Carioca Sunshine: The Eternal Quest for Coins

One thing that I definitely like better about Rio than Buenos Aires is its transport system. In Buenos Aires, the buses only accept coins. This would be perfectly all right, if only coins were easy to come by! The first day we went to ride the bus, Paul and I walked all over our neighborhood looking for someplace to get coins. There were several little stores around selling candy and other small food items, but when we tried to buy something, we were told they didn’t have any change. Some shops even had signs by the cash register saying they didn’t have coins. They’re losing business that way, since anything under two pesos (the smallest bill) is off-limits to anyone without exact change. I think it’s ridiculous. We finally went back to the hostel, coinless and annoyed, and luckily the girl at the front desk was nice enough to take out her own purse and trade us two-peso notes for coins (she only rode the subway, so she didn’t need coins).

Most prices are arranged so that the stores don’t have to deal with single pesos. For example, something would cost six or eight pesos, so that when a person gave the cashier a ten, he or she would get one or two two-peso notes in change. Seven pesos, however, was quite rare, since that would necessitate a two-peso note and a one-peso coin. I caught on to this unfortunate trend very early on, since for the rest of our stay in Buenos Aires, I was always on the lookout for any coin-receiving opportunities. I discovered that the best way to get coins is to take the subway. A ticket costs AR$1.10, so if you use a two-peso note, you get AR$0.90 in change. Two subway rides earns enough for one busride (AR$1.20 or AR$1.25).

Another frustrating thing about the bus system is that you have to tell the driver where you are going, and then he’ll punch a keypad and you’re charged the correct amount for the bus ticket. That in itself is not so hard, but nobody told us to do that. We’d get on the bus, feed our money into the ticket machine, and then wonder why it wasn’t working right (though I just assumed that the machine was faulty, as would probably be the case in Brazil). When we’d finally get our tickets, we’d usually be charged two different prices for going to the same place. Apparently the bus drivers just punched random buttons when we didn’t tell them a specific location. Would it really have been so hard for the bus drivers to simply ASK us where we were going? Sure, we probably looked like clueless tourists, and the bus drivers probably assumed we didn’t speak Spanish, but still, they could have at least asked! Bus drivers in Rio tend to be much more helpful. It took me three or four bus rides before I finally figured out the system, and from then on, I had no more problems, but it was certainly a source of frustration at first. In Montevideo, as in Rio, the bus drivers took bills, which made for much less hassle.

The good part about the Buenos Aires bus system is that the buses stop at designated locations. This is really helpful when you’re new to the city and don’t really know where you’re going. In Rio, you have to pull a cord to get off a bus, which means you have to pay extremely close attention to the street names if you don’t know where you’re going. There is also a bus guide in Buenos Aires that explains all the routes. Rio, on the other hand, has a crazy and complicated bus system with no guide to explain it. I think it’s kind of fun, though. Riding a new bus is always an adventure, since you never really know exactly where you’re going.

I also prefer Rio’s subway system. Though the lines don’t access as much of Rio as would be convenient, Rio’s subway system is modern and well-organized. Buenos Aires is a different story. There are several different subway lines in Buenos Aires, and different lines have different kinds of cars. The first line we rode on was ancient. The cars almost looked like the historical type you’d take on a tour of an old mine. The doors had to be opened by hand, and the seats were made of wood. It probably looked quite similar about a hundred years ago. Other lines had more modern cars, but that first line sure gave us an interesting introduction to the Buenos Aires subway system.

The stress of the transit system was worth it, though, since we visited lots of interesting places. Our hostel also happened to be in an ideal location, so a lot of the most popular tourist destinations were within walking distance. Some of the most interesting areas we went to were El Caminito, Puerto Madero, and the cemetery in Recoleta.

El Caminito is the name of a street in the neighborhood of La Boca. La Boca was the only dangerous neighborhood anywhere near where we were staying, but the area around El Caminito is extremely touristy and, for some reason, pretty safe. Another friend of mine that had also been to Argentina said this is because El Caminito provides a lot of income for the neighborhood, so everyone leaves it alone. Makes sense, I guess.

El Caminito is famous because the houses there are painted bright colors. I’m a huge fan of bright colors, so I thought it was really cool. Originally the area was very poor, and the story goes that people had to scavenge paint from the dockyards in order to paint their houses, which meant that they had to make do with whatever colors they could find. The brightly-painted houses are still there, but now the street is full of vendors selling paintings and photographs of the area. The other streets near El Caminito are filled with tourist shops, restaurants, and tango dancers performing outside for donations.

Whereas Carnaval in Rio didn’t faze me in the least, I found tango to be a bit too risqué for my taste. I preferred to watch a gaucho dance that was being performed on an outdoor stage. It was a stomping, tapping sort of dance, almost a little like Riverdance. I really got a kick out of the costumes the men were wearing, which I assume were modeled on traditional gaucho dress. Their shirts were plain, but they were wearing balloon pants (probably where the clothing term “gauchos” originated) tucked into boots. Clearly they were supposed to look very manly, but I thought they looked rather funny and found it hard not to smile while watching them. Lucky for them, their dance was impressive enough to overshadow the silliness of their costumes.

El Caminito

awesome colors!

from a distance

El Caminito was positively brimming with tourists, but Puerto Madero, on the other hand, hardly had any (at least that were noticeable), apart from on and around the Puente de la Mujer, the neighborhood’s most famous landmark. The Puente de la Mujer is a beautiful bridge that spans one of Buenos Aires’s several dikes. Though the bridge itself brought to mind the artistically-crafted bridge in Milwaukee, the neighborhood as a whole reminded me a bit of Galena. The area has been newly restored, so almost everything is in excellent condition. Lots of classy restaurants line the path along the water, and sunny skies and beautiful weather made for a really lovely afternoon stroll.

Puente de la Mujer

a cool old ship

some of the many sailboats in the area

We also took a nice stroll through the neighborhood of Recoleta, though the scenery there is completely different from Puerto Madero. Recoleta’s main attraction is its cemetery, in which the rich of Buenos Aires have rested in peace for more than a hundred years. Most of the graves there are contained in giant mausoleums, so wandering down the paths felt more like walking through a regular neighborhood with houses than a cemetery. Some of the older tombs have fallen into disrepair, but the more recent ones are still lovingly cared for. Eva Perón, on whom the movie Evita is based, is among those buried there.

Recoleta Cemetery

view down a "street" in the cemetery

view down another "street"

well cared-for grave

neglected grave

the tomb of Evita

Nuestra Señora del Pilar Church, located right outside the cemetery

Other Interesting Sites in Buenos Aires:

the Obelisk, the most iconic landmark in Buenos Aires, which is situated in the middle of what is supposedly the widest street in the world - there are two smaller side streets which also run parallel to the avenue, and combined the number of lanes totals at least 18 - impossible to cross in a single light without running for at least a couple lanes!

the Russian Orthodox Church

in the Plaza de Mayo, the most important plaza in Buenos Aires, which is also right outside the Casa Rosada

the Casa Rosada (Pink House), Argentina's version of the White House, where the presidents works, but does not live

inside the Casa Rosada in one of the rooms where President Cristina Kirschner conducts conferences (at least that's what I could gather from an unintelligible, fast-(Spanish) speaking Argentine tour guide)