The buses

Living on the busy street that I do, one of the first things I noticed about Buenos Aires is the number of busses that fly by at all hours of the day. The chaotic scene of busses lines up behind each other in rush-hour traffic, all packed with people, seems to capture the hectic part of this city quite well.

The busses are certainly not targeted towards naive tourists; there is no real network-map (of the London-underground style) available, rather just a book listing out each of the lines. So far, by best attempts on getting around on the buses have involved either going with someone who knows exactly how to get there, or having a good idea where just one or two of the lines go and sticking to that. Spontaneously trying to take a bus to get home without knowing the line could easily end up somewhere you don't want to be.

You also learn quickly that regardless of the actual road rules, the buses pretty much always have right of way. They generally don't slow-down, but rather go-round any obstacles, making it unwise to wait too close to the edge of the road to cross. On top of that, they aren't that keen to stop and let people on unless they have to, making it necessary to almost stand in the street signalling to the driver that you want to get on.

However, whilst the buses can be a bit of a nightmare, what they do have going for them is being very cheap - less than 2 pesos for a trip in general (less than 30 pence), and i'm also quite a fan of how they look. They come in every colour of the rainbow representing the company that runs that line (there are a number of different companies running different bus lines).

I'm also quite fortunate in that I can walk to school in the morning, and so can admire the organised-chaos of Buenos Aires public transport without having to rely too much on it.