 |
What began as a broken water pipe in Havana’s El Cerro neighborhood is
now a small banana plantation, after local authorities forgot to fix the
pothole.
Cuba’s infrastructure crisis is a well-known fact, with around 70% of
the country’s roads deemed in “regular” or “poor” condition, but some
streets are in such a bad state that they can hardly be considered
functional. For example, a street in the El Cerro district of Havana,
has become famous for having a veritable banana plantation square in the
middle of it. The large pothole housing this urban oddity began as a
broken water pipe that was eventually fixed by the local authorities
three years ago. The asphalt, however, was never replaced, and at one
point, plants began taking root in the massive pothole. One of these
plants was a banana tree which gradually turned into a small plantation
that residents tend to religiously.
“After three years, they came and fixed the pipes, but they didn’t pave
the streets,” one local man recently told Reuters. “We want them to come
and pave the street, but in the meantime, the banana plants bear fruit,
so we take advantage of it to eat them because food is very expensive.”
José Antonio Fleites and Carmen Rosa Guzmán consider themselves lucky to
have the small banana plantation in front of their house and make sure
to water the plants three times a day. They are grateful for the fruit
they get to eat for free. No one knows how the original seeds wound up
there, but the fact that they grew into large trees in the middle of a
Havana street speaks volumes about the state of the city’s
infrastructure.
|
|
|
Every day, cars and motorcycles drive past this pothole banana
plantation rising up from the street itself, but locals no longer find
it strange. If anything, the banana trees have become somewhat of a
local attraction.
|