Now over the past three weeks we’ve been looking at words in Spanish here in Argentina that might be unique and not used in other places. The Spanish language clearly has lots of unique words in each country for the same word (or concept or idea) but I think this is no more evident in the plethora of words for the American/English concept of the “bus”.
Before we even talk about how to say “bus” in Argentina let me just say that I remember, in learning the language over the years and during my many travels to various Spanish-speaking countries, that there’s just no simple way to say it.
My very first trip as a teacher was a week trip to Las Islas Canarias in the Atlantic. While there, I noticed they used the word guagua for bus which, I’m told, is also heavily used in Cuba and other Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations.
In mainland Spain, though I took the subway (tomorrow’s post) generally, they used the words bus or autobus (I even heard autocar used occasionally for the longer distance ones).
In Mexico, where I lived for a month after college, they generally use the word camión for their public buses, though I’ve heard this nowhere else as it generally means “truck” in most countries.
Well, guess what? I’ve traveled on many different types of buses so far in Argentina and they don’t use ANY of these terms here. Wait… what? What’s up with THAT?
By the way, my Italian students will recall that in Italy they use the word autobus for a public city bus and pullman usually for a long distance, city to city bus. Of course, these can be used interchangeably occasionally.
Here in Argentina there are 3 main words used for a bus, depending on the kind of bus and where it goes. Of course, like everywhere, these may have some overlap but the words I’m sharing with you are definitely the most common for each description:
1) Colectivo – this is the general term for a public, city bus… especially here in Buenos Aires. If you’re interested in finding out WHY they use the term colectivo read here. Public buses in BA are widespread, pretty reliable, have routes that weirdly gerrymander the entire city and are dirt cheap (a ride generally costs 1.10 – 1.20 pesos, which is the equivalent of about 25-30 cents). There is no one central company that runs the bus system in BA but many different companies have different routes, though bus numbers are all unique, fortunately. They have a book here called the “Guía T” which outlines the various routes that you can buy or, alternatively, this is a cool interactive map that in 2 clicks can show you the route on a map and the best colectivos to take form one point to another in the city. It used to be a MAJOR hassle to pay for buses as there was only exact change and you had to use coins, which are scarce here. People would hoard coins just for the bus! Now, however, they have a card called SUBE (which means “get on, aboard”) which you can use on most buses. It’s only really been used since the beginning of this year and it’s SO easy. Glad I didn’t have to deal with the coins since we use buses here a LOT!
2) Micro – This is the general term used, I’ve found, for a “school bus”. If you’re used to seeing the typical American yellow school buses get ready for a whole other color experience here:
Typical Argentine school bus/van
Yes, almost all BA school micros look like this, with the orange bottom and the white top. Perhaps not the most attractive combination but it is certainly distinctive! I went on one once (a family rented one for a birthday party for their daughter) and my daughters go on them for their sports days (when they take them to a field) or for other field trips.
3) Ómnibus – These are the generally the long distance buses you take from one city to another. Unlike the US, they come in many different classes, are super comfortable, serve hot meals, snacks, etc. and are a good, less expensive alternative to expensive plane flights here. We already took one and the one we took was the highest class. It had practically fully reclinable seats so you can sleep almost horizontally. Very cool experience… if you don’t mind the long trip!
Our lux, double decker long distance ómnibus
We’ll look at alternative transport here as the week continues. ¡Buen Viaje!
Prof Rabner
Mr. Rabner's adventure in Argentina 
As a side note, allow me to add that the word micro is used in cities such as La Plata and its surrounding conurbation instead of colectivo, in La Plata you don’t take the colectivo, you always take the micro, no matter which of the aforesaid examples you are referring to.
If this feature is also present on some other parts of my contry I ignore (but is almost a certainty)
Beisdes, a much used term to replace figure numbre one is “bondi”. It is some of the new lunfardo used by kids, teenagers and young (and not-so-young too) adults; it is almost entirely universal in informal contexts, i.e.:
-Bueno chau, te dejo que tengo que tomar el bondi para estar en tal lado-
This were my 2 cents added to the article.
Peace out.