Taxi, Train, Bus and the Subway… that’s how I get around.
Taxi’s are pretty easy and cheap as long as you can talk to the cab driver and tell him where your going. I usually write down the address and cross street just in case he can’t understand my “english accent”. I can get around most of the city in under $20 pesos (U$S 8).
The only time I really use the train system is for Basketball on tuesdays and saturdays. It’s pretty nice as long as you can figure out which direction the train is going. The final stop is mounted above the train so you have to remember what line your stop is on. The trains run to the outer barrios of the city so if you fall asleep on one of these you could be in for a long ride. Luckily the first time I went Sergio came with me and showed me the ropes or else I would have been completely lost.
The subway, or Subte as they call it is really the best way to get around the city. It only runs from about 5am to 10:30pm, but it’s pretty clean and the lines all funnel down into the city center around La Plaza de Mayo. The train and the Subte both cost $1.10 pesos per trip. Unlike many other train/subway systems you can’t buy a year or month pass. However, you can by a multiple trip pass for like 5 or 10 trips. As expected all forms of transportation get incredibly packed around rush hour so I avoid them at all costs.
For me, buses have been the hardest thing to figure out so far. There is a million buses, all going in different directions and they are all a different color and number. Some go strait across town while others just circle a block. I have this 200 page booklet called the Guia”t” that categorizes each bus to a neighborhood to help me out and my spanish teacher just told me about Comoviajo.com which is supposed to be like the Google Maps for the bus system.
All-in-all public transportation is pretty fast, cheap and easy to understand. I would love to ride my bike around the city instead, but just walking across the street is a hard enough task with the traffic thus far.
Shout out to Le Nugget… miss ya buddy.
