Cartagena trades horse carriages for electric buggies, prioritizing animal welfare

On the narrow colonial streets of Cartagena, Colombia, something that has defined the city's tourist experience for decades is about to disappear. The iconic horse-drawn carriages—with their large spoked wheels and open tops—are being replaced by 62 electric buggies designed to look similar but powered by batteries instead of living animals.

The shift reflects a growing tension between preserving tradition and responding to what animal welfare advocates have documented for years: horses collapsing from exhaustion, their legs and knees damaged by paved city streets, stressed by traffic in an environment they were never meant to navigate. "Horses are pack animals designed to carry things," says local activist Fanny Pachon, "but they're meant to be in rural areas, not in the middle of a city with paved roads."

A City at a Crossroads

For the horse cart owners who've built their livelihoods around these carriages, the transition feels like erasure. Cristian Munoz, a longtime driver, frames it plainly: "We are part of this city's heritage, like the walls that surround it." The city has offered compensation, but cart owners say it doesn't offset decades of investment in their business. Their frustration is real and understandable—they're not wrong that they've been central to Cartagena's identity.

But the city government sees the move as necessary for another kind of identity: positioning Cartagena as a modern destination that takes animal welfare seriously. "These are the kinds of changes that new generations are demanding," says Liliana Rodriguez of the city's tourism agency. The new electric buggies will maintain the visual charm tourists expect—open-air rides through historic streets—while solving a welfare problem that's been documented for years. They'll run on solar power, adding an environmental layer to what's fundamentally an animal welfare decision.

Cartagena isn't the first city to grapple with this transition. Similar shifts have happened in other heritage tourism destinations, though rarely with such deliberate attention to maintaining the aesthetic experience while removing the animal component. The 43-mile battery range means the buggies can handle a full day of tourist routes without needing midday charging.

What makes this move significant isn't that it's revolutionary—it's that it's happening in a city where tradition runs deep, where the horse carriages are genuinely woven into how visitors experience the place. If Cartagena can make this work, it sends a signal to other tourist destinations that you don't have to choose between heritage and welfare. You can update one while preserving the other.