The inclusion of electric carriages will not modify the rates for the tour along the tourist routes traced for years. It will be the same as a normal carriage: 400 pesos per ride.
(MERIDA, YUC. – TYT).- The members of the Union of Drivers and Small Owners of Carriages of Yucatan do not deny the use of electric carriages in Merida, it is part of the modernity that the world and society live, said Eduardo de Jesús Echeverría Ayala, general secretary of this union.
What the leader made clear is that horse-drawn carriages will not disappear because they are a tourist attraction in the city, a product demanded by national and foreign tourists who like rides in this transport vehicle used by the aristocracy at the end of the of the 19th century.
Until today the City Council has not said how many electric carriages will circulate in Mérida, the talks continue to agree on the number because they already accept this modern carriage “because we are not closed to modernization” and the electric carriage will come to reinforce a tradition that will not disappear, such as the so-called calenders pulled by horses.
Calesas horses in Mérida, in good health
Echeverría Ayala explained that the Union of Drivers and Small Owners of Carriages has a service agreement with the Veterinary School of the Uady, whose specialists attend to the equines so that they are 100% healthy, fed and strong for work.
Every Wednesday, at nine in the morning, the school veterinarians check the horses and, according to the diagnosis, certify their fitness to work with the carriages.
The leader denied that there is labor exploitation of the animals or that they do not give them water or food. If the horse does not drink water or eat during his work, it is because if he does, he cannot work, his health would be risked. But it is not a decision of the calesero, it is a veterinary recommendation.
Horse protection is also evident in the summer vacation period when the sun is hottest. They protect it with umbrellas, they suspend the carriage service from two to four in the afternoon and the horse from the morning shift no longer leaves in the afternoon.
This is where the drivers see an opportunity for electric carriages because they would replace horse-drawn Calesas in times of intense heat and strong solar radiation.
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