Some of the interesting things that I’ve learned in my 3-4 days here in Argentina are as follows:
1.It is almost impossible to get coin change (monedas) here, yet you have to have coins to ride public transport. For instance the national bank says all banks have to give you change if you ask for it so today we waited in line 30-40 minutes and they would only give us 2 pesos in change. The law is supposed to be 20 pesos minimum if you ask for it. 2 pesos is not even a dollar. ($0.66 USD) It is enough for 1 bus ride only.
2.I was having trouble picking my favorite kind of transportation around the city, but today I chose Trains. Taxis are very expensive, like 15x what subways/buses are (plus people here drive like maniacs and I cringe inside the taxi afraid for my life). A remis, “ray-meese” translates to mean a limo, but is really just a private car. Remises are less expensive than taxis, like 5-10x public transport and are very often old cars that could break down any minute. I really liked the buses until today. Most buses you can find one to take you to your destination, while subways you have to change lines or change to a train blah blah. The buses are slow though. You have to go to all the stops plus you can wave them down like a taxi pretty much and they stop so that makes it extremely slow. We also had to wait in line for it through 3 buses. I don’t know why I don’t like the subway. Mostly because it doesn’t go as far as I would like. The trains are best for going to the suburbs as they are the fastest way. Everyone says it is not very safe but I haven’t been too concerned except until this evening when we saw a fight at the train station, but fortunately we found a train car half full of police/security. When we sat down there, we knew we could relax even though we were riding the train at night time (supposed to be a little dangerous according to our Argentine friends).
3. No one pays attention to traffic lanes. That includes cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and scooters. I am going to have some seriously high blood pressure if we take very many more taxis. If the road is meant to be 1 lane then you can definitely do 2 lanes. If 2 lanes than go 3. 3 lanes can be 4 or 5. Avenida 9 de Julio is like 8 or more on each side but usually is about 10 cars weaving around like freaking Nascar.
Today was a run errand day and sleep in day. I needed more bottled water. We thought we needed another phone card and we seriously needed change for the buses. We scurried around all morning getting stuff and planning our trip some more. Finally we printed some photos of our wedding, family, and home to show and give to Chad’s friends and set out for southern Buenos Aires and the horrible bus ride. We took the subway most of the way to the bus because we wanted and walked though downtown the rest. We stopped to have a good look at the spectacular and beautiful National Cathedral downtown beside the Pink House. Then we got to wait like 30 minutes to get a seat on our bus. Then commenced 90 minutes of misery. I am pretty sure it is close to Hades because it was HOT and crowded. Then, the stupid bus wasn’t even the right one, and it took us through some pretty scary slums. We decided to get off and take a Remis to finally get to the Flores family’s house. Chad teased me and asked me if I wanted to get out to look for a car when we were stopped beside a villa of homes made from scraps of wood and metal. The bus still went close to our destination and the remis took us the last couple miles. The visit with the Flores family was good.
Nothing too exciting but Hermana Flores was very sweet and made us sandwiches and gave us ice cream from a private creamery. Then we had to hurry back to the city to make it in time for our over night bus to La Falda. It is in central Argentina in the mountains, very close to where Chad’s brother Brian served his mission. I am writing from the bus and it is pretty nice so far. Our wide leather first class seats lay all the way down 180 degrees with a divider between our seat and the next. It comes with a blanket, pillow, two meals, beverage service, and movies. We will be almost to La Falda when we wake up. The post will go up later when I have internet again.
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