The bus was, and continues to be, a constant source of humor and frustration for me in Buenos Aires. I learned how the bus worked (where I’m from in the States has a bus, but it doesn’t go anywhere near my house nor have I ever taken it in the city), which actually took quite some time to get the hang of. I figured out the different branches of the bus routes—a bus line (say, the 60) may have more than one branch within the same bus, so you have to make sure you are on the correct one or you may end up somewhere you didn’t intend. The 60 is the bus I take to school, but there’s one branch of maybe ten that doesn’t go past school and goes a completely different way.
Now that I know how to get around, I can appreciate the fascinating behavior of the bus drivers. I cannot imagine this is a fun job, but the drivers do all sorts of things to pass the time. I have seen bus drivers smoking, singing along to the radio, eating, reading the newspaper at stoplights, and talking on the phone. My favorite of the bus driver activities is when the driver stops the bus in front of a kiosko (small store that sells candy, soda, other snacks), gets out, goes in a buys something, and then returns to the bus.
The bus drivers also like to stop and chat with each other. When there are two buses of the same company together, they’ll try to get in adjacent lanes to talk. When it is two buses of different companies, they might be saying bad things about the other bus or yelling at the guy for cutting him off.
Two drivers chatting while stopped at a red light. Photo from Wikimedia.
All riders of the bus also have the pleasure of talking with the driver every time they get on the bus. In Buenos Aires, there are different fare rates depending on how far you are going. You have to tell the driver where you plan on getting off to pay the correct rate (however, no one ever checks this, so I’m not sure how good of a system this is). (Additionally, this rate is not necessarily fixed—sometimes I am charged different amounts depending on the driver, and sometimes if I am wearing a skirt I get charged the lowest fare rate.) This, as a non-native Spanish speaker, provides the opportunity for the bus driver to offer his opinion of my accent, ask where I am from, or other invasive question. I have heard the following within the last month: “Aw, what a cute accent,” “What a cute American,” “You’re not from here, are you?”
The bus drivers also have to manage the sometimes angry porteños (people from Buenos Aires) on the bus. There is a lot of yelling about a variety of topics, including bus rerouting due to strikes or construction, and the driver has to calm the situation while still driving the bus. This past Saturday when I was on the bus, an older woman pushed the button for a stop, but the driver didn’t stop in time or didn’t hear the tone to stop. The following exchange occurred:
Woman: Why didn’t you stop! I pushed the button!
Driver: Sorry, ma’am, I’ll let you off at the next stop.
Woman: I am old, I can’t walk that far. You are very rude!
Driver: Excuse me, ma’am, I can’t always be perfect. And I am not rude!
Woman: You are rude, when I got on the bus and said good morning you didn’t say anything back! That’s very rude!
Driver: Ma’am, if I was rude I would have not charged you the senior citizen bus fare.
All in all, I think the bus drivers are pretty friendly (in both good and bad ways). In my first months here, I would timidly show them the index card where I had written the address of where I was going, and they would always tell me if I was on the wrong bus or going the wrong direction. I even had a driver take me to the next bus stop and explain to someone else waiting what bus I needed to take so I wouldn’t get lost. I was also on a bus one time when a woman started having a medical event and needed to be taken to the hospital. The bus driver got off the bus and summoned the paramedics, and then drove the bus into the ambulance entrance of the hospital so they could get her.
My last remaining question about the bus is what the drivers do if they have to go to the bathroom—I still have a couple of months left to figure that one out.