Cartagena’s iconic horse carriages give approach to electrical buggies

CARTAGENA, Colombia — Cartagena sits on Colombia’s Caribbean coast and for many years it has been one of many nation’s most beloved locations.

Its historic middle is encircled by thick stone partitions, constructed by the Spaniards to fend off pirates. Inside, slim streets wind previous sun-drenched plazas and colonial mansions, a cityscape straight out of a film.

The town can also be well-known for the horse-drawn buggies that carry vacationers by its streets; their large-spoked wheels clattering over the pavement, and their open tops good for snapshots of Cartagena’s attraction.

However quickly the romantic buggies might be outlawed by town authorities. Which needs to exchange them with electrical autos attributable to issues over animal welfare.

The transfer has angered horse cart homeowners and traditionalists, pitting them in opposition to animal rights activists and native officers who say there must be no place for horse carts in a metropolis that wishes to painting itself as a world vacation spot.

“It’s very sad,” says Cristian Munoz, one in all Cartagena’s conventional horse cart drivers. “We are part of this city’s heritage, like the walls that surround it.”

Cristian Munoz has been driving horse buggies for the previous 20 years. He says the electrical carts will cast off a part of town’s heritage.

Manuel Rueda/For NPR Information

conceal caption

toggle caption

Manuel Rueda/For NPR Information

Vacationers within the UNESCO World Heritage Web site say that the horse carts are a enjoyable approach to get round in Cartagena’s sweltering warmth. And plenty of recognize the way in which through which drivers inform the colonial metropolis’s historical past.

However animal rights activists have lengthy argued that these pleasure rides are horrible for the horses pulling the carriages, as a result of vehicles on town’s roads stress out the horses. And the pavement injures horses’ knees, and hurts their legs.

Fanny Pachon, a neighborhood animal rights activist, says that on a number of events, horses have collapsed from exhaustion.

“Horses are pack animals, and they’re designed to carry things,” she admits. “But they’re meant to be in rural areas, not in the middle of a city with paved roads.”

Alejandro Riaño, a preferred comic from Bogota, has been lobbying Cartagena´s authorities to exchange the horse carts for the previous 4 years.

In 2021, he raised greater than 25,000 {dollars} on a crowd funding website, to construct an electrical car that resembles a conventional horse buggy, however runs with battery energy. The prototype was examined on town’s streets two years in the past.

“We have shown there is the technology now to do things differently” he mentioned.

After years of protests, town is lastly siding with Riaño and the animal rights activists.

On December 29, conventional horse-drawn buggies might be banned, and changed by a fleet of 62 electrical carriages imported from China, below a three way partnership between Cartagena’s metropolis authorities and Corpoturismo, an company that promotes tourism within the metropolis.

A employee fixes a wheel on one of many electrical carriages that Cartagena’s municipal authorities has imported from China.

Manuel Rueda/For NPR Information

conceal caption

toggle caption

Manuel Rueda/For NPR Information

The brand new autos have huge wheels and open tops, identical to the normal buggies. However they’re powered by giant batteries that may final for about 70km (43 miles) on a single cost.

As an alternative of reins, there is a steering wheel on the entrance for the motive force. The brand new carts additionally include audio system that could possibly be used to play music, or to copy the sound of a horse’s gallop.

Liliana Rodriguez, Corpoturismo’s director, says that this new fleet of carts may encourage different cities the place horse carriages are nonetheless in use.

She mentioned that Cartagena’s carts may even be environmentally pleasant as a result of their batteries might be charged with solar energy.

“These are the kinds of changes that new generations are demanding,” she mentioned.

The town is investing round 2 million {dollars} within the new fleet of electrical carts, and in a warehouse that’s fitted with a photo voltaic powered charging station.

However the homeowners of Cartagena’s horse carriages are anxious.

They are saying that the municipal authorities is pushing them out of a enterprise they’ve spent many years constructing.

“We are not against a transition,” mentioned Miguel Angel Cortez, the proprietor of two horse carts that make round $150 per day. “But we need to know how we will be included.”

Cart homeowners mentioned they haven’t gotten any presents in writing from town authorities. However they’ve been to conferences the place there was some speak of a $10,000 fee to compensate them for his or her carriages. Cart homeowners say that will hardly compensate for his or her losses.

Cartagena’s mayor Domek Turbay, accuses the cart homeowners of “sabotaging” negotiations. He says that the municipal authorities is prepared to share the earnings of the brand new electrical autos with the horse cart homeowners. However to this point, there was no settlement between either side, and cart homeowners have threatened to sue town authorities for leaving them out of labor.

“I get the feeling that they are trying to take advantage of the situation,” Mayor Turbay informed NPR information.

Turbay says that vacationers will have the ability to experience on town’s new electrical carts without cost, for the following two months.

And among the carriage drivers — who at the moment work for cart homeowners — admit that they are going to apply for jobs driving the brand new electrical buggies.

However others are questioning if vacationers will wish to experience on electrical autos, even when they resemble nineteenth century carriages.

“People come to Cartagena for tradition,” says cart driver Cristian Munoz. “Without the horses, it’s not the same.”