Transportacion

A word I had never seen or heard until I got here (defintely not the only one) turns out to be one of the most used, by me anyway. Colectivo is the word for a bus that takes you short distances and follows a fixed route so you can intercept it anywhere along its route.

I have taken a taxi once since I arrived (a fact I bear with pride) from the airport. Since then I have either walked, taken the Subte, or taken a bus everywhere I have wanted to go. The network of buses here is amazing and you can´t walk four blocks in the Capital Federal without coming to a place where the bus regularly stops. It costs one peso (or about .30 US dollars) to ride anywhere in the city, provided you don´t disembark from the bus, which is easy to do because close to thirty routes come within very close walking distance to my house and they go in all different directions.

The principal guide to learning how to navigate the huge system (there are upwardsof 400 fixed routes with varying number of buses, but some have as many as 40, in the entire city) is called the Guia "T". The "T" is in parentheses because as well as being a guide to Transportation, it is also a pun on the phrase "guiate" or "guide yourself." As well as being a very in-depth guide of the bus routes, the Guia "T" is a great map in that it is pocket-sized and subtle because the Porteños use it too.

Taxis, while cheap, cost many times more than the bus from, say, Belgrano (a neighborhood where lots of kids in my program live), yet some kids haven´t taken anything else. Many use the excuse that it is safer, when, in reality, it is quite the opposite. Unless you call ahead and have a taxi sent to your location by one of the many accredited companies, you cannot be completely sure of the ride (and even then, can you tell?). But these can take upwards of 45 minutes to get to any given location in the city, a substantial amount of time when you´re in a hurry. Not to say that they are all dangerous, just that there do exist tacheros who are definitely chancy.

The Subte, as the subway is called here, is very efficient, if at times crowded, dirty and not very far-reaching. There are five lines, and a few above ground trains that go to the suburbs. It costs the same no matter how far you want to go, again, one peso. Unfortunately, there is not a station incredibly close to my house (six block walk), but it is useful for reaching those outer barrios.

My goal is to visit all 48 barrios of the Captial Federal. I have visited (consciously) 26, and am averaging about three per week so stay posted as I put up some pictures from the highlights of my excursions.