City life is a big adjustment for me. Yesterday, I killed my first Argentine cockroach (the experience was just as unpleasant as in the United States), and I've been slowly getting used to taking public transportation. Buenos Aires is a huge city with over twelve million people, so driving is not really an option for most people. At home, driving is the only way to get around, so I am working to adjust.
Commuters here have some choices-- subway, bus, taxi, bike, or walk. The subway is called the Subte (abbreviation of subterráneo, subterranean), and is fifty cents per ride. Buses are called colectivos, and they cross the city in droves, marked by numbers and colors. When you take the bus here, you have to tell the driver where you want to get off as you enter the bus; this means you have to have some idea of where you're going before you take the bus. Cost is thirty cents per ride.
The taxi situation is different too-- the preferred method is called a "radio taxi," where you call and tell them where you are and where you are going. The taxi driver will then come to your location to pick you up. I suspect this keeps taxi drivers from not taking people to their final destinations and creates an accountability system. Finally, one could theoretically bike here, but I really have no idea where you would ride it. In some of the smaller, more residential areas, there are bike lanes that have a physical barrier separating them from the rest of the street. (You can see a photo from Google Images here.) My hunch is that the barrier is needed to maintain any kind of bike lane at all, since it seems that you can drive and park wherever you want. On Saturday, I saw a car driving on the sidewalk because traffic on the street had come to a stand-still.
And, of course, you can walk. This has been my preferred method so I can get to know the neighborhoods and where things are. I am not good at directions or getting around, and I have definitely had some challenges here. On Sunday, I went up on the map from my apartment (North? Maps here don't show the cardinal directions), past the zoo, and then to a small street fair. After browsing the items, I decided to return home. I got myself to the correct street, but turned left instead of right. Twenty minutes later, I was very far from home. Thankfully, I had brought my "Guía T" (Transportation Guide), so I sat for a good fifteen minutes figuring out how to make it back. I settled on the easiest, but maybe not the fastest route, and took two different subways. Though my short trip out ended up taking three hours, I was proud of myself for making it home.
On a regular basis, I'll be commuting to my main school location (45 minute walk, twenty minute subway, 30-35 minute bus trip) and other spots around the city. Today, we went to see one of the University of Buenos Aires locations, and it took an hour on the subway to get home. This was after we spent over two hours on a "Scavenger Hunt Remix," which involved a group of fifteen people navigating public transportation to see the city. While it was nice to see different parts the city, I feel like I spent the entire day riding the subte.