Homage to Buenos Aires

Upon considering Argentina as our destination of choice for this year, we considered many places for many reasons. We had to consider lots of factors: a good place for my wife to work; a good place for schools for the kids; a good place to live without a car; and a good place to take advantage of the many travel and cultural benefits of this country. In the end, of course, because of her work and the schools, because of its culture and because of its size, we realized that for all of us, Buenos Aires is the place we needed and wanted to be in.

Fortunately, Buenos Aires hasn’t let us down. Having not lived in a city for close to 20 years I had, frankly, forgotten what it was like to live in one and was very happy to be reacquainted with the great advantages and pleasures of city living. We, too, were fortunate to find a great apartment in a great area, which certainly helped. Still, it’s really great to not need a car for everything (even if, occasionally, it would be easier to have one), to go to your neighborhood shops and parks, walk around all of the time and enjoy all of the culture and excitement that a city has to offer over the suburbs. It makes things easier for kids, too, with the kids’ friends all living nearby (or even in the same building, as in our case), parks within a couple blocks and their schools all within easy walking distance. Though, of course, there are advantages to suburban living, too, I gotta say, I am pleasantly surprised how well and quickly we all adapted to city living and in the end it was a big plus for our overall experience.

San Telmo street fair

Sunset over BA

Buenos Aires, specifically, has so much to offer. It’s really a great city. Paris of the South? Perhaps not exactly, to me, but I’ve grown to love its eclectic mix of elements and people that is somewhat European, somewhat indigenous, somewhat American but, in the end, all Argentinian. It has great museums (for kids and adults), lots of diverse barrios (neighborhoods), a plethora of street fairs and markets, interesting architecture, great stores… among other things. Though, of course, in our time here we certainly took advantage of many of the tourist and other cultural offerings of the city, since we were not really tourists here the things that I’ll probably remember most about BA are the more mundane practical elements of everyday life. There are of course, MANY of these… too many to talk about (or that you’d be interested in reading about) in one post. Though I’ve likely already mentioned many of these, I’ve chosen two aspects that have made our everyday life here easier and more pleasant and, without further adieu, they are the next two on my top 10 list of…

…Things I will miss about Argentina

6) Parks and plazas

When you’re in a place and you have small kids, parks are often a central destination on your “to do” list. When you actually LIVE in a place it becomes an essential element in your quotidian routine. While on our many trips around the country we’ve always sought out good, different parks/playgrounds for the kids (with mixed success), Buenos Aires, fortunately, is blessed with a diverse and extensive park system that rivals any city that I’ve ever been to, New York included. You may recall my post about this a couple of months ago.

Plaza Zapaiola, typical plaza

What in the US we would call “parks” here are a combination of parques and plazas. Un parque is essentially a large green space with copious trees, walking paths, grass, perhaps a lake and other typical recreational elements of a park. Una plaza, on the other and, is a much smaller green area that usually takes up una manzana – a city block (yes, it means “apple” , too) – and has a playground, green space, benches, etc.. Here, many of them have also have calesitas (old postwar merry-g0-rounds) and other things for kids. We’d likely call it a “park” in the US but it’s definitely much smaller and more confined than un parque. While there are many parks and plazas around the city that we’ve explored at one time or another, there are definitely two that we’ve frequented more often than not: El Parque 3 de Febrero (Bosques de Palermo) and Plaza Castelli.

 

Parque 3 de Febrero isn’t really by our house but the train station is, conveniently, a couple of blocks away and it takes us there in only a few short stops as does a bus. Though it’s not exactly in the center of Buenos Aires (it’s in the eastern part of the city, in Palermo) it’s still relatively accessible as it is bound by Recoleta, Belgrano, the airport and Avenida Libertador, one of the wide, main drags of the city. It’s probably the BA equivalent of Central Park, Hyde Park or other large parks of that magnitude. It boasts everything you likely could want in a park: lots of open green space, a lake, playthings for kids, abutting museums, a rose garden (el Rosedal), fountains and even a writer’s garden. It has trees galore and is especially beautiful in the spring when the Jacaranda trees and rose garden are in full bloom, though it’s frankly beautiful year round. On weekends it really comes alive as they close the road that goes through it to traffic and they hold free events, open it to rollerbladers, bikers, joggers, etc. and it becomes a paradise for families and couples alike. We’ve explored other parks in the city such sat Parque Sarmiento, Parque Saavedra, Parque Centenario, etc. and while they’re all nice, they’re all smaller and don’t have the vibe of Los Bosques de Palermo (“Palermo Woods”, its other name). We’ve probably gone here 10-20 times during our year in BA (we just went last weekend) and, even though we have some great parks in the US where we live, will miss it.

Plaza Castelli – our “park”

More Plaza Castelli

La Plaza Castelli is our local plaza (2 blocks away from us) and it’s one of the nicest in BA. The plaza is a great neighborhood gathering place and on weekend afternoons it’s usually packed with families, couples and others. We often run into people we know there. We go there to let the kids play on the nice playground, to play frisbee and wiffle ball (yes, people look at us strangely when playing baseball) or just run around. There is a calesita by there that also has a mini play car “track” and you can even rent a battery-powered “mini car” to chug around in (they bring them in a big truck every weekend). The kids ALWAYS want to do this! It’s clean, well manicured and very safe. It has a wonderful neighborhood feel to it. Of course, we’ve visited some other plazas as well over the past year but Plaza Castelli, because of its proximity, beauty and feel, we will always call “our plaza”.

Treed streets of BA

Jacaranda tree in the park

I should mention, also, that Buenos Aires is blessed with abundant trees (such as the purple flowered jacarandas I already mentioned) all over the city (particularly in our barrio) in addition to the many parques y plazas. These add to the great green feel of the city and make it highly livable. I think this all contributes to our positive view of the city and causes it to make my top 10 list.

5) Getting around without a car

Typical black and yellow “radio taxi” of BA

Without the luxury of a car this year (for all sorts of financial, practical, legal and rational reasons), we have needed to rely on our legs or public transportation this year heavily if we wanted to go anywhere. Though we rented a car 3 different times (where I was the sole, proud, though crazy, driver) including once in Buenos Aires, for the most part, walking or public transportation have been something we’ve relied on a lot. While walking is something I’ve always loved to do, the public transportation, actually, overall has been the aspect of BA with which I’ve been pleasantly surprised over all.  It’s extensive, affordable and, for the most part, frequent. You can occasionally take the omnipresent black and yellow “radio taxi” but as it’s much more expensive (though much more convenient and cheaper than taxis in the US) but with the public transport system we only use them when we absolutely HAVE to use them. What more, as the government introduced the declining balance SUBE (it’s an acronym but means “get on!” or “get in!”, in Spanish) card shortly before we arrived, it’s been very easy paying for almost all of it, as before it was a major hassle needing to use exact change and coins for most everything. While, of course, it has it’s share of issues like any big city transportation network, for many reasons it’s been a great asset and benefit to us this past year. I’ll sum it up for ya.

1. El subte – At first it was a little hard for me to say it instead of “subway” (Subway sandwich shops actually have recently begun to pop up around BA, by the way), but el subte has been a useful thing for us. Although it has its share of delays and can get mad crowded at horas pico (peak hours), the BA subway/metro system has been a great asset for us this year. We’ve only basically used one line (the Green “D” line) but our stop is only 6 blocks from us (about a 10 minute walk) and takes us, in about 23 minutes, downtown to the Plaza de Mayo, the main central plaza. With the subte (short, of course, for subterraneo, “underground”), you can avoid any traffic on the streets and ride relatively comfortably. The first half of the year, it cost 1.25 pesos (like a quarter) per ride and earlier this year they doubled it to 2.50. Still a good deal, though, obviously more of a stretch for those who relied on the subsidies and use it daily. Regardless, it’s much cheaper than any subway system I’ve travelled on!

                                                             The BA subte map

 

One of many small, orange “micros” of BA schools

2. Los colectivos – the BA public bus (colectivo, also called un bondi) system is probably the most extensive I’ve seen in any other city. The buses, while public, are actually a conglomerate of different governmentally subsidized private companies who run around 200 different lines around the city. While they can be crowded sometimes, aren’t often on time (they’re supposed to come every 10-15 minutes but often I wait 20-25 minutes and 3 buses show up together!) and you’re subject to lots of stops and often lots of traffic, the lines are well spread out and go to all parts of the city. The routes are often weirdly gerrymandered and it’s hard to understand how or why they run the particular routes they do. Here’s a useful website that will show you the routes of every bus line and if you click the origin point and then destination it’ll tell the best routes to take. We, though, have been able to take a bus from stops near us to virtually anywhere we’ve needed to go this year. What more, they’re cheap (1.10 to 1.25  or 20-25 cents depending on how far you go) and when you’re traveling with 4 people it’s helpful to not pay a lot.  Despite the issues, our colectivo experience has been a nice, convenient, and cheap option and an overall positive. By the way, long distance or school buses are usually known as micros. Here’s a post I did earlier in the year on the language of buses.

Un colectivo navigates the streets of BA

BA train station

A commuter train pulls up to a station in BA

3. El tren – Buenos Aires actually has a decent network of commuter trains that run through the city and into some of the outer suburbs. For us, they’ve been great. We have a stop a couple blocks from us that takes us to the main Retiro station, the Bosques de Palermo and some other places we need to go. There’s another line about 20-25 minutes away from us that takes us to Tigre and the Northern suburbs if we need to go. The trains cost anywhere from .80 to 1.20 (once again, dirt cheap) and run pretty frequently, though not as frequently as the subte. They, too, have similar issues to the subte and colectivos (you may recall a few months ago there was a commuter train accident where 50 people were killed) but its convenience and cost have been great for us overall. What more, despite the crowds that are often there, BA people always seem to give up a seat for our or any kids (which they do on the subte or colectivo as well) which makes life easier for us when the family is traveling together.

4. Walking – I have always enjoyed walking but this year’s situation has allowed me to do it more than ever. While one kid’s school is around the corner for us, my older one has has needed to walk a mile each way every day to school and back and my wife and I are always picking her up which has meant a hearty walk for us one way or another. Plus, my wife enjoys walking to work (usually) and we walk around our barrio to shop and surrounding ones often to places instead of public transportation. It’s been a real pleasure and the ability to walk to virtually anywhere you need to go to get most things you need has really been a nice change this year.

Though I’m sure we’ll continue walking when we return home, with a car at our disposal and much bigger distances, we’ll likely rarely if ever use public transportation and, once again, will rely on the car. It just won’t be the same as living in a city like BA and, though, I’m sure we’ll adapt again, as we always seem to be able to do, these practical conveniences and pleasures that the city has afforded us this year will be great memories that will hold a lot of meaning and be a positive when we reflect, as I am now, on our wonderful year in Buenos Aires.

Guy