Investigative Reporting: Traffic and Clubs

9-02-09 16:16
ISA Office

Well, I had quite the weekend. On Friday night, several ISA people and I decided to hit up the club scene since I had yet to do so. We went to Asia de Cuba in Puerto Madero, the trendy upscale part of the city, which means the club cover charge = mucho (AR$50). Since the Subte closes at 22:30, we took the colectivo, or city bus, for the first time. That was definitely an experience – there are a crazy amount of buses and lines that run all around the city 24 hours a day. And now it’s time for..

Eyewitness News
Traffic Report

Traffic here can be a bit crazy, what with the large amounts of traffic y peatones (pedestrians) everywhere. Traffic signals (which also turn yellow before turning green here) can be what I would like to consider optional- most peatones cross whenever a car in not in close proximity (or even when one is) and I have seen more than one colectivo start moving even though the light was still red. There aren’t that many motorcycles or bikes, but plenty of taxis - one per 50 people in BA, compared to one per 500 in London and other cities. Of course, all the taxis that I’ve been in have never heard of a turn signal and generally “invent” lanes as they drive between the lines, even while other cars are in close proximity. It creates quite the adrenaline rush.

Tip of the Day
Stick with Radio taxis, otherwise you might have a taxi driver who tries to jip you when the little machine that totals the cost of the trip “mysteriously” stops working...

At least once a day, we blindly follow the porteños crossing the street only to find we are walking into moving traffic, often followed by one of us saying, “why, yes, I would like to die today” (don’t worry, we mostly jest). Although there was the one time that Liz and I unknowingly walked out into six lanes of traffic when these cars appeared out of nowhere (I swear, I looked right, left, and right again before leaving the safety of the curb) and we kind of froze in the middle of the road as the cars maneuvered around us. The only things I could do to react was to ask Liz uncertainly, “¿Vamos a morir?” (“Are we going to die?”). Yes, I was later made fun of that my instinctual reaction was to think in Spanish. However, we did survive. Furthermore, despite the maniacal traffic, I have yet to see any sort of accident, though how this is remains a mystery to me.

Another puzzle is how the porteños manage to avoid uneven pavement, large potholes, and other sidewalk hazards (especially dog poop) without looking down at their feet constantly. I however, do not wholly possess this skill, especially when it rains (then I morph into an incredibly awkward Michelle Kwan as I skate through the street of Buenos Aires with my traction-less shoes)

Anyways- our first colectivo experience: five of us hop on the colectivo, completely ignorant as to how we were supposed to pay for our trip. In retrospect, we were supposed to tell the driver our destination and then we placed our monedas (coins) into the box. However, I think the driver got fed up with our confusion and just told us to move back further into the bus without paying. This driver seemed to be a stickler for his schedule, because he never really stopped at the paradas (bus stops); it was more of a slow roll while people took a deep breath and hopped out the open doors (well, that’s what I would have done, but the porteños seemed quite at ease with this process). At any rate, we made it to our destination: Puerto Madero.

And now it’s time for an exclusive…
Investigative Report

As a duty to those of you back in the United States, I took it upon myself to go under cover and investigate the porteño night scene to see if the rumors about the clubs here are true. The building itself had an intricate Asian décor that was very posh, all the way down to the flower petals on the bar. Although I’m not sure why they call it “Asia of Cuba” because I saw no hint of Cuba there, and I didn’t even know Asia and Cuba were even paired that often. At any rate, it was pretty dead when we arrived around 1:30 am, and it didn’t start filling up until about 2:30 or so. I loved the group I went with, we had a great time dancing to the electronic music (eh), reggaeton (woo hoo!) and american classics (such as Eye of the Tiger)

Random observations: Ages were a lot more varied, and there were a lot of older guys (up to 50s and 60s) there. I dubbed this one pillar the “kissing post” because at one point there were 5 couple centered around it making out. To get the full club experience, I danced with a porteño, and I will say that he was quite forward (let’s just say he quickly tried - and failed - to be like the couples around the kissing post). Also, the drinking age is a lot lower here, and it still feels odd to walk into a club with out flashing my ID. In fact, many clubs have a drink or two included, though that doesn’t really do me any good since water is a lot cheaper than alcohol in the clubs (although very similar in price in a supermercado...). The party was still hopping when we left at 6 am.

Conclusions: The rumors have proved to be largely true. Except for the one about all the hot guys. I think people fibbed a little, because while, yes, there are good looking guys, the proportion is not at high as it should be if they are going to have such a reputation.

This has by Eyewitness News, Coli over and out!