Top Argentine Focus

Monday 27th April 2009

Mate

Submersing yourself within a different culture is all part of the holiday or travel experience. Therefore, this section is all about supplying you with ideas and information about how to do just that.

Have you tried the Argentine mate? If not, why not? And if you’re an expat or a student or a long term traveller staying in BA, buy your own mate. This weekend you could take your mate to a park in Palermo and sup away whilst relaxing on the grass. Or you could do as the Portenos do and drink mate on the go whilst shopping this Saturday afternoon.

On a similar note, we have some very interesting information on the origins of the Argentine mate here in the clubhouse. If you’ve got a spare minute, come on over with your mate and relax on our sofa whilst reading up about one of the most traditional Argentine activities you’re ever going to find.


Monday 11th May 2009

Has Cristina made another promise that she is not going to keep?

Since arriving here in Buenos Aires, I have unfortunately heard very little in support of the Argentine president from the locals. In fact, many people are very disappointed with their president and her government (perhaps a world-wide story?). They have no faith in her abilities to deliver what she promises to deliver and are awaiting the day in two years time when they may well be able to rid themselves of her leadership. Having said that, like a number of South American countries, an actual opposing candidate doesn’t really exist and so the alternative to Mrs Fernández de Kirchner is infact an empty space.....not particularly a favourable idea.
As anyone living in Buenos Aires knows, the public transport (while I have to say economical, reliable and frequent) is a very frustrating affair. Travelling by subte turns the commuters into sardines for half an hour and sometimes it is actually impossible to get on (or off!!!) at all. The alternative is a bus system which demands that you have the correct change. There is no means of paying with notes and I have found myself having to go to a number of different ’Open 25 hours’ outlets to buy one sweet for 20 centavos with a 2 peso note in each shop in order to fund my bus fare home. Naturally the shop owners have been less than pleased and have sometimes let me have the sweet for free, preferring to keep a stash of change for themselves, which really has done very little to help me reach my own personal objective.

A while back, a series of machines were installed on all of the buses with a view to introducing a card system (a little like the monedero used on the subte) whereby each passenger would simply top up their card and thus get around the annoying problem that the city lacks coins. (Incidentally, nobody really knows why there is a lack of coins, but a few years ago the amount in circulation began to decrease and now everybody spends their time fervently guarding their change). However, the obvious fundamental problem with the card idea was the fact that the buses in Buenos Aires are privately owned. Each bus line is owned by a different company and therefore there is no standardisation between the lines. This effectively meant that it would have been necessary to have a completely different card for each bus route. Simply hopping on a bus wherever you happened to be wouldn’t have actually been a viable option, thus making this system practically unworkable.

However, about 3 or 4 months ago, Argentina's president made a promise to the people of Buenos Aires. The promise was to install a standard machine inside each and every bus so that the use of one solo card could be achieved. This would rectify the problem concerning the lack of change in the city and would probably encourage more people to use the bus system to travel to and from work every day. It’s conceivable that this system would even help to reduce the amount of people pushing themselves on to the subte during rush hour too, which can only be a good thing. In short, de Kirchner’s proposal was one that would really have helped to improve the lives of nearly every porteño on a daily basis and would have probably helped to improve the reputation of the president amongst her people at the same time. Excellent!

Unfortunately, the promise has not been kept. The buses still require the use of change and are full of machines that have been installed but are completely useless (a clear waste of public funds) and therefore, people like me who refuse to be a sardine but never have any change, are still making a walking trip of 1 hour and 15 minutes every morning. I actually enjoy the walk and am not complaining, but as the winter approaches, I don’t much relish the thought of doing the same trip in the pouring rain. And anyway, it would be nice to actually make the decision to walk rather than being forced to due to the poor nature of the public transportation on offer.

The future? Who knows? But, I write the article to keep you informed of the situation so that, by the slim chance that something good may come of this idea in the not too distant future, you’re aware of the changes and can perhaps take full advantage of what has the potential to be a really good system.