Here are some travel tips: 1) Buy the Insight fleximap of BA. It´s laminated so it won´t rip like paper from opening and closing.The website is www.insight.com
2) Buy a BA Guide Book. Mine is lonely planet. 3) Get a copy of BA Tango Guide. Write to [email protected] and you´ll get on the email list. It lists practicas, advertisements for shows and lessons, and the milongas. 4) Arriving at BA´s airport A) Go through immigration B) Collect your luggage and go through Customs. The Customs declaration form asks for your cell phone serial and model numbers. C) Currency Exchange Use Banco de Nacional Argentina at the airport and not kiosks. There is no commission charge at the bank. If possible, get all the pesos you´ll need. You´ll have to wait in line if you decide to do it in town. In fact waiting in line at the bank is the Argentine national pastime, not futbol. There are windows inside the security zone. If they´re closed, there are doors outside the security zone. Have your passport ready. (Remember to bring a copy of your passport and credit cards) so in case they´re stolen you know the numbers. D) At a newsstand, buy Guia ¨T¨de Bolsillo Capital Federal. It´s a map of BA showing ALL the streets by barrio. It has more detail than the insight map. E) Use Remise instead of Taxis to get into town. Remiss charge a flat fare (about $100 pesos) whereas taxis charge by the meter. You pay the rate PLUS tolls. F) Buy some sunscreen if you come during the hot months. You can buy it here as ¨dermaglos solar.¨¨ ********************************************************************************************************** Public Transportation A. The subway ¨el subtle¨ (subterra´neo) is easy to use. You can get a farecard called monedero though I don´t know where. My guide had an extra which she gave me. You can add value, just like farecards in New York and Washington, DC. B. Buses The bus routes are difficult to read in the Guia. In New York, they are called buses, in Mexico called autobus and in BA are called colectivos. There are 700+ bus routes, all operated by private companies. Each route (outbound and inbound) is described in detail in the back of the guia. However, when you look at a barrio in the guia, you don´t see bus routes on streets. Each barrio is divided into map grids. When I took my walking tour of Retiro and Microcenter, I found the grids for both the house and Retiro (tour starting point) and looked to see which buses operated in both grids. I found that bus 150 was listed in both grids so I took the 150 from the house. There is a fare zone system. Tell the driver your destination. He will punch a button that will display your fare on the farebox. Enter coins (exact change) only. The machine will give you a ticket. Hold onto the ticket in case transit enforcement comes on the bus to check for tickets. Fares range from 1.2 to 1.75 pesos depending on distance. Because the bus companies are privately owned, there are no transfers which means you have to pay an additional fare if you change to another bus. Next dispatch, if anybody is there reading, will be about my horrible night at Gricel. What a disaster! I couldn´t wait to pay my water bill and leave. I´m never going back! Reporting from Buenos Aires where it still feels like summer instead of fall Michael Ditkoff Washington, DC -- I'd rather be dancing Argentine Tango _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
