ride in a Coco taxi as it wasan almost convertible car or motorcycle，feeling like being out in the wind. I wasglad to sample a locally produced Cubanautomotive product as well as we missedout on the locally produced Giron buses.

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Why are travelers generally not recommended to travel in Coco taxis？

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