Finding myself in Buenos Aires

Like my Dad, I love maps and always have since I realised that I am good at reading them.  I also have a good awareness of direction most of the time.

On my first day in Buenos Aires I bought a Guia T de Bolsillo (a pocket size guide to the city).  I opened it up and was wide-eyed very quickly.    The whole point of maps is to make orientation and navigation easier for people and I wasn't sure if this little booklet was gonna do the trick :S  

The Guia T de Bolsillo is so compact that it made the city look so small to me.  The city does feel small to me (compared to London) but not that small.  Since purchasing it I've had a look inside the full size Guia T and to my surprise it's also very compact.  

Despite my Guia T looking all battered and bent, I've actually learnt to love it and therefore I will personalise it and start referring to 'it' as 'him'.  The reason he looks as he does is that we spend a lot of time hand in hand, sometimes I fold him and put him in my pocket or the side of my rucksack, for quick reference.  The pages I use more frequently are fringing at the edges and one is about to tear off completely - must buy sellotape tomorrow!  It wouldn't be a hardship to purchase a new one as they are only 11 pesos.  I have heard from others that it costs less, but I think the street vender just puts a price on it depending on whether you look like a local or a traveller - Hmmm!  Anyway, you end up marking your GT with familiar spots and frequently visited places so I'd like to keep hold of this one for as long as I can.

The city is mainly in blocks and most calles (streets) run a pretty large length and width of the city.  You communicate your whereabouts with people by giving them your coordinates, according to your nearest street corners.  I lived on Paraguay y Borges for the first month, for example.  I actually lived on Borges but as the streets are so long here you narrow it down for people.  

I say long, Paraguay runs past about four or five barrios (towns).  The same can be said for many of the roads here.  Oh and when I say Paraguay, I do mean the street.  Streets here are often named after other countries, cities or important people, dates or words.  There's Chile, El Salvador, Estados Unidos, Av. Eva Peron, Av. Julio A Roca, Av. Independencia, Ave. 25 de Mayo to name but a few.

The cute compactness of the GT makes it seem like you can zip around the city easily and that there's little need to take collectivos (buses) but you would be wrong to assume such a thing.  The blocks are actually quite big and unless you like walking or you have lots of time in your day, fathoming out the collectivo system is a must!  

Oh and when I say, 'like walking'  please know that the side walks here at quite small and seem even smaller when you hit the microcentre where its very congested with people and diagonal walkers (see September 2010 entry).  You do have some pedestrianised streets like Florida and Reconquista.  If you want to zip pick Reconquista over Florida as Florida is more of a shopping street so people browse at shopping pace.  Reconquista is more 'I'm on a mission' pace.

The GT dedicates one page to a map and its opposite page has squares with numbers in them.  These squares correspond with the buses you can get within the map coordinate on the opposite page.  So basically you just look at where you are going and look at where you are and find a bus number that matches.  Easy, innit?  It's like the game!  SNAP!  :D  Except it ain't that easy.  Keep in mind that the blocks are BIG and finding where to catch your bus from within that block coordinate is a challenge.  But I have risen to this challenge more times than I can remember over the last 4 weeks.  I'm really proud of myself as the GT only helps to a point and you really have to do a lot of work yourself.  

I'm not sure how many bus routes there are in BA but the numbers run from 1 to 749.  There aren't 749 buses as there are some missing numbers but there are certainly a lot of freakin' buses!  They are everywhere and owned by different companies and seem to run for 24 hours which is just great.  People told me the taxis were cheap here but I just love the fact that you can take a bus for 1.25pesos (20p), which is cheap even if you are earning pesos.  The subte and overground train are even less, 1.10pesos and 1pesos respectively.  For me taxis (regardless of where you are in the world) are for; if you really feel lazy, feel like treating yourself, want a guaranteed seat, feel you are in an unsafe neighbourhood and don't want to spend time walking or waiting at a bus stop, if you just can't work out where the hell you are or if you are on holiday and don't want to try and figure out the public transport routes and systems.  Otherwise I'd say save your pesos and don't rely on taxis while here, get your bus cap on!  They are quick, cheap and plentiful!  Yes, at times four of them come at one time!

The city is predominantly urban so be wary of smiling at the site of green on your GT and journeying to the area only to find that it's private grounds owned by the polo federation or something.  Saying that, I took a bus yesterday (130) from Belgrano into the microcentre and passed a large expanse of green and lakes.  I'm over the moon to know that I'm living close to something ruralish in character and will be journeying down there soon to explore!